After what proved to be a longer than expected break, I'm back with the seventeenth edition of the Future Work/Life newsletter, now on Substack. You can view the FWL archive, HERE.
During my four weeks off, it felt like much was changing for the better. In many ways, there was a sense of normality returning to life. Yet, as I write this on Thursday morning, we're entering, in the UK at least, another period of restrictions.
I thought now would be an apt opportunity to reflect on some of the things that I've learned over the past six months and update you on what's next.
First of all something new. In October, I’ll begin recording a season of podcasts, which will touch on some of the themes of this newsletter amongst other things. I’ll keep you posted on the release date and who’ll be joining me as guests.
Today, though, I'll lay out my initial thoughts on how we need to approach the future of work, while in the coming weeks, I'll be sharing some first-hand work/life design case studies.
In July, I began surveying feelings about the changes to our personal and work-lives resulting from COVID. The plan was, initially, to carry out some qualitative research in the form of interviews, followed by a quantitative study.
Well, what is very clear is that the world doesn't need another survey on the future of work.
I'm, therefore, focusing my time on something that emerged consistently from the many fascinating conversations I've had with people over the past few months: the inherent uncertainty of life and work right now and how we, collectively, should navigate it.
I have heard no shortage of fantastic initiatives that businesses have put in place to support staff through these challenging times, as well as stories of fundamental changes in working practice to adapt to a prolonged period away from the office. One agency, for example, offered an additional 13 days holiday to parents struggling with managing the extended period of home-schooling. Although (fingers crossed), kids are now back in school, adapting to the demands on parents and their changing views on flexible working is not only empathetic it’s also a smart strategy from the point-of-view of recruitment and retention.
I have also explored with many business leaders when and how people might return to the office.
What changes do we need to make to workspaces?
Do we ask people to come in on only two or three days a week? If so, does everyone come on the same days, or do we operate shifts?
Fundamentally, what type of work should take place when they're there?
And while there's a growing sense that collaborative work lends itself to congregating, how would that actually look?
Unfortunately, on more of a negative tip, I've heard too many cases of managers putting pressure, however subtle, on their people to travel into the office despite their ongoing concerns about COVID. "You don't have to come in, but it might harm your career progression if you don't".
In the UK at least, these conversations are temporarily on-hold again as the government advises us to work from home again where possible. It’s no less vital now, though, to proactively explore the relative merits of office-based and remote work. In fact, we can learn from the various experiments that businesses have already undertaken over the past couple of months, like Dan Cullen-Shute at Creature London, for example.
Finally and somewhat worryingly, I've also seen companies holding back on the recruitment of entry-level staff, in particular graduates. There's a feeling among some that it's more difficult to onboard junior employees virtually, which is backed up by this Institue of Student Employers Study.
Anticipated growth or shrinkage of the graduate labour market 2020-2021
Every business is in a unique situation, and the vast majority of leaders I speak to prioritise the wellbeing of their staff above all else. However, with more difficulties to come, this strikes me as a time in which we need to come together to find new solutions to emerging challenges.
Here are my conclusions.
It's more essential than ever for businesses to put work/life design front-and-centre as we develop strategies to thrive in a rapidly evolving world.
If we approach this with a collective mindset, we can learn more quickly and make better decisions about the future of work.
My plan for the next few months, therefore, is to create a new community that can share their experiences and best practice. The Future Work/Life Project will collate the views and ideas of business leaders who are inspired to design a future of work that isn't just reactive to short-term regulations and restrictions.
Instead, we aim to create organisations that are (as far as possible) future-proofed, that take advantage of advances in technology and data, but that, ultimately, put their people at the heart of their strategy.
The Project will be a knowledge-sharing platform and information resource for leaders, managers and entrepreneurs who want to learn from the respective successes (and failures) of other organisations experimenting with new ways of working. These could be initiatives for establishing social interactions, onboarding team members, developing new ways of creative collaboration, or eventually, returning to the office once more.
Let me know if you'd like to contribute and I'll get in touch to tell you more.
See you next week.
Ollie
Any Other Business:
Related to my point about facilitating the challenges of parents, although the polls suggest many want to maintain flexibility in their work, WFH creates potentially detrimental effects on women, as it increases the burden of childcare and housework. “Surely this isn’t still a thing?”, I hear you say, but sadly the evidence suggests otherwise. This article by Herminia Ibarra, Julia Gillard and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in the Harvard Business Review explains some of the reasons and what we can do about it. It’s behind a paywall (although you get a few free articles per month) and a couple of months old, but as relevant as ever.
Based on this Bloomberg article by Suzanne Woolley, companies are going to struggle to get people back into the office, even if they’re allowed.
This is a fascinating take on the future of work and the ‘decentralised workforce’ by Andy Spence. I’ll be writing more about my idea of C-Lancers next week and I can see much overlap between the principles Andy outlines and the unbundling of jobs that I discussed in FWL3.
I’ve covered many of these themes before, but I like Sara Brown’s summary of the Four Ways to Design Employee Experience in the Remote Work Era in MIT Sloan Review.
And finally…
Anyone who’s read James Clear’s Atomic Habits will like these podcasts about Aristotle and Plato on The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos, featuring Tamar Gendler.