Shoots: How the digital workplace became lonely and not fun
Rewilding Work with Paul Miller Episode 11: How the digital workplace got lonely, isolated and not fun
[00:00:24.240] – Paul Miller
Welcome to Rewilding Work. I’m Paul Miller. On my last Five Shoots episode, I talked about AI and work, which was top of mind then, of course, still is. Today’s Five Shoots is around another challenging area, namely, where on earth are we supposed to work? Up until 2019, this ‘where’ question didn’t exist. The default was the office and sometimes out and about or at home, but the go-to was the office. Heck, they even made an iconic television series called The Office. But in this current strange post-COVID of work, there’s confusion, and quite a lot of it, about where work should happen and how. We use the phrase hybrid work, a catch-all term that sounds precise, but it says very little, really, and is at best usefully vague. Now, four years on from the start of the pandemic, where we work and how we connect with colleagues is up in the air. Here are my five shoots about where work should happen, how, and why. Shoot number one. We need to work together in person, regularly and frequently. The bottom line is that hybrid working, flexible working needs a rebalance. Don’t worry, we won’t lose all the beloved flexibility we’ve discovered through COVID, but we will find many rewards: creativity, community, connection, purpose, and fun.
[00:01:58.220] – Paul Miller
All from making sure we all spend time regularly and frequently working with colleagues in person. We are a social species, and that is true in work as it is in life. We’ve let work drift post-pandemic into a strange limbo space where it’s unclear what work should look like for most organizations. It is complicated by the fact that we can be productive, even if we seldom or never see our colleagues in person. But there persists a lingering sense of unease, anxiety, that something really valuable is being lost. We ask ourselves quietly, why do I feel less excited about my work? Another Teams call, is that it? What am I missing out on? Wouldn’t it be nice to just chat and get coffee with a few people? Am I lonely? Everyone else seems fine. So start a new routine. Maybe agree with your colleagues when we will be together physically and stick to it. Allow ourselves to improve how we work by raising the frequency and regularity of working together in person. Shoot number 2. Young people, particularly regularly need time in person to feel healthy, engaged, and happy in work. I remember one global institution where young people joined for the sheer delight of being together in person with colleagues from so many different countries and ethnicities.
[00:03:32.630] – Paul Miller
The diversity and connection in-person was part of the excitement, the buzz that comes from working for that institution. This organization just needed to be given permission and know that it was fine to have people return to the offices for the simple joy of being in such a vibrant, diverse space. It particularly pains me when younger people are day-to-day working from home when they long for in-person connection. It affects their health, both physical and mental. Why should younger generations be denied similar rewarding experiences? Shoot number three, physical workplaces need to attract us, not force us to return. From what I see, drives to demand that people come back to the office are struggling. Rather like forcing your kids to do a sport they don’t much like, it’s a hard slog. Far better to let the kids find a sport or activity they love that attracts them. In the same way, workspaces need to work harder to attract us to return. The environment, the vibe, the feel create spaces where we want to be. And if more colleagues are there at the same time, then the attraction index goes up. Pre-pandemic, offices were lazy because they were mostly the only game in town in terms of places to work.
[00:04:58.590] – Paul Miller
Offices rested on their laurels, but with a wave of revamped spaces, they’ve upped their game. Offices know that if they want to be well-used, then they need to put on their best face, turn on the charm, and watch us return. Shoot number 4, ‘come together for no reason, just to be social, just to be human. ‘Hygge’ is a Danish word and means creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people. It can be about being comfy and cozy, but it conveys a sense of companionship. Or another scandi term is ‘fika’, meaning to have a coffee break. In a work setting, fika is when you sit down with your colleagues for coffee or tea, often with something sweet to eat. But it’s the atmosphere and the emotion of connection that matters. Too often, we want to know the return on investment of spending time with colleagues when we can be just as productive at home. But productivity is not the driver here. There are invisible benefits in allowing ourselves the freedom to come together for no reason other than to socialize. Grammarly, the text service app, arrange a week for the whole company every quarter to meet up in person.
[00:06:17.900] – Paul Miller
They design the week like an event or a festival with lots of social time plus learning and planning together. These time investments reduce staff churn and raise morale, innovation, and health. Pretty impressive ROI stats. Shoot number 5. The digital workplace was essential during the pandemic, but it is not a magic bullet. In 2010, I wrote a book called The Digital Workplace, and the strapline was ‘how technology is liberating work’, intended to describe that we work in one or two spaces, the physical and the digital. The digital then was changing and evolving fast and had the potential to empower us to work how we want and where we want in a way that would bring freedom to the working day. Roll forward to early 2020, and after me banging on for a decade about how most of us could experience flexibility in work, if we chose to, lockdown arrived. Lockdowns turned the digital workplace into the essential workplace overnight. Wow, it worked. But having been converted to the gifts of remote working, the post-pandemic world of work has emerged as if this emergency measure should now be business as usual. But that ignores the downside isolation, fragmentation, and a lack of enjoyment.
[00:07:49.730] – Paul Miller
Oddly, I now spend most of my time explaining why being together in person as human beings matters. We see high levels of work, loneliness, isolation, and work can become dreary. We miss, I miss, being with colleagues regularly. When we’re together in person, it’s enjoyable, fun, and healing. It heals our souls. It feeds our souls. Those are my five shoots. I hope the five shoots were useful, and do subscribe to the DWG channel to hear about new episodes of Rewilding Work. And see you next time.
