Remote Working… Are you Talking about Me?

As we are currently moving into a hybrid way of working there is a lot of discussion about how to manage remote and in-office teams.  A recent article in the New York Times discussed how: “video calls where remote workers have trouble hearing, [had] a sense that people at home are missing out on perks [such as teammates], while those in the office are too [like staying in pyjamas!]”. And the stakes aren’t just who is getting talked over in meetings. It’s whether flexibility is sustainable, even with all the benefits it confers. . . . It’s not hard to imagine all of the ways remote workers might be undercut: muted in a heated discussion, shut out of lunchtime bonding. But Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford professor who has surveyed hundreds of hybrid companies, said that at many workplaces the in-person employees felt just as neglected.” One, at least partial, solution Zillow’s “’One Zoom All Zoom’ rule [which] stipulates that if even one person is participating in a meeting virtually, everyone in the office is required to join on separate laptops. Zillow went so far as to take audiovisual equipment off the conference room walls.”

An ideal goal according to research, needs to be 3 days in office and 2 days outside it to preserve performance and social capital with co-workers – it keeps groups cohesive and more willing to support each other when times get tough(er).

The resentments that people in and out of the office will feel towards each other are real and powerful and create a divisive and negative situation that degrades organizational outcomes—the solution, somehow there has to be co-location, in the flesh regularly, via a 3/2 rule, as noted earlier, for example.

Zoom sessions can’t convey as much info as in-person sessions (that’s the eye contact, orientation, distance from others, etc., we’ve mentioned in other articles such as this or this) and without that rich communication it’s not possible to collectively develop solutions to difficult problems, work creatively together, or do any real tough mental work together effectively.

“The Worst of Both Worlds: Zooming From the Office.”  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/business/return-to-office-hybrid-work.html