Office fads that ought to die
Tony Featherstone picks nine work trends that are heading for the exit and won’t be missed.
Here are 10 business trends or fads that started to wither in 2017. Or they deserve an early death in 2018 for frustrating employees and destroying, rather than adding, value.
Hot-desking
Was there ever a dumber office design idea than expecting staff to find a new desk each day as part of agile teams? Fit-out specialists tell me there is growing pushback against hot-desking.
Hopefully, excessive openoffice plans that make staff feel seasick and deafen them are next to go. They are more about jamming in staff and cutting costs than driving collaboration or innovation.
Crazy business titles
It was cool for a while to be the organisation’s Chief Rock Star, Chief Jedi, Chief Gladiator, Chief Dreamer or Chief Innovator. Until the trend went overboard this year. Crazy, meaningless business titles started to look like code for Chief Tool.
Technology spin
The big banks plan to morph into agile fintechs and the giant supermarket operators will emerge as data companies.
I’m betting on the banks losing market share to fintechs and Amazon crunching the big retailers. And for investors in 2018 to see through the hype of corporates pretending to think like startups.
Corporate fun police
The Hollywood sexual harassment scandals will put even more pressure on organisations to tone down staff behaviour. Goodbye office romance. Goodbye fun Christmas parties. Goodbye office jokes and pranks. Goodbye trusting staff to do the right thing.
No employee should ever feel harassed and perpetrators deserve every ounce of punishment. But it’s likely that some employers over-reacted to the risk in 2017.
Let’s hope organisations lighten up in 2018, within boundaries, when they realise the fun police are hurting morale and productivity – and that political correctness in the workplace has gone too far.
Endless diversity debate
Few things were more nauseating in 2017 than corporate leaders going on about the merits of gender, race and skills diversity in the workplace. The same organisations that had barely any female directors or executives gushed about diversity’s benefits.
Yes, diversity is important, is a long way from being fixed and needs regular debate. Just not the marketing-led spin from too many business leaders who took a ‘‘safe’’ position on diversity.
More action and less talk on diversity in 2018, please.
Remote working
One organisation after another encouraged staff to work from home in 2017 in the interests of workplace flexibility. Some even allowed staff to backpack overseas while working for them.
Watch the trend change in 2018 as employers realise that too much remote working hurts teamwork, morale, innovation and productivity. And that too many staff use home-based work time to go to cafes and the gym, or do household chores.
Presenting like a Ted speaker
Too many speakers this year tried to mimic the Ted presentation style: the supposedly effortless story-telling with quirky anecdotes and few facts or slides. This format requires days of practice and a knack for storytelling and presenting. Most speakers do it poorly. Still, it’s better than mind-numbing, textheavy PowerPoint slides. I’m guessing more presenters in 2018 will stop trying to be like Ted and more like themselves.
Automation
We were bombarded with stories in 2017 about artificial intelligence likely to kill one in every two jobs. Or robots becoming the ultimate corporate Terminator.
Watch the plug on automaton hype be pulled in 2018 as companies realise artificial intelligence and automation is part of business – not an unexpected lightning bolt. And that many jobs will be created as new technologies spawn new industries.
Business buzzwords
To end, some business buzzwords that deserve to die in 2018: pivot, lean in, agile, unicorn, disrupt (it refuses to go), gig economy, machine learning, Industrial Revolution 4.0 (automation, again), intrapreneur (corporate entrepreneur), corporate storytelling, push tolerance, discretionary effort, business ecosystem, millennials (enough, already), diversity (having a mix of people making decisions shouldn’t need a special tag) and creatives (aren’t we all?).
–Sydney Morning Herald