As we enter a post-COVID period, most of us are asking what the new world will look like. Will we return to a pre-COVID world, or will we change in many ways how we work and shop, where we work, what we do, and when we do things. There’s one big question in particular facing employers and employees: do we go back to working from the office or do we continue to work from home and remotely?
I saw a cartoon during COVID showing passengers sitting in an airplane and listening to an announcement that said:
“This is your captain speaking. I will be working from home today …”. Obviously or hopefully, this will not happen!
Pre-Covid or Post-Covid, the type of work will — by its nature — indicate if there are options to work remotely or not. An airplane pilot, air stewards, truck and taxi drivers, factory workers, chefs, cooks and servers, police officers, fire fighters and many other jobs cannot simply be performed remotely.
On the other hand, other jobs can be performed remotely. These include administrative work, telephone work, IT work, and so on. But the key question should not be just if the work can be done remotely. The key question should address if performing remotely can substitute working from an office?
Zooming has allowed people to work remotely throughout the pandemic. Does this mean that we should continue to Zoom instead of meeting face to face?
Many studies on communication effectiveness, including the famous rule of 7 percent by Professor Mehrabian, showed that only 7 percent of communication is verbal, and 93 percent is non-verbal. The non-verbal component is made up of body language (55 percent) and tone of voice (38 percent). Other studies have different percentage, but most conclude that 70 to 90 percent of all communication is non-verbal.
These studies would indicate that Zooming is okay when meeting in person is not possible but relying on Zoom exclusively can drastically hurt healthy and effective communication. I may add that Zooming is also okay for transactional communication, but very ineffective for relationship communication and building.
For me, working remotely or from home does not promote teamwork and face-to-face interactions. On-the-job-training, coaching, informal interactions contribute to making friends at work, showing engagement, sharing knowledge and brain-storming ideas with excitement and enthusiasm.
Enjoying a cup of coffee or tea together with a colleague in the office cafeteria or sharing a pizza in the conference room is excellent communication. For instance, when I worked in Italy, employees spent a good part of Monday morning commenting on the soccer games of Sunday. In France, employees stayed behind on Fridays after work for a “coupe de champagne”. In Brazil, a “frango churrasco” lunch was key to teamwork.
Professional services such as legal work, accounting, architecture, engineering, consulting rely on coaching and on-the-job informal interactions for training and development. Informal Q and A as in “How do I do this? Why should I do it this way? When can I use this? Where should I be looking for? … and so on … You cannot do this by Zooming.
I find a positive role for Zooming, don’t get me wrong; but not for everything and not for avoiding coming to the office. “Management by walking around” is impossible through Zooming. A culture of “teamwork”, “performance”, “innovation” can be destroyed in few weeks if you avoid coming to the office all together.
In conclusion, back to the office work post-Covid requires a new balance between working from the office and home. There should be no battle between flexibility and discipline. Engaged, committed, and excited employees make happy customers and happy customers are loyal and profitable. Both make happy stakeholders. Smart managers seek life-work balance for all team members and life-work balance is the key to running a successful business or organisation.
W625