Altered states – a “flexible” workforce trapped between two dimensions

This moment was inevitable.

Before COVID-19 we had a workforce ripe for change and quietly rumbling with discontent.

Suddenly the pandemic blasted open the gates and there was a running-of-the-bulls rampage towards flexibility, location freedom-of-choice and forced employee trust.

The requirement to mask, sanitise and isolate fast-forwarded us to a different world of home-based working. Offices became empty chambers with tumbling tumbleweed. And everyone rejoiced.

Well maybe not everyone.

Fast forward to 2023 and the idyllic picture of the new world of work is becoming more abstract.

Many companies are pushing at varying levels of intensity to nudge, coerce and even rigorously push their knowledge workers back into the office. Some are mandating it.

In some quarters, the ultra-flexible workplace is looking like a dream from which everyone has now woken.

More typically, workers are feeling a little stuck in the middle of two dimensions. On one level, they like the idea of being back among colleagues and getting the socialisation, collaboration and subtle, continuous learning that comes with that.

On the other hand, they are quietly terrified of losing the advantages of flexibility that felt like a Lotto win after years of being trapped in an over-rigid employment system. It could all so easily be lost and become a historical mutation rather than a quantum transformation.

I cannot speak for all cities, but the anecdotal evidence suggests that people are returning to workplaces in big numbers. Peak hour is back, and events are popular and plentiful. My once empty train carriage is full.

I am hearing lots of people say that they now feel the need to ask permission to work from home or break up their day to pick up children or deal with life administration needs. The assumed permission to pick your work location and work-hours span may be subsiding.

For employers, the jury remains out on the upsides of super-flexibility verses the inevitable downsides. It may well be a 50-50 or 60-40 proposition. Tough call.

I heard one very senior CEO in a creative industry observe in recent weeks that the past three years had produced the lowest amount of creative innovation in his 30-year career. He put this down to reduced collaboration and collective ideation.

I have also spoken to plenty of company chiefs who reduced their office space during the pandemic and are now wondering if they moved too soon.

Many companies have locked in anchor days (or compulsory office days) but that can create challenges as everyone battles for meeting rooms and coffee machines, or even desks when there is no longer a “nest” for every worker.

The other wildcard in the pack is the global competition for talent in many industries. Employees with high demand skills have a lot of bargaining power. For many, flexibility will be a non-negotiable.

Ultimately it will not be a choice between the old way and the pandemic way. We need to create a new way that recognises the broader social merit of better ways of working without sacrificing the clear upsides of human connectivity.

To me, on any workday you should work at a location that makes sense for what you have to achieve. This includes what you need to achieve in your personal life.

I have found that people perform best (and cope well with work) when they can integrate their lives seamlessly into their work and they feel empowered to do that. Most humans reward trust with dedication and loyalty.

The two dimensions are still in a fractious amalgamation. There will be quite a few more sparks before the universe finds a new equilibrium.

Shane Rodgers is the author of Worknado – Reimaging the way you work to live.