To hybrid work or not… that is not the question

This post is written by Victoria Camp, Project Director at Local Partnerships.

• The problem: Focusing on the choices of where we work is missing the bigger picture.
• Why it matters: We need to be having the right conversations and not obsessing over office/home/agile.
• The solution: Talk about real people, give them real choices, and sit back and watch the effect.

Tell us what you want, what you really really want…

I’m reading loads of articles and data and research about hybrid working. What works, what doesn’t, what do people want, what don’t they want… what the data is telling us… what Elon Musk is doing… and it all seems to miss a very key point that I want to explore: choices.

Hybrid, office based, another country, from a busy desk, from a café, from your dining table, or a mixture of all these things, what people are responding to with the “great resignation” is not the ability to work from a specific place, but the ability to choose where to work from. I think that point is getting lost in the specifics.

Early choices

When we are young, our carers have to make decisions for us–largely to keep us safe from harm. We instil in our children how important it is to be autonomous, to have enough self confidence to know your own mind and make your own decisions.

Then we go to school where we are not enabled to make any choices at all, and in fact trying to make decisions about your life is often dealt with punitively.

Adult choices

All the choices we were supposedly offered from childhood, even as they became more narrow and pre-chosen by adults, are now a problem being perpetuated in the world of work as adults.

We are still trapped in this same system which is creating a total cognitive dissonance in us en masse: be your own person, forge your own path, but do it within these boundaries and guidelines because really that’s all you can do.

What it’s all about

The “great resignation” is not just about hybrid working. It’s a mistake to think that. The “great resignation” is the culmination of everything we have told our children to do their entire lives– to be themselves, follow their dreams–it’s just being played out but not according to the predefined rules or narrow set of choices set before them. People want to be treated as assets and not just resources to be exploited.

People want to choose where to work, when to work, how to work, how much work takes off their life, how they parent their family, what work-life balance means to them, whether or not they work at all. Providing a choice of 2 or 3 days in the office and the others at home really isn’t a choice at all and I wonder if traditional companies need to realise that as soon as possible or avoid extinction.

Companies that allow their staff to choose the projects they work on, the teams they work in, the managers they have, and their own benefits packages will thrive in this new post-Covid world. In fact these companies are thriving now. Airbnb had something like over 800,000 hits when they announced their new agile working policy. Those 800,000 views weren’t all just looking because they want to work from home. They were looking because what that agile working policy says about the company is that you might be viewed as an individual. The Happy People Company, a UK-based training company that offers advice to the public sector and beyond, allows people to choose their manager, and choose their leadership salary, Octopus Energy gives staff the empowerment to do whatever it takes to find a solution for their customers without requiring approval or boundaries. People are seeking out these companies in their droves. The more traditional companies, and sadly most of those in the public sector are still advertising jobs with a fixed office location, fixed salary, and rigid job descriptions and are, not surprisingly, struggling to recruit.

It's not about agility. It’s not about desks. It’s not about work-life balance. It’s about all this and so much more. All the evidence and data in the world points to one thing: people are happier and work better when they are masters of their own destiny.

Roll on the revolution! I can’t wait to see what’s picked apart next.

👋 You can create a post like this one! Share your thoughts with a community of public servants. Learn more

(Image Credit: Unsplash)