The paradoxes of hybrid work. For more than a year, there was no need to ask questions. If you weren’t an “essential worker”, you were at home. However, for several months, we have been witnessing the ” great handling of the world of work. Some employees were invited to return to the office five days a week without possible negotiation. Others have started experimenting with hybrid working or have chosen not to return to work at all. This shift from 100% remote working at home to hybrid working brings up several unexpected paradoxes, especially in companies that still separate physical and virtual presence in their hybrid working practices.
The paradoxes of hybrid working, Working from home AND with colleagues
The first paradox of hybrid work, noted by Microsoft in 2021: 73% of their 30,000 employees (working in 31 countries) say they want to continue to take advantage of the flexibility gained during the pandemic while 67% of them wanted to spend more time in person with their colleagues. Yes, ultimately, them colleagues their were missing and yes it is to hope to have the butter and the money of the butter!
But that’s not all, this desire for flexibility is accompanied by a broader reflection on the meaning of the activities practiced in one’s job, a questioning of attendance time as a performance indicator (it was time) and more generally of a questioning on the working methods imposed with a very widespread question “Why does my company not trust me on my capacity to organize myself and to deliver by imposing days of presence on me?” “. The Microsoft survey revealed that 41% of employees, regardless of their country of origin, said that in the next 12 months, they did not expect to stay with the same employer for reasons of meaning. AND trust.
Advice : call us quickly to take stock of your values and their concrete use in your activities, management and recruitment practices, your vision and your raison d’être! Next, make it a habit to advertise in your job postings whether the position is hybrid, remote, or onsite. Then, train your managers in hybrid work, not from the angle of work organization but from the angle of autonomy, support, listening, initiative and confidence.
Have a workplace AND a workspace
This flexibility paradox of remote work / face-to-face work leads to a second paradox. The workplace becomes a material and immaterial place and no longer a physical “place” where you have to go every morning. There is an urgent need to overcome the binary vision of work as being either “in person” or “remote”. I remind you that we are no longer in the world of “OR” but the world of “AND”!
To overcome this binary vision and develop a new working model for the hybrid age, we need to reimagine what the term “workplace” really means – a place where new categories of technologies allow people to go beyond the binary vision, integrating work into their lives in new and dynamic ways. Work becomes linked to “moments” of the day and not a place and the company is no longer an essential place but a “hub” in which one goes with pleasure to meet his colleagues and collaborate physically with them on projects.
Another way out of this binary workplace mindset that confuses purpose and place: a place is simply where we are, while a space is the place. where we operate. It’s like the difference between a house and a home. A house protects once morest wind and rain, but a home is where you live with your loved ones. A place is still what it is, but a space is how it is used. Rather than being grounded in a physical location, stop replicating in-person work processes virtually, along with team building practices and creative collaboration, and move to Level 3 of the Empowerment Pyramid as I described in this article.
Advice : determine the roles of each according to the place of work (the office) and the workspace (the mission). Then maintain equality between employees to prevent remote people from being excluded from decisions that are made outside of video. This requires a robust messaging system, an internal social network and ensuring that if a meeting involves people present physically and people remotely, everyone must be in vision or nobody. If you’re not already doing so, ask all employees to turn on their cameras for meetings.
Be efficient AND invisible
Another paradox is that those who do their work on time, at the expected level of performance and who, in addition, are sufficiently autonomous and competent not to require special attention from their manager can become “invisible” and slow down their career development.
If you’re conscientiously working from home, trading commuting time for longer work hours and office coffee breaks for increased productivity. You can still jeopardize your career! Because if during the pandemic, you were forced to work from home, today, if you choose to work from home, in fact, you choose not to be in the office! And that is not good.
60% of the 581 professionals interviewed by the recruitment firm Korn Ferry said their career advancement would be jeopardized if they admitted to their boss that they preferred to continue working remotely. The reason is that managers still too often rate employees they see as performing better than those they don’t, and it’s not uncommon for them to grant bigger raises and promotions. Even though data shows that remote workers perform better and are more engaged than those who are in the office more than 3 days a week according to l’Institut ADP.
Tip: mEven if you regularly see your manager when you are in the office, optimize your meetings with him or her and if you are remote for more than 2 days in a row. Above all, do not leave your “Extra mile” performance, that is to say, the extra thing that you have done while it is not in your job description, unknown to your manager. Don’t brag, but be sure to mention the obstacles you’ve overcome to persevere with a project. You must be recognized as a problem solver and do not waste their manager’s time while performing well.
Inclusion ET injustice
Next paradox, if you believe that hybrid work is a good thing to allow you to reconcile your family life and your professional life. It is not so simple.
A McKinsey & Co. survey of 5,043 employees found that employees without children were almost three times more likely to prefer office work. A January survey by Gartner, cited below, also revealed gender differences: 26% of women caring for children prefer to work remotely, compared to 18% of men. Bosses who favor office workers might then hamper the career development of parents, and in particular of mothers.
Advice : if you don’t intervene, the gender pay gap is likely to get worse, not better. A missed promotion or raise today can snowball in a few years. Businesses should start analyzing the compensation of homeworkers and office workers in the same way that many companies are currently looking at wages by gender, to ensure that disparities do not appear or widen. not.
Engaged AND Remote
Last paradox of hybrid work. Employers who favor physically present workers might hamper the career advancement of professionals, who prefer flexible working options, including working mothers. A recent study by Gartner, reveals that 43% of remote workers and 49% of hybrid workers were highly engaged, compared to 35% of on-site workers. Yet some managers continue to think remote workers are underperforming, which means they’re not participating in talks regarding pay raises and promotions.
Advice for remote workers:
- Stay in the flow. Catch up with co-workers and keep your boss up to date on your agenda and accomplishments.
- If you’re interviewing for a new job and want to work remotely, ask which senior managers are working from home. This will give you an idea of the value the company places on flexible working and career opportunities without having to come to the office.
Tips for managers:
- Test hybrid work yourself. You’ll empathize with remote workers and better understand the paradoxes of hybrid working.
- Analyze salaries and promotions in your department to ensure there is no gap between remote workers and in-office workers.
- Let technology help you. Some companies are experimenting with lining meeting room walls with 36-inch screens, so that everyone in the meeting appears full size.
A true hybrid workspace is not defined by where people gather, but by how they feel included in the collective effort and shared mission. Inclusion turns people into stakeholders, and stakeholders turn empty screens and empty desks into meaningful places.
