In my last post, I discussed possible problems that can be associated with the future of work. As I delved into the potential difficulties that our future of work may hold, I made note of the anti-social nature of many present day offices, the job security of the permanent worker, and the effectiveness of our education system.
Here, I would like to touch on the anti-social nature of offices. As time progresses, the traditional office setting and the social nature associated with it is diminishing. According to Global Workplace Analytics, from 2005 to 2012, the telework rate has grown 79.7% amongst employers. This growth statistic takes into account for-profit employers, non-profit employers, and local, state, and federal government employers. Roughly 1.5 million American employees have been removed from the traditional office setting and instead transferred to their own homes over this time frame. This is a problem as many bosses and managers no longer have a relationship with their employees. The same can be said for employee-employee relationships. How is a company supposed to thrive cohesively if its workers only maintain contact with one another primarily through a computer screen? Teleworkers or not, primary interaction amongst employees is done virtually now.
A solution that I propose to fix this anti-social predicament is for companies to designate a few days per month where all employees are mandated to come in, share ideas, give presentations, work in groups, and attain an understanding of their co-workers. Many employees have noted that they often feel unmotivated and complacent when working from home. Working from home offers a sense of comfort but also allows for several distractions. Performance is hard to regulate when on telework. If men and women were forced to come in to the office, give presentations on their work, and discuss with their colleagues the thought process going into each project and how they approached each problem, the company would thrive holistically. This would allow for employees to broaden their relationships with coworkers, and it would really force them to tackle their work more seriously. When giving a presentation, you need to know the ins and outs of your work. These designated days would serve as performance regulators along with social outings that would strengthen relationships that would benefit not only the company but also the wellness of each person. My parents have both been on telework 3 days a week for the past ten years. They have confessed to me that their performance on the job has suffered since they were moved home. They think that if they were forced to go to the office 5 days a week, they would be able to interact with coworkers on a daily basis and this would enable more creative thinking. Therefore, while 5 days a week in the office isn’t always feasible, mandating a few days per month promoting group work and creative thinking would benefit the current anti-social nature of many workplaces. This is a viable solution to a problem that has worsened over the years.
References:
- http://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics
- https://www.mobileworkexchange.com/mobileworker/view/1571
I definitely agree with you when you say that the upcoming anti-social trends of the workplace are going to become a real problem. When I was doing my problems, I found that a statistic that showed that people who worked from same place finished work at a 32% faster than those that had worked in the different areas. Not only is this issue an anti-social work place problem, but it is also a productivity problem. I definitely feel that your solution is one that works very well. Having employees come in at least one day of the week will definitely be useful for morale and productivity. It cannot hurt to know the people that you are working with. The only problem with this is that everyone working on the same project would ideally be near the same location while this is not always the case. Sometimes the people employed do not live anywhere near each other, and these kind of weekly workplace meet ups would be inconvenient for everyone. For this kind of situation, I would think that having more frequent company retreats would be a more viable option. Company retreats alone seem to be infrequent, so increasing them will make it so that employees are not inconvenienced too often and get a decent relationship with one another.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3035569/the-future-of-work/forget-what-you-think-you-know-about-the-office-of-the-future