Workers of world disunite
A MATE of mine has just started a new gig. He’s been working from home (for himself) and now he has taken the plunge and gone back into the structured world of the organised office. It’s a big change. Australians value “flexibility”.
In fact, a recent study by Manpower Group Solutions Work found that just under half of all employees list “flexibility” in their top three priorities.
The opportunity to start after school drop-off or finish for pick-up or the odd chance to work from home seems to be the preferred scaffolding for our work / life balance in our era of the paperless office.
That said, compromises must be made and the guarantee of regular folding stuff was the motivating factor. Now he has discovered how much the workplace has changed while he’s been working away at home.
He has learned two new words on his first day. “Hot Desk.” This image is guaranteed to get a reaction from any Gen X office worker.
His open plan work space is populated with standing tables.
Apparently, they look like beer trees scattered at random throughout the room.
The architects designed the space with not enough desks for the number of employees. This is an intentional design feature.
They are working on the premise with our new-found flexible work force. People do work from home, they go on leave, they go off site, they go on stress leave. There are very few days of any given week where there is a full complement of staff. This absentee theory is proving to be true. My mate reports that he can always find a beer tree to lean his laptop.
Hot Desking also keeps the social churn churning. The HR gang want you to be move into different circles, collaborate across departments, cross-pollinate with people you normally only know via email.
But the Hot Desk landscape does not extend to a genuine hierarchy revolution.
Nothing is said, but the general manager somehow always uses the same Hot Desk.
His executive assistant is permanently positioned next to that one and so the churn is more a general ripple than an actual mixing.
The other thing he’s noticed is the politics of the internal email.
When you’re out on your own you are your own brand. You would never write an email to a client in CAPS.
You would always have an out of office reply if you are on holidays, but generally you’re never on holidays and you’re answering emails at midnight every week.
But, inside the structured environment, the email rules have gone out the window.
He regularly receives emails from the person on an adjoining beer tree but they neglect to include a basic salutation.
This is the equivalent of somebody standing next to you all day and never using your name, never saying hello, just blurting out some random information and expecting you to engage.
How hard it is it write “Hi” or “Dear” or “good morning” before you smash in the name of the receiver? It doesn’t have to be “yours sincerely” at the end, but a gentle “hiya” is my bottom line of icebreaker. Otherwise why bother sharing an office at all?
Strangers in the street can show more courtesy.
But there is one advantage that the structured office still has over the home workspace.
There is a clear demarcation of when to start ... and when to stop.
At the end of the working day, he’s going home.
He deserves it. Ross Mueller is a freelance writer and director