Maintaining connection on an island of isolation
The lack of a centralized workplace presents new challenges.
Gone are the opportunities to fraternize around the watercooler or see the nuances of facial expressions and vocal inflections.
Thankfully, new collaboration platforms are emerging like Krisp (bye, background noise!), Muzzle (bye, embarrassing screen pop-ups!), Trello (way better virtual team huddles) and Betterworks (for frictionless, distraction-free remote team collaboration).
Data convincingly shows people working from home are happier and more productive. Companies lagging behind on work-from-home capabilities risk losing the talent acquisition arms race (i.e., Yahoo!’s botched remote non-policy of, “If I can’t see you, I can’t control you”).
What about isolation and loneliness? With the blending of the “first place” (home) and “second place” (work), the need for a “third place,” is essential: anchors like coffee shops, libraries and bars. Third places are critical to society, since they foster opportunities for empathetic and creative connections.
Offices won’t die out completely. But the notion of spending 40, 50, or 70 hours there a week will. The co-working spaces that have sprouted up in recent years serve as a model for how work culture and HR practices can accommodate the workforce they’re courting. That is, workers should be able to leave the proverbial nest when it suits them but always feel welcomed back when they return to HQ for in-person engagements.
What was once the province of the minority will be an enduring – and amazing – place where the future of work happens for the majority. Workers of the world, awaken; you have nothing to lose but your cubicles.
Empty farms – Just as the farm was supplanted by the office in the 1900s, today’s cubicle farms must confront the existential fate of their agricultural equivalents. Most tasks performed in offices can be done remotely. As a result, entire swathes of urban geography need to be reimagined for the future of work.
Great good places – Social interactions can get lost with remote working. Whether it’s libraries, coffee shops or pubs, a proliferation of “great good places,” as sociologist Ray Oldenburg dubbed them, are an absolute must to foster thriving public discourse, vitality and cohesion.
The nest – For most people, work is a combination of solo activities and team-based projects. A hybrid approach of two or three days of teleworking provides a needed balance. Consider workplaces of the future to be akin to “nests,” where nomadic workers can return and feel welcomed.
From the cubicle to the couch – While remote work remains far from a mainstream occurrence, Remotopia is, by every indication, the future of work. Leaders that embrace it now have more time to perfect the implementation of remote work and all the competitive advantages that go along with it
