FEATURE
honest conversations that won’t damage their own team chemistry. Designating the kinds of meetings that are appropriate for in-office v. remote work, is helpful as well. If a team needs to spitball new ideas or concepts, it’s probably better done in a room together, so on that day, everyone needs to come in. If it’s a large meeting to schedule a series of upcoming marketing initiatives, it’s just as easily done virtually. An interesting trend that’s developed lately is that workers from smaller and midsize cities are apparently going back to the office in greater numbers than those in larger cities. This dynamic was parsed from one of many analytic studies that this seismic disruption in how we work has spawned.
it’s come to be known, happened for a reason, which we might suspect comes from decades of trying hard and failing miserably to bring work/life balance into actual balance. And from all we’ve seen, it’s very possible that today’s workers are flipping the script. They’ve realized that what they actually want, what they’re damn near demanding is — life/work balance. Unless your last name is Scrooge, you probably don’t want to live to work. And working to live has been the persistent quotidian anchor around our collective necks that’s led to our current moment. So finally, here comes technology (with an assist from a pandemic) doing what it’s always done — allowing, encouraging and, yes, insisting that we continue to evolve. Technology is the absolute product of our great human brain, after all, so how do we expect it to create new opportunities that make our lives better, and then choose to ignore them? Change is always hard, but change also creates new exciting paths that can lead us all to better, happier, more productive lives. We sleep eight hours a day, we work eight hours a day — and the most important part, the alert, alive, waking time we spend with family and friends, yeah, that’s eight hours a day, too. But isn’t it worth more than that? Isn’t it worth more than just a third? For most workers, the answer seems to be a resounding, oh hell yes! And if both sides of the employer/employee dynamic are a little more intentional and mindful, allowing plenty of room for patience and trust, then life/work balance may finally have its moment, too. —Rudy Gaines
Some interesting numbers from others:
4% of high-paying jobs were remote before the pandemic. Today, more than 15%.
16% of companies in the world are 100% remote.
81.5% of workers feel more empowered to hold their leaders accountable for a better workplace in 2022. 56% said they would only wait 30 to 60 days for employers to make needed flex work changes before they consider leaving.
74% say that a remote work option would make them less likely to leave a company.
Another 74% said after the pandemic, working from home is better for their mental health.
85% of managers believe that teams with remote workers will become the new norm.
90% of full-time remote workers said they were more productive working remotely.
If hard cold percentages aren’t enough evidence to prove that the American workers are kinda done with work as they’ve always known it, here’s one more data set: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics between April and September 2021, more than 24 million American workers quit their jobs. No other jobs awaiting, they just clicked their heels and summarily disappeared from the American workforce. The Great Resignation, as
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