The number of companies that require employees to be in the office full time has actually declined to 42%, from 49% three months ago, Scoop said. Employees at companies with hybrid strategies work an average of 2.5 days a week in the office.
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From the title I was thinking a reboot of the TV show The Office
My reaction was “Noooooo! Lightning won’t strike twice! It’ll disappoint everyone!”
I just want to thank you for taking the time to post an archived link, instead of something blocked behind a paywall. I appreciate it!
At the company I work at (in software R&D, about 40% of the workforce), I’m a strong advocate for remote-first policies. My immediate boss understands a lot of my concerns, but seems to deeply want to return. When asked why, they come up with these vague ideas of connectedness and poetic visions of sparks flying in the creative process afforded by a meeting room.
Yet only it’s only them and the sales department in the office day-to-day. I think they just want some company but don’t want to outright say that.
I don’t think increased connectedness or creativity in-person are necessarily fanciful ideas. Rather, I’d argue the more important question is if it matters. In some lines of work, maybe so; in others, maybe not.
Hybrid jobs don’t make sense to me. If it’s a job that can be done from home, why are you forcing workers to come back to the office 3 days a week?
Interpersonal relationships is a big reason. Our CTO has been pushing for us to continue to go into the office as much as possible for cultural reasons. At first I was very hesitant, but it appears he was at least partially right. There has been a noticeable shift of communication style and a decline in trust amongst people who used to work together in the same office and are now working remote. We used to play board games and solve jigsaw puzzles during lunch breaks/downtime and had very friend-like relationships. Now, we’re turning scheduled meetings into bitching sessions because we have nowhere else to do it. We now have recurring meetings where we play games together virtually for an hour, but it’s nowhere near as effective as building relationships and, most importantly, trust amongst our teams.
The cliche of “Great Communication Skills” on resumes comes into play with WFH. For me, unless you are an absolute all star at your job and can complete everything without anyone’s help ever, you need to have better communication skills than tech skills.
