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Home working, virtual teams, and leadership in a changing world
The way we work has changed!
No matter how much media you consume (or avoid?) there’s no missing the fact that the world of work – and what that looks like for so many of us – has changed.
Phrases ‘The Great Resignation’ and ‘The Great Re-Evaluation’ still appear in every news stream, and every source talks about the shift in the way people want to work, and the balance between work and life.
As a Business Psychologist in the Learning and Development industry, with over 25 years experience helping people to achieve their professional ambitions, I’ve seen the corporate world adapt, change, and evolve – but never before on a scale like we’ve seen in the past 5 years. Though the pandemic sometimes feels like a different life, it continues to have a significant impact on corporate life.
The ‘work/life balance’ and the ‘way things are done’ that previously shaped professional life have changed, on a massive scale! People have more demands, higher expectations, and more ambition. Simultaneously, they are less willing to compromise – ethically, financially or in the treatment, communication or culture they will accept from their employers.
This is a big shift in power – and one that brings a new dynamic that many ‘old school’ organisations (and their leaders) are unsure how to navigate.
We all remember the strange, shifting time of the pandemic – and the shutdowns saw millions of office-based teams switch to home working (overnight in most cases!) and there was a steep learning curve for how that could function, with technology, with oversight of teams, with communication, and creating a whole new infrastructure. Office buildings stood empty as organisations everywhere had to make enormous investments into the technology, software, and digital support systems needed for us to carry out our work from home offices.
Many employers insisted teams to return to full time office-based working, and a huge swathe of the workforce refused
Office working vs Flexible working
When leaders and managers insist that remote working is no longer an option, and that their teams need to return to the office full time, people pushed back. Realising how much of their time – their life – is spent commuting, in meetings, in stagnation, and how much freedom they had when remote working. That remote and virtual communication had, by necessity, been implemented so widely, and the change had been hugely successful for many organisations. If the work can be done just as well remotely, and the team have more flexibility, more time with their families, less expense, and were happier, why should they spend the time and money travelling into an office that’s full of distractions, and brings lower quality of life? Especially if that lower quality of life then means that their work is negatively impacted too… link
The Great Resignation. The Great Re-evaluation. These were the buzzwords media kept using, with many business leaders claiming “people don’t want to work any more!” – but what we actually saw was that employees were assessing what they actually want from their role. From their employer. From their leaders. What they were willing to give of themselves and their time, and what a powerful position they were in to renegotiate the way that should look.
The past five years have seen the biggest shift in how we live and work since the industrial revolution, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
Hit the button below to access the full article from Debbie Hance, where you can find more detail on the positives and negatives of returning to the office – exploring the psychology of how people are making their decisions, the long term impact of the pandemic on corporate Britain, and how ASK can help your organisation to navigate these challenges, and to better support your employees.
If you want to learn more about ASK’s range of programmes, call our consultants on 01234 757575 or download our brochure – and let’s arrange a meeting so we can go over how we can help.