The Boys Are Back In Town
Some guys in Corporate Real Estate put up a little meme of three white guys in an office laughing, with the comment “The reaction when people tell us it’s better working from home 🤣 🤣 🤣”
I think they expected everyone to think “LOLs! Look at those cheeky little scamps!”.
To be fair, there were quite a few who did but there was also some pushback (the hashtag #getbacktowork being singled out as particularly insulting).
I pointed out that this was rather insensitive to all those people for whom the office was a less-than-perfect environment, such as women, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, ethnic minorities, those with caring responsibilities, those who couldn’t afford to live within a reasonable commute - you know, everyone except middle-class, well-to-do white dudes, as shown in the picture.
I’m repeating it here because they deleted my comment. Twice.
Apparently, I shouldn’t be posting about race, culture or gender when they’re talking about office space. It’s offensive, off-topic and irrelevant.
Really?
Because I think issues of race, culture and gender are absolutely central to the debate about the future of work and what office need to be like in the future.
I believe that the future of work is not about flexibility, or even diversity, it’s really about inclusion. Making work safe, meaningful and rewarding for everyone. Not just middle-class white dudes.
And that includes office space. Especially office space.
That’s the prize we must aim for.
Planet of the Apes
What has become clear through COVID is just how dysfunctional the office had become. It was pretty much an ideal environment for white, middle-class, extrovert men. Even better if they are alpha-males.
Lots of strutting about, preening, play-fighting (got to love a bit of ‘bants’, right?), posturing, jockeying for position, being performatively busy, talking loudly and at length. It’s really an arena for the fight for dominance.
And it’s really crap as a place to get work done, especially the focused work that has become the majority of what a knowledge worker does. Full of distraction and interruption.
Even as a white, middle-class man myself, I was not always at ease in the office. In fact, there were times when I felt physically threatened. God know what it must be like for women, ethnic minorities and all the other non-white dudes.
I think we kind of knew things had got bad but the distance that COVID has given us has shown it was much worse than we thought.
So now we know we can do better. Both by allowing people to choose where and when they work, so that it suits them and the work they are doing; and also by creating shared spaces where everyone does feel safe and included when they are in them.
I wonder if this has got anything to do with the Bro’s wanting to get back to the office?
Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves
Not even I know how all this stuff is going to knit together before I start this newsletter.
I was going to make a point about how conference line-ups are often full of white men, something my mate Bernie Mitchell has been making a fuss about for ages (see his LinkedIN rant that starts “So the #futureofwork is white men?” for some links and suggestions on how to change it).
And then I came across another post from Bernie about Mary Portas’ book “Work like a Woman”, in which she says “I set up my own business because the alpha culture was not working for me”. Well, I’ll tell you what Mary, it wasn’t working for some of us white blokes either! Mary points out that ‘alpha-ness’ blocks creativity and growth. Seems it doesn’t even work for the businesses.
In the comments was a reference to another book, ‘Brotopia’ by Emily Chang, in which she explores how the male-dominated, work-at-all costs culture of Silicon Valley has shut women out of the greatest wealth creation in history.
And earlier today, I read a post from a woman who said she was fed-up reading business books written by men and asking for recommendations for those written by women. There aren’t many. Check your bookshelf out. If it wasn't for Brene Brown, mine would be predominantly male.
Some time ago, Tom Peters was pointing to a study into the attributes required for Leadership in the future. Of the 44 listed, women were better than men in 42. At that time, over 50% of new businesses in the US were being founded by women. Tom concluded that the future was going to belong to women.
Well, clearly, we’re not there yet (you don’t get rid of the Patriarchy that easily, sister!). But if organisations don’t get women into leadership roles, they are going to suffer. And if we don’t make sure their voices are heard and they are fully represented in the debate, society will suffer too. We need to make a change and us blokes have to advocate it as loudly as anyone else.
Meanwhile, the kids are just getting on with it. Malala and Greta Thunberg are the most well-known but behind them are many young women just getting on with making their voices heard and bringing about change.
It’s Oh So Quiet
As we move to a more distributed workforce and more asynchronous ways of working, one of the key skills is going to be written communication. The ability to be able to write clearly and succinctly, to express cogent and coherent arguments in an easily understood way, is going to be highly valued.
As opposed to the ability to dominate the conversation by speaking loudly and with certainty. Or the ability to impose your physical presence on others. Or to ‘look the part’.
Working from Home has been a boon for introverts. Equal prescence and air time on Zoom, without being talked over or down. Time to think, reflect and gather their thoughts. The ability to step away and recharge when they need to.
And now, one of their signature skills, written communication, is going to be front and centre.
Maybe the future of work isn’t about flexibility. Or diversity, equality and inclusion.
Maybe it’s just about the revenge of the introverts.