In the UK the easing of many lockdown restrictions combines with the traditional start of summer holidays, leading to a “back to work” feel combined with an “end of term” one. Strange, but that’s the feeling for much of 2020.
Are you going back to the office? For the millions of office workers the order to work from home came as either a blessing or a fear. The rerun does the same. The strange feeling is not just for employees, but for organisations themselves who are now asking whether office working on the scale they did in the past really is the way ahead.
A recent article from Korn Ferry highlights the point as it applies to Fujitsu: over 80,000 asked to WFH – permanently. In the UK Nat West Group is keeping around 50,000 people WFH for at least the rest of the year. Whether you enjoy your WFH or are delighted to get back to the office, it almost certainly will not please everyone.
There will always be those for whom flexible working will not work well, but if you are flexible enough in your definition of what flexible working means, you may find you have more choice than you thought in what you do, when you do it, and where you do it. But I would still prefer my brain surgery to be inside a hospital and not on someone’s kitchen table please – even if they prefer to do it after the football.
Many are asking themselves whether they need to commute into a city to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours. Maybe not – but maybe best not hunch over a dining room table laptop for that long either?
For those not wishing to go back to the office, there are other questions. If WFH now works, then fine. But this period of enforced time away from offices asks crucial questions about the way we work, and the way work is designed. For some, back to the office is not about “back to normal” but the dread of doing a job which they now find left them unfulfilled in the first place. Another trend for 2020 – wholesale job redesign, as employers discover that WFH is not a one size fits all answer to reducing their overheads and maintaining productivity. The change has not finished just yet. Now is the time to ask if the work being done really does need to be done in that way – and maybe ask the employees, how could you do this if we left you alone?
Graeme Codrington gave an excellent lockdown talk about the future of work where he ventured the impact of Covid 19 and the numbers now working from home could be the death of management – managers can no longer peer over someone’s shoulder or do MBWA. Maybe we now just need leaders not managaers?
https://www.kornferry.com/insights/articles/new-out-of-office-sign?utm_campaign=7-3-20-twil&utm_source=mailjet&utm_medium=email
Buzzwords of the Week – Assets
Definition – Any item of economic value owned by a person or a company, especially if it can be converted into cash. Examples are cash, securities, accounts receivable, stock, office equipment, and property.
Alternate View – I prefer Robert Kiyosaki’s definition from Rich Dad, Poor Dad – an asset is something which generates income. Anything else is a liability.