Work Best Practices to Carry Into the New Year, and Some to Dump
By: The Maverick Files
Tags: Work, Remote Work, Business, Digital, Productivity

Things We Love — Why They Should Stay

#1 — Work from Home Optionality — Partial or Complete Flexibility

First of all, we all need to admit, that in a conventional pre-2020 workplace, when someone asked for a day of “working from home” that was often seen as code to an excused paid absence and was often frowned upon by bosses and colleagues alike.

That changed completely in 2020 — working from home wasn’t an option, but the only choice.

Even as the world moves beyond the pandemic and things normalize in 2021, most employers and employees have realized that many jobs that were traditionally seen as jobs that were only efficiently doable in a traditional workplace or office setting, can be done just as efficiently from the comfort of one’s home.

This has also meant potential savings in smaller office spaces i.e. reduced rentals, more employee satisfaction with the flexibility it provides and getting rid of toxic workplace traditions like “facetime” with the boss.

This is exactly why, within reasonable boundaries, a lot of companies are already planning to make remote working a real part of the way they operate long term.

Google, often the company that leads in terms of workplace flexibility has made announcements to this effect already. While extending remote working to September 2021, Sundar Pichai announced that leadership was also planning to test out a “flexible workweek”, which would require staff to work in the office for three days a week — what Pichai called “collaboration days” — and from home on the others. An excerpt from the detailed memo below:

“To remove the friction of five-day-a-week commutes, we will pilot a hybrid model in which teams come together for “collaboration days” in the office and spend the other days doing focused work for home or the office.”

#2 — Virtual Meetings — Ease of Access Sans Desperate Participation

Remember the days of booking meeting rooms in advance for a team huddle, or finding a conference room big enough for the team and the client contingent to all fit into?

Or the days where that annoying colleague hogged all the limelight in a meeting with the boss, because (s)he has a view on everything even when they aren’t the one the topic in discussion relates to?

Or the nightmare that a physical meeting became for those shy type of employees who are fabulous at their deliverables but not so great when it comes to presenting their work in front of a group because they’ve got stage fright?

Virtual meetings, or “Zoom meetings” as many of us now know them as are the perfect solution. You can set them up at practically no notice, and they can be “managed” far better than the chaos of a physical meeting or even a traditional conference call.

You get to see everyone else and interact with them almost as efficiently as a “face-to-face” interaction, but also have the power of collaborative tools like sharing your presentation via screen share, and even allowing others to pitch in with their ideas, etc. You can easily break out into smaller huddles via the breakout rooms and regroup with a click of a button back into the main room.

And, the best part, no real threat of meetings over-running, set a hard deadline to the meeting, and if you don’t keep track of time, the meeting will auto-shutdown at a certain pre-defined time, so there’s added incentive to be crisp!

#3 — Smart Work Over Mindless Slogging — Output vs. “Facetime”

I’ve always hated when that one colleague spends 14 hours at work every day with seemingly achieving only half of what I achieved in 8 hours. And yet, to that annoying boss who only cares about how long someone spends in the office, (s)he is the star, and I am always the one who’s in late and out early.

Remote work has been the perfect leveler for such situations.

With what is often known as “face time” in front of your boss taken out of the picture, the only thing that talks about your efficiency and contribution is your eventual work output. No one can really question or care how long you spent on your computer working, vs. how much of your time was spent playing with your kid or online shopping.

The only thing that speaks for itself is the output of your work — and if you’re one of those who prefer smart work over hard work, this is the ideal solution.