{"id":4517,"date":"2020-10-20T08:53:19","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T15:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=4517"},"modified":"2020-10-20T08:53:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T15:53:19","slug":"the-truth-about-hybrid-working-reveals-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/the-truth-about-hybrid-working-reveals-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About Hybrid Working Reveals Itself"},"content":{"rendered":"
In February 2013, Yahoo\u2019s CEO at the time, Marissa Mayer, infamously proclaimed<\/a> that their employees would no longer be allowed to work remotely. Around the same time, Google\u2019s CFO at the time, Patrick Pichette, also declared<\/a> that teleworking was no good. They were far from the only business leaders that at best misunderstood and at worst scapegoated remote employees.<\/p>\n As an advocate for remote working<\/a><\/span> \u2013 and a remote worker myself for almost two decades \u2013 it had constantly been an uphill battle getting organizations to understand and prioritize the benefits of a hybrid workstyle<\/a><\/span>. The traditional business community spent a lot of energy demonizing remote workers as an excuse to cover-up other problems like rudderless teams and sluggish businesses. This view was not only incorrect, it exacerbated any real problems that may have existed in those organizations.<\/p>\n The common excuse that most of the remote working nay-sayers gave to justify their positions was that bringing people into the same space caused some \u201cmagic\u201d to happen from the impromptu collisions and connections. Bumping into a colleague in a meeting or at the water cooler was supposed to be the genesis of this magic interaction. I honestly have never understood people\u2019s acceptance of this organizational model… as if we all worked in a 1950\u2019s small business. Yes, if you were employed at a local retail store, then you may gain an advantage having all your co-workers in the same place all the time. Realistically, I and many knowledge workers haven\u2019t worked in an office where everyone was in the same location, same city, or even the same country for over two decades. What good is in-person, impromptu \u201cmagic\u201d when your colleagues are rarely in the same building with you? Clearly, successful distributed workforces need to be able to develop that so-called “magic” using collaboration tools to truly be effective \u2013 and, when those tools are present on a computer or mobile device, it\u2019s just as clear that that knowledge worker can be anywhere where they can access those tools and a solid internet connection.<\/p>\n That all brings us to today. A deadly pandemic has swept over the globe, forcing just about all knowledge workers to work remotely. It was the fear of infection and\/or the requirement to stay home that overcame the stigma and scapegoating of remote working. We\u2019ve learned a great deal about the remote and hybrid working model since this ordeal began.<\/p>\n Our society and culture will change as a result of what we\u2019ve learned during the pandemic. Organizations will likely have smaller offices in the future, but they\u2019ll have more of them and they will be in a more dispersed model. People will likely choose where they live based on new criteria. One no longer needs to live \u201ca reasonable commute time\u201d to an office, but instead can pick areas that meet higher priority criteria \u2013 perhaps near family\u2026 or, where the action is as quiet or exciting as they prefer\u2026 or, where the schools or communities meet their needs. Restaurants that had a business model of feeding the hordes of office workers at lunch will probably never open again, but new restaurants that support a more spread-out population will open and flourish. Most importantly, enterprises will have the ability to hire the best and brightest workers regardless of geography. Working remotely will not be ideal for every role and every personality, but the percentage of knowledge workers will surely flip from mostly in-offices to mostly remote. The quality of life benefits for employees and the tremendous cost saving for organizations will surely never be forced back into the genie-bottle.<\/p>\n As a result, I believe the hybrid working model<\/span><\/a> will be the default for many years to come. It enables knowledge workers to be productive from home, from an office, and when traveling. Selecting the right tools and the right platforms to achieve this will be a critical component of an organization\u2019s success. As always, if you need advice on where to begin this journey, always feel free to reach out<\/a><\/span> to me.<\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to realize that you\u2019re living through a time of fundamental change in real-time. When we look back at this era in five or so years we\u2019ll likely all be able to recognize how the awful circumstances allowed us to overcome the incorrect stigmas associated with the remote worker, and enable a more productive and happier future for knowledge workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, myths about remote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":4521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1724,548],"tags":[131,1591,1822,238,1771,1823,120],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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