Decrapify Work or Die (the one where Goldman gets caught with its pants down)
Forget the office, let's do cocktails!
Back in the mists of time I worked for a company selling this new fangled tying called ‘electronic mail’ to a sceptical and frankly confused market. What we came up with was calling it ‘the Martini service’ after a popular advertising slogan of the time - ‘anytime, any place, anywhere’. (Before you start to take the piss, consider that we may not have been entirely unsuccessful promoting what became the ubiquitous digital tool in organisations globally).
Well, this week lots of organisations have been talking about their ‘return to the office’ strategies and it seems many are taking the Martini approach to work - you can do it anytime, any place, anywhere, as long as it gets done. One of those places might be the office and it might be during ‘office hours’ but it doesn’t have to be.
I’ve been working the Martini way for years, I’ve had a laptop since the early 90s when you used to plug into phone lines to get your email (or even dismantle the phone socket and get the crocodile clips out…) and it’s been commonplace in the tech industry and in sales functions for ages. But now COVID has shown what’s possible, it’s gone mainstream.
Some of us have been predicting (and agitating for) a shift like this for some time. Well, it seems like it happened last week. Sometime after lunch on Wednesday, probably.
A gold star absolutely goes to the Nationwide Building Society, who have not only allowed their headquarters staff to ‘go Martini’ but explained their radical approach. You see, they went and spoke to all their staff and asked them what they wanted. Then they listened to their replies, and worked out how to give them what they wanted and then gave them what they said they needed to work at their best. I know, it’s bonkers, isn’t it??!!! It’ll never catch on …
So let’s raise a glass to Nationwide and all the other organisations who are taking this opportunity to decrapify work for their staff.
Vodka Martini, shaken not stirred, I think. Definitely shaken.
Are friends electric?
The debates still rage around the false binaries of ‘office vs work from home’ and ‘IRL (In Real Life) vs virtual’, even though, as I’ve already pointed out above, organisations have made their minds up and are voting with their feet. However, some are so wedded to the primacy of physical interaction and the office that they are unable to conceive of life being lived differently.
“There’s no substitute for meeting people IRL!” they thunder. Well, there’s a truth in that but it’s not the zinger of an argument they think it is.
There are lots of companies that are fully remote and it’s a growing trend. 37 signals (producers of Basecamp) pioneered it and published their ‘how to’ book’ REWORK over a decade ago. and continue to write thoughtful blogs on the topic. Automaticc, producers of probably the most used website software Wordpress, are another hugely successful and fully remote organisation. They seem to manage without an office and without frequent IRL interactions.
During COVID I have developed a whole new network of people who have literally changed my view of the world and opened up all sorts of new avenues to discover and explore. I have built ‘high quality connections’ with people I have never met in person but expect to stay connected - and hopefully get the chance to meet IRL one day when we’re allowed out again.
I made the point in a LinkedIN post that dating now starts virtually for many people. There is a need there to meet IRL at some point but for business, that’s not so much the case. We only need to exchange ideas and information, not bodily fluids. It can stay virtual.
Virtual works. It has advantages - I didn’t have to stand for hours in a crowded room drinking warm white wine and eating soggy canapés to extend my network. I didn’t get cornered and bored to death by someone with no listening skills or pinned to the wall and sold to by someone with a BNI pin and unseemly interest in my utility bills. I got to meet people on the other side of the world who are already on the same page as me, rather than having to convince someone who just happened to be in my neighbourhood.
One of the arguments for going back to the office is networking and relationship building. But lots of people are finding ways that don’t need the office or meeting IRL. It doesn’t stand up.
The other arguments are collaboration, innovation and learning. Well, a friend of mine has just run an innovation course for MBA grads completely virtually and the cohort has performed better than any previously. So that rather knocks those arguments into a cocked hat.
I would have said IRL is better, where it’s possible. Now I’ve written this, I’m beginning to doubt that is true. Some things do seem to work better virtually.
Expect pubs. I’m not giving up pubs.
Goldman caught
The Goldman Sachs story rolls on. I don’t know what is more shocking, the testimony from the GS analysts or the ‘solution’ from GS that they should limit analysts’ hours to 80 hours a week! If that’s the cure, the illness has to be terrible.
The stand out quote was “I’ve been through foster care and this is arguably worse”
What we have here is institutionalised violence. People may say that employees are willing sign up for this but they are being initiated into an abusive relationship by a much more powerful entity, the employer.
It’s not just the ridiculous hours, it is the abuse and disregard by the senior managers that really hurts. The response from the ‘leaders’ in the industry? ‘We all had to go through it, didn’t do us any harm’ (yeah, right), ‘Suck it up, buttercup, it’s part of the deal’. That’s pretty much the definition of institutionalised abuse (see also lawyers, doctors, management consultants).
So it’s just wrong. It’s also stupid.
These people are supposed to be doing knowledge work. Highly valuable work as well, going by what they charge. Working ridiculously long hours impairs their cognitive function and leads to poor quality output riddled with errors. Add in the environment of abuse and lack of appreciation and it’s amazing these people can function at all. In fact, they struggle to do so, at great cost to their physical and mental health. (Detail is here in this article by Dr Richard Claydon),
This is corporate bodily harm. It is literally killing people. It has to be stopped.
Our brains are shutting down
Lockdown is bad for us, the absence of novelty and surprise is damaging for our brains, as explained by Prof Richard Freidman in this Guardian article. I don’t know if you’ve noticed it getting harder to focus and to think but our brains are actually shutting down a bit.
I wonder what will happen when we get out in the world again. How will we cope? I have a feeling my first outing is going to be like going to my first children’s birthday party. I’m going to get very, very excited, have too much fizzy drink and party food, and it will end in tears as I have to go and have a lie down in a dark room until my tummy ache goes away.
Better go and find Ted and and my favourite blanket so I’m ready.
It’s still going to be great, though! Can’t wait!!