Hardly any other topic is discussed as emotionally as the home office, in employee staff meetings as well as in private circles, Karin Klossek writes in an article on finews.first.
England, with an average of 1.5 days of home office per week, leads the way in Europe. (Europe 0.9). Up to 40 percent of all employees work from home. At the same time, England is the country with the longest working hours within a European comparison. In addition to these figures, «The Guardian» cites a recent study that found 25 percent of respondents said they would quit if they were to return to working exclusively for the company.
Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, usually very clear in his announcements, spoke carefully of a pilot when he ordered that Apple's male and female employees are expected back in the office three days a week: Tuesday and Thursday, plus a third day that the team can decide for upon itself. The outcry was too intense following the first memo on mandatory attendance after COVID.
Zoom, too, wants to see employees who live up to 50 miles from the company's headquarters back in the corporate office at least twice a week and is meeting fierce resistance.
«The discussion usually misses the real reasons»
The big banks in the U.S. have been going down this path for a long time, and many expect employees to be present at the bank five days a week. This can be sweetened, for example, by the office of the future, such as the one J.P. Morgan Chase is currently having built by Foster + Partners at 270 Park Avenue. The 60-story building exceeds all previous sustainability standards, has a sophisticated fresh air concept, allows maximum flexibility of office walls, and experts such as Deepak Chopra were hired for all wellness aspects so that rooms for yoga, Pilates, meditation, or rooms of silence are a matter of course.
The familiar arguments: traffic jams on the freeway or crowded commuter trains that tend to break down are no fun, costing time, money, nerves and CO2. In a digitized world, many tasks can be performed almost anywhere. A doctor's appointment can be scheduled more discreetly from the home office. It's easier to fight a nagging cold from home with tried-and-tested home remedies. However, the discussion usually misses the real reasons.
«Good managers were already flexible when the terms home office did not yet exist»
Even if he or she is equipped with the perfect gender-speak and all other political correctness, an incompetent manager «ad personam» is hard to bear. Any storage room back home appears more attractive as a home office. The anthropologist and professor at the London School of Economics David Graeber, who died at an early age, called them bullshit jobs: work that no one actually needs and that even those who are paid for it feel are superfluous.
If the supervisor and the human resources department are not worth their salt and there are no opportunities for development, then the work would rather be done at the kitchen table at home, even if the light, chair and table are ergonomically completely unsuitable for it.
Good managers are and were already flexible when the terms home office and workcation did not yet exist. They value their employees and allow flexibility when it is desired and possible. They trust their employees and know that performance (and loyalty) is even higher thanks to experienced individual flexibility.
«Not everyone likes to wear headphones for hours on end»
Of course, not everyone can work in a building that was perfectly designed by Foster + Partners. Ambitiously but unprofessionally designed workspaces often don't allow for concentrated work. Not everyone likes to wear headphones for hours on end. Many old-school workspaces may not be suitable as lounges, but do allow for concentrated work at the company's headquarters,
Without any motivation to work in an organization, it's simply hopeless – as long as labor is scarce. Here, the desire for maximum home office flexibility is nothing more than leisure time optimization.
For highly motivated employees, on the other hand, as a number of recent studies indicate, more home office time means even more working hours. No wonder, in an actually well-equipped home office it is more pleasant to work into the night without having to rush to a dark parking deck or to a nocturnal suburban train station. If you'd like to delve deeper into the topic, a management expert and a philosopher demystify many a pretended trend such as agile working and dispel illusions in the video discussion: «Schöne neue Arbeitswelt» to be found in the «SRF Kultur Mediathek» (German only).
A company or other organizations we work for offer a great opportunity to meet people we would otherwise never encounter. We all discover new perspectives and develop ourselves in the process – but only if we actually interact in person. Electronic chats are no substitute – there we exchange ideas with those who are similar to us anyway. Official meetings are mostly well-staged theater plays. The really important information «between the lines» is exchanged over a cup of coffee
«The supposedly comfortable home office can become very uncomfortable in the medium term»
An outstanding corporate culture can only be experienced in everyday life. It leaves its mark in a positive sense and both sides benefit from it: the company in its balance sheet and P&L, and the employees in the quality of the many days, weeks and months they spend at work.
A good corporate culture creates a natural network that lasts for decades, even if everyone already works in other companies. Sometimes friendships develop that last a lifetime. The supposedly comfortable home office can become very uncomfortable in the medium term: more household chores instead of a career, because making a name for yourself from Webex, Teams or Zoom tile succeeds for very few and often not for the most capable.
Karin M. Klossek has worked in Frankfurt, Auckland, Sydney, and London in fashion, financial services and health industries with an emphasis on branding and marketing. She has launched GloriousMe.Net, a lifestyle website, together with Maike Siever. She also co-partners brand consultancy Glorious Brands in Frankfurt.
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