A 40-50 hour work week is ~50% of our waking hours. It’s why so many of us make our best friends and even meet our spouses at their office.
In March/April 2020 though, COVID-19 threw this all on its head. A sizable minority (~35% of US workers) began working remotely, and in some cases (including myself), have never stopped.
In 2021, the news is constantly full of “will they, won’t they” stories about what comes next. Will employees work remotely forever? Are employees heading back into the office? If so, for how many days? What does a “hybrid” solution look like and what does this mean?
With this as a backdrop, I’ve listened from the sidelines. Is there any right answer? At a more fundamental level, what’s the point of working… in an office or otherwise?
Meaning of work
After some soul searching and thinking about what I want in a job, here’s what I hope to get from work in the broadest sense:
- To work on fascinating things with fascinating people
- To become connected and build friendships with those fascinating people
- To learn new skills to apply to more fascinating problems in the future
- To have flexibility and the ability to balance what’s important to me
- Today, this is being able to explore nature and visit national parks
- In the future, this may be being at my daughter’s soccer game
- To have just enough money so I sleep easy at night
Benefits of co-location (in office) work
Applying my meaning of work framework to office based work highlights a few potential benefits for well set up offices:
- Connection
- As transformative as zoom/video chat is, in person conversation is 10X better
- In addition, similar to college experiences, repeat interactions with others in close proximity to us makes it easier to make friends
- Exposure to new people
- In addition to connection, work mixes us with new types of people outside of our normal bubbles
- As the US becomes more polarized by religion, politics, and even your favorite sports team; I’ve loved being exposed to people and ideas beyond what I’d normally encounter
- A new environment/differentiated space
- During peak COVID, my wife and I stayed in a one bedroom apartment 24 hours a day and there was no work/life balance… it all just blended together
- This may be the easiest to fix, but being exposed to different physical spaces (ie even a home office) can help set my mind at ease
Benefits of remote/distributed work
Alternatively, fully remote or distributed work offers two other major benefits:
- Time
- In 2019, the average US worker spent 27.6 minutes commuting each way
- This means, by working remotely, you get ~1 additional hour every day to spend on whatever else you want to do
- Flexibility
- As the new acronym WFA suggests, you can truly work from anywhere
- My wife and I live on the East Coast, but were able to spend twice as much time with my parents in 2021. We weren’t limited to holidays and stayed with them for weeks at a time. I count this as one of the biggest gifts of the year.
- When working remotely, we’re able to spend more time physically with friends and family and can adjust our days to maximize time with them
So in-office or remote work?
As I close this thought exercise, I still don’t have a perfect answer on my ideal setup.
The biggest trade-off I see is between connection and flexibility. Where I lean on this trade-off will ebb and flow depending on where I am in life.
- After I graduated college/moved to a new city knowing no one, I valued being in person as that’s where I met many of my closest friends
- Yet once we have kids, I’m sure I’ll value additional flexibility to help take care of them and spend additional time at home
- When I hear arguments about in person vs remote work, I wonder if people’s life circumstances cause them to value one of these benefits more than others
But I don’t know if the answer is “fully in-person” or “fully remote”
- This wonderful Farnam Street podcast with Matt Mullenwag describes how he runs the company Automattic.
- Automattic is fully distributed (Mullenwag prefers the term vs remote), yet the company still has a requirement that employees meet in person for one week every three months!!
- Mullenwag recognizes the value of in person human interactions and how they help build trust and social connection. This social connection is critical and he wants to keep that value in his organization.
- Similarly, when/if there’s an in-person happy hour with colleagues I’ve only ever seen on zoom, I expect it’ll build connection/belonging.
- Yet I expect connection would tail off after week 35 of being in the same office
- This is especially the case if we aren’t being deliberate about how we interact and are assuming connection automatically comes with in person
- Furthermore, the flexibility to travel for weeks at a time is a huge help regardless of whatever the default mode of work.
- Our friends/family are geographically dispersed and without this benefit, we’ll either see them during holidays or not at all.
- Even in a primarily in-person office, this benefit is something I place a huge premium on and don’t want to lose.
Instead of a concrete answer on days in office, what I’ll be looking for is thoughtful leaders like Mullenwag. Those who recognize the value of both connectivity and flexibility, and strive to strike a balance between the two.
What I expect from the future of work
While I’m not sure on how I actually want to work yet, here’s a few (likely wrong!) predictions on how I expect the future of work to change in US society.
- In the short term (1-2 years), companies will make decisions on if they want their employees to be based in the office
- This is already as companies roll out widely different plans
- This short term will likely be at least until 2022 and has been exasperated by the recent COVID-19 Delta surge upending companies plans
- Even if there’s commonalities between employers, the variation will be critical
- People will choose the roles they prefer
- With a tight labor market, there’s unprecedented job openings in the US and individuals are able to choose whatever company’s policy matches their preference
- LinkedIn has already seen full remote searches skyrocket
- Employers will adjust their policies on in person vs at home based on employees (and prospective employees) preferences
- Regardless of what they say, employers will be forced to go wherever the top talent goes to
- Amazon and other tech companies have rethought their posture here
- Additionally, remote work could offer employers the ability to not just hire a software engineer from San Francisco, but potentially from anywhere in the world
- Finally, a new balance will emerge (~5 years out)
- This will vary by each company and it’s too soon to tell what it’ll be
- My only expectation is if employees go back to the office, it better be a fun office