Exactly 18 months ago on March 16, 2020, I left the office around Noon with a 24” HP Monitor, a docking station, and a collection of cords in my car. The Friday before, word was beginning to circulate that we might be sent home for an undefined period of time and by halfway through Monday, we were instructed to collect whatever items we needed to complete our work and to head home.
Never did I anticipate that working from my living room would be anything but a dayslong adventure. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Fast forward to 2021, and there was still no return to the office in sight.
At the end of July, I took an opportunity at a new firm where employees were a couple of weeks into splitting time between being back in the office and working from home. Despite my new preference of no commute and midday exercise breaks, it seemed only right that I would want to meet folks and get a sense for the new culture. After all, I had seen how new hires in my previous role fared when it came to learning the job, meeting colleagues, and establishing themselves. Some started and quit in the span of less than a year!
What I’ve experienced in the last month and a half working every other day in the office is, well, not what I expected…
My new boss works out of Ohio, his boss works in the United Kingdom, her boss works in N.Y.C., and her boss works in Washington, D.C. Stated plainly, no one in my chain of command works in my location. My colleagues are also spread out which means that there aren’t many people to interact with!
Now, this is unsurprising given that it is one of the largest companies in the world. My point in stating all of this is not to complain (the company is great), but rather, to offer a lens into some of the potential issues and headwinds facing corporations.
Leadership Lessons
- A return-to-the-office plan is most effective when management and staff are centrally located (only really an issue for big multinationals).
- When teams do return, the cadence of any split time should be based on geography, not by business unit. For example, if one team reports to the office every other day while the rest of the teams in the location are one week on and one week off, there won’t be very many people to see in person.
- Build Zoom rooms (again, large company problems) where employees can go when they need to join a meeting with others from a different location. It’s highly distracting to be in a meeting on Zoom where you hear that person over the Zoom call and in the cube next to you in real life.
Coming out of corporate America’s COVID hibernation was never going to be easy, and it’s especially unique for the millions of Americans changing jobs right now. My advice to you all…continue to expect the unexpected!
Share some of your experiences by commenting below or on social media.