What Google, Martha Stewart, Amazon and others have gotten so wrong about the remote-work debate 'Aren’t all relationships, professional and personal, a two-way street? Don’t both parties need to change?' quantanamo
When most couples split up, sleep in separate bedrooms or spend time apart and then decide to get back together, they might go to couple’s counseling or air their grievances in a backstreet coffee shop as a last-ditch effort to repair a once fruitful and happy relationship.
In a relationship when separated couples get back together, they put a concerted effort into both parties’ actions, said Tessa West, a New York University social psychology professor with an interest in workplace behavior, and author of “Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them.” There’s now a rallying cry by companies to get back to those water-cooler moments, intra-silo chit-chats and face-to-face meetings during which ideas are born. That’s the theory anyway. There’s just one problem. It ain’t going so well, if recent attempts by major U.S. companies are anything to go by.
Last month, hundreds of workers at Amazon staged a lunchtime walkout in protest of the company’s policies, including a three-day in-office work requirement. A company spokesman told MarketWatch it would take time for people to readjust to a greater office presence but that more collaboration happens in person.
Some might say it’s a bit rich for a multimillionaire who does not have to commute to work five days a week, and sit at a desk for eight hours a day, to tell others to do just that, while others may contend that Stewart is where she is today because she showed up to the office in person. West said, just like with a family, employees representing all levels of seniority and different teams need to work together. “Offices full of people who are all at one level of the hierarchy don’t have the vibe people need,” she said. “You need to be able to network up and over, and with people outside of your team, across different parts of the organization.”Sudden U-turns in agreements are not popular at home or at the office.
Management needs to tell remote employees they will miss out. “No one will feel FOMO if an in-person event was sad, poorly attended and in a dimly lit room that could double as an FBI interrogation room,” West added. “The office needs to be bright, vibrant, and have a mix of quiet spaces and happening ones.”
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