Remote Working was once heralded as the ‘New Normal,’ many employers are now less enamored with this business model.
Having worked remotely in one way or another since the early 1980s, this pundit had some reservations when the tidal wave of glee over the opportunity to stay home and work in your robe or even your underwear emerged. We first addressed this issue in March 2020 when the idea was newborn.
Per the linked blog, working from home requires discipline as well as treating the new office as a professional situation. Unfortunately, not all have that in their DNA.
Productivity?
With almost 50 years of remote working sometimes as a result of international travel in an era before connectivity, I have personally seen the ups and downs of work from a hotel room, a pay telephone, the laptop and mobile devices. It is sometimes challenging to to keep focus. There can also be a degradation of organizational culture
The current management paradigm is named Hybrid working. Firms are demanding at least some time to be spent in the office face-to-face. According to one source in September 2023 only 14% of positions were remote compared to 20% in February. Others have already demanded full time at the office as a condition of employment.
Final Thoughts
The ebb and flow of management theory is as old as humankind. Sometimes, however human behavior is not taken into consideration by some prognosticators. We are social animals and need human contact not just to thrive but to survive. The water cooler is making a comeback.
How will your organization retain its culture and assure productively in this new era?
For More Information
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See our Economic Value Proposition Matrix® (EVPM) for additional information and a free version to build your own EVPM.
The author’s credentials in this field are available on his LinkedIn page. Moreover, Dr. Shemwell is a coauthor of the just published book, “Smart Manufacturing: Integrating Transformational Technologies for Competitiveness and Sustainability.” His focus is on Operational Technologies.
“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” (Martin Luther King speech at Cornell College, 1962). For more information on Cross Cultural Engagement, check out our Cross Cultural Serious Game. You can contact this author as well.
For more details regarding climate change models, check out Bjorn Lomborg ands his latest book, False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet.
Regarding the economics of Climate Change, check out our recent blog, Crippling Green.
For those start-up firms addressing energy (including renewables) challenges, the author can put you in touch with Global Energy Mentors which provide no-cost mentoring services from energy experts. If interested, check it out and give me a shout.