Are
You Ever Going Back to the Office?
Living and working at home in close quarters can get old pretty
fast. But WFH has also proven to be so productive for so many people that they
may never make that commute again.
A whole bunch of us who have spent decades in
the office have somewhat painfully but importantly learned just how efficient
and productive we can be working from home (WFH). Now we have to make up our
minds about what comes next.
Plenty of the bigger tech firms are suggesting
that WFH is worthwhile for a lot of employees -- "forever" according
to Jack Dorsey from Twitter. Hundreds of other large and small businesses are
saying it's worth a hard look. Just the fact that Zoom meetings (for all kinds
of physical and mental reasons) are automatically half the length of in-office
confabs means that we've collectively saved jillions of wasted and unproductive
hours that would have otherwise been spent listening to Stewart spew, Carl
carp, and Polly pontificate. Longer home hours, of our own making, fewer
unplanned interruptions, and complete control of our workdays (and nights) have
given us a new perspective on how best to get our jobs done - and when and
where to do so.
And honestly, how many of you are itching to
return to the daily grind of dragging your sorry butt to some distant office -
day-in and day-out - for what now increasingly appears for so many of us to be
no good reason? Just putting the millions of hours we're not spending commuting
to better use has to be a huge boost to overall productivity.
Yes, I understand the growing desire to get
out of the house and that WFH is impractical for a lot of people for a lot of
reasons. But that's not the same as wanting to get back to your
building so you can drink stagnant water from dormant pipes, constantly swab
everything in sight with your Clorox wipes, and join the lines of people
waiting to pile into sanitized elevators in small, socially-distant and masked
groups. Aside from peer and superior pressure, a little FOMO and your
significant other's desire to boot you out the door, it's hard to make much of
a compelling case for a hasty return.
So, it's no surprise to me that a lot of the
folks I speak to - who have some realistic semblance of control over their
business lives and activities - haven't quite decided if, whether and/or when
they're ever going back to the office. I realize that I'm talking
about certain sectors of the economy - creatives, computer geeks, consultants,
entrepreneurs and knowledge workers for sure - and that there are millions of
essential workers with little or no choice in these matters. I'm sensitive to
these realities and I'm grateful and appreciative (as I hope we all are) for
their efforts and continued sacrifices on all of our behalf.
But we have to consider the prospect that
costly commuting, polluting congestion, and co-morbid commingling with
co-workers aren't all that they're cracked up to be. And, to be clear, I'm not
talking about concerns about Covid-19, since that explanation/excuse is going
to run out of steam pretty soon for most of us except in the two dozen stupid
states where the cases are again surging. I'm talking about the fact that, in
retrospect, no one I know actually missed the "good old days" in the
office that much during the shutdown.
And I hope we also learned a few things at
home that hopefully won't get lost in the transition back by those who want to
or need to return to the fold.
(1) Death to Overly Long and
Unproductive Meetings
It couldn't be clearer that, in almost any
environment, we can get more done in shorter and smaller meetings with fewer
props, often fewer participants, and precise, concise agendas that are
rigorously observed and adhered to. Better another meeting than a boring and
over-extended one. Longer meetings have diminishing returns
What's also evident is that not every thought,
idea or contribution is a good one and session leaders need to be far more
aggressive in managing the flow of meetings. They need to cut off discussions
headed nowhere without regard for political correctness or hurt feelings. They
need to watch the clock and make sure that the meeting ends on time with
specific and detailed action items for all of the participants. Democracy in
meetings is not a virtue. Anyone without a job to get done at the meeting's end
most likely didn't need to be at the meeting in the first place.
(2) Control Your Calendar and
Inbox
By and large, your inbox reflects other
people's priorities rather than your own. WFH gifted us immense control over
the timing and degree of responsiveness we exhibit to all inbound demands,
whether large or small, top down or bottoms up. Because it became
"clear" to all that there might be competing and superior concerns,
requests and demands on our own time and resources. Family obligations, health
and wellness issues, access, timing and connectivity concerns, etc. all trumped
others' attempts at abrupt scheduling, calendar clutter, meeting mania, and
other time sinks.
The truth is that things at home weren't clear
at all - working at home was completely opaque to the outside world - and no
one but you was in charge of your time and actions. It was OK to
be MIA. This is a luxury that it's very important to try to
preserve as you return to the office because, in all honesty, it's one of the
central reasons that you were so efficient and productive at home.
People at all levels, throughout the business,
quickly got over the idea that everything is about to be a crisis; that only
you could personally prevent forest fires and client crackups, and, most
importantly, that a failure to plan on their part constituted an emergency for
you. Create some spaces and time slots to be left completely alone at the
office so you can get some stuff done and done right.
(3) Not Everyone Gets
Equal Time
"Hiding" at home (a/k/a MIA) had
another very important advantage. Because you were relatively unreachable, most
of the actual conversations taking place during a typical day were those chosen
by, and initiated by, you. These were intentional and ideally purpose-driven
rather than accidental, uncomfortable, or inadvertent. Not only were you
no longer at the mercy of drop-ins, pages, and other random conversations, you
had the ability to prioritize your contacts and decide whether, if, and when it
was important to speak to certain people while easily avoiding wasting time
with others. It was a whole lot more effective than trying to keep your door
closed at the office, which actually seems to encourage people to stick their
heads in just for the sake of making sure you're not sleeping on the job.
And, because you've made the call, you also
have a substantial amount of control over how long it lasts. You're not trapped
in your own office or someone else's or in the lunchroom by someone with
nothing better to do than sit and "share" ad nauseum. At home,
there's nothing like a dog or a kid or another call to provide a convenient and
timely exit to any conversation. Answering machines, caller ID, and voicemail
have enjoyed a real resurgence since the pandemic began. They all used to be a
chore and now they're really the first line of defense and avoidance. Screening
your calls was a key to preserving your sanity.
So, if you have to go back -- or want to --
buck up, have a plan, and don't go backwards. Take control of your time and
your calendar and make the system work for you. And don't let anyone else push
you around...because you can always go home again.