Work is no longer a place
In this guest post Alison Michalk argues companies need to offer more genuine flexibility with how their employees work.
George Costanza was a visionary.
The makeshift bed under his office desk might not have gone down well with his boss in the 1990s Seinfeld episode, but today George would be right on trend.
A move to ‘radical flexibility’ in the work place is gaining pace as organisations shift their attitudes and approaches to work out of the 1900s – and out of the central office.
Radical flexibility is ushering in a new era where employees not only choose where they work – but when they work.
We’re not talking about leaving at 4pm or having the day off to care for a sick child.
We’re talking about a complete overhaul of the idea of work as a ‘place’ you go to because the old way of working doesn’t work anymore.
Our workplaces are based on scientific management principles from the 1900s – principles that were developed around the need for industrial efficiencies.
Workers needed set shifts – because machines needed to be operated.
We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. We live in a knowledge economy and our minds are now the machines.
Organisations at the forefront of the move to radical flexibility are flipping the old thinking on its head and creating a new way of working where the key is outcomes, not hours.
The buzzword is ‘ROWE’ – a ‘Results Oriented Work Environment’ – where the focus is on what you get done and kicking goals, not how long you spend doing it.
If a staffer wants to go for a jog, take a Costanza-style nap or even pack the dishwasher, go ahead.
It’s not about giving employees the feel-good warm and fuzzies. When you give employees the flexibility to succeed in their personal and professional lives, there’s a real pay-off for the business too.
If it helps them manage other responsibilities in their lives – you’ll have a happy employee! If it lets them ponder work and reboot their brain while not staring at a screen – hello business-changing Eureka moments!
A ton of research demonstrates the benefits of remote work. Radical flexibility helps you attract and keep top talent. It creates high performing teams, increases productivity and makes for happier, healthier employees – while eliminating the dreaded commute and reducing absenteeism and stress.
You can create a successful company and company culture without an office.
I know. I’ve done it.
My business operates with no central office and a team of 22 based around the world. We’ve had Australian staff working from places as far flung as Iceland, Kuwait and Costa Rica.
Last month, I met one of my team in person for the first time. She’s worked for me for five years.
Where my staff work doesn’t matter – we’ve removed the straight-jacket of the 40-hour week and central office and only look at performance.
It’s time for more organisations to re-think flexible workplaces practices.
We have the collaborative technology and online connections to make it happen. Where’s the sense in traveling to an office and then chatting online with colleagues a few desks away?
It’s highly likely that millennials will find the notion of a ‘centralised office’ as a place of work as archaic as telephones tethered to a wall or taking a roll of film to a camera shop to get your photos developed.
The future of great ‘workplaces’ isn’t a place at all. It’s a mindset that helps employees fuse their personal and professional lives in ways that let them deliver their best work.
Even if that means taking the occasional nap under the desk.
George would be proud.
- Alison Michalk is CEO of Quiip
The downside of flexible work is that it makes it difficult to build a truly collaborative team environment. Communication is central to collaboration and with different work hours etc. communication often becomes batched and impersonal.
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There is no such thing as a collaborative team environment – sales don’t like producers – creatives don’t like bean counters – technologists cannot communicate to the business – the business people are ego driven….
Offering true flexibility creates amazing efficient teams …..
Sitting in an office is the modern day business killer ….
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Hi Tim, thanks for commenting 🙂 We work in a highly collaborative environment – collaboration is actually one of our key values. However being that we’re community managers we have the advantage of doing written comms quite effectively. My experience with collaboration is that many issues stem from a central office not properly involving remote workers – which is a head office/cultural/management issue rather than a remote one per se. That said face-to-face comms is still important but we get to do that at a company retreat or social event rather than a cubicle daily!
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Sounds like common sense. That the [work] place is not important is a corollary of a well-established business philosophy. That has been made more possible by Internet etc. It’s an old, current, good idea. I suppose a new buzzword will make it trendy. Which can’t be bad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_by_objectives
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I work for / at Hub Australia. Our small team is across Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide.
One of the things that I value most about my job (besides contributing to a world where people can work how and when they want in a collaborative, supportive environment) is the flexibility of my work. Sometimes I work from home, San Francisco, from a beanbag, and from a standing desk. When I work from home, I do the laundry and exercise and give my son a hug when he wakes up from his nap, and start at 7am in my pjs.
As a company, however, we do have ground rules for working this way. A few things we do to ensure we stay collaborative is:
-A daily digital PLAY (Priority, Learn, Awesome, and Your Energy Level) to give the rest of the team a sense of your focus on a personal and professional level
-Mondays are mandatory in-space days
-We always use Google Hangouts, and always keep the video on
-We keep the team spirit alive (with jokes and such) on Yammer
-We have an all-company get together 3x per year
-Monthly professional development sessions with manage
-Flat, collaborative org structure
It’s also super important to be absolutely clear what you are (and what you are not) responsible for.
It’s a challenge to keep the collaboration up, but I am by far the most efficient (and grateful) employee for this style of work.
#ilovemyjob
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There’s a lot of “good” ideas out there that don’t take human nature into account. Eventually, propped up with hype, they collapse under their own weight.
Everyone who has climbed the corporate ladder knows there’s nothing like being physically in the same place as the movers and shakers. A glimpse into a board room meeting you’re not invinted to– an overheard snippet–some one coming out of the bosses office not happy — or too happy. — who goes to lunch with your manager? These things all keep you connected, and won’t come across on your laptop as you sit on your veranda, Avoca.
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The Guardian are whacking out some great articles concerning the future of work and this is one for a few days ago, all about flexibility:
http://www.theguardian.com/car.....oductivity
Agree with Smart One. Office environments can become very toxic, due to ego. Working remotely can actually remove these toxins and build far more collaboration.
Remote work aside, just empowering staff to enable them to complete their work, in their time, will breed a team of responsible adults. ‘Treat your staff like adults’.
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Peter, disruption and the future of work aims to redefine the corporate ladder. There is myriad research which suggests how we’re working isn’t working. (I thoroughly recommend reading The Best Place To Work.)
I have fantastic visibility from my verandah because the company boardroom, break room, project rooms are all on yammer. As I mention in an earlier comment these issues you list are a concern but not when you have a decentralised company.
Rupal – love your comment! Hear hear!
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Alison
All sounds dinky di. Yeah?
Problem here is traditional boundaries and expectations around the workplace get thrown up in the air. Emails and calls on a Saturday at 2pm are cool because, hey, I am on a mountain in Costa Rica on my laptop breathing in the fresh air … but all of a sudden work calls. So, let’s chat.
Unlike some European countries where there are restrictions now on out-of-hours technology use, Aussies continue to work to the bone to pay off their hefty mortgages.
But flexibility is the cool thing, right?
As long as it cuts both ways, boss lady.
Discuss.
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It’s up to all of us to ensure that we are effectively communicating and living by our boundaries.
Responding to that Saturday-at-2pm email on Saturday is oftentimes a pressure that we put on ourselves vs coming from corporate culture (and the sum of all of our individual culture is what comprises corporate culture).
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Tank – absolutely relevant point however I don’t think traditional offices can be lauded as bastions of sensible boundaries/expectations. Rupal addresses this really well. I do agree re: Aussies overworking (adland in particular sets some terrible examples) and that flexibility can be utilised my companies to increase their demands. So I appreciate you raising this angle – very on point.
We’ve consciously tried to avoid an “asap culture” (read: Jason Fried’s Remote) for this reason. Plus we’re largely introverts so we’ll never ring and interrupt *jks*. All this said I’d be foolish to think all my staff have no complaints but I’m confident they feel involved in shaping & improving the company because I’m committed to challenging workplace norms.
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Trust is key. If you trust your staff you get the best from them.
If organisations give flexibility to staff but lack trust the relationship falls down and the productivity alongside it.
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This won’t be in place until the Gen Xers have left the building. Biggest clockwatchers of my experience have been the white, male, 40+yrs CEOs. These guys think at desk=working hard, not at desk=skiving off on the companies dollar.
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A prerequisite for this type of work is engagement (ie giving a s**t about your work).
The same group that equates sitting at desk = work is the same group that would get the boot if they were properly assessed on results.
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Dear Dear Peter Rush,
You hit the nail on the head.
If you want to climb a corporate ladder then you need to be in the mix, not working, just watching, seeing, lunching, sneaking around, telling stories, and promoting your own ego whilst bagging your work mates.
Walking on a beach, or looking at the horizon – usually gives us humans an uplift.
Watching who comes out of a managers door, smile or not…. Is pretty sad, or if you are into Corporate ladders then maybe that’s what you do.
Not many people on the Corporate ladder are decent, they are usually more involved in the Corporate ladder.
We live in different work times ….. Richard Branson works from home, does not have a phone, seldom answers emails….and he seems to have done well in many many markets and businesses…..
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@Smart one
I am guessing that you have experience here and understand both sides. I certainly believe I do too, after working for a corporate where you felt like a number, to working for a business that set goals and staff could complete them, however and wherever they liked. Tradition can be a hard thing to change. Ladder is being replace with ‘lattice’. It is working for many companies. Flat structures where everyone is encouraged to lead, as opposed to a small minority of politicians being the boss and barking out orders. Team targets, instead of individual targets is another way to get people to truly work together, this creates true team work and collaboration. Peter might wake up to this one day.
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