If I may open with the biggest understatement of the decade, 2020 was a strange year. The COVID-19 pandemic shook the very foundation of how we all do business. If there was any one factor that tested who in the economy would stay afloat, it was the ability to enable an entire workforce to work from the safety of their socially-distanced homes.
2021 is starting off no differently. Though vaccinations are now underway, it will be a while yet until we can reasonably go back into offices again. The question I want to pose today is: Should we?
The Cubicle Conundrum
Did you know that the inventor of the cubicle later regretted his creation? Robert Propst was aiming to pioneer a dynamically customizable workspace when he introduced the cubicle to a rapidly modernizing world in the 1960s. The idea was to provide an intermediary option between the two extremes of individual offices and entirely-open workspaces where everyone sat along one long table. Propst’s solution provided the individual worker an enclosed space where they could hear their own phone calls and have sufficient room to work.
Unfortunately, Propst’s vision was hijacked in the name of extreme cost efficiency and the resulting cubicle became a severely minitiarized cost-savings product for cramming as many employees into one space as possible. The focus was on saving real estate costs, not empowering workers. Propst’s dream of the “Action Office” instead became the modern cubicle farm. In the words of Propst himself, “They make little, bitty cubicles and stuff people in them. Barren, rathole places”.
We tried to fix this by shifting to the open-plan office, which 70% of the workforce operate in today, but unfortunately, this only traded one set of problems for another. Ironically, open-plan offices proved to be a step backwards, re-introducing the constant noises and distractions that Propst was trying to remedy in the 60’s. The 2020 pandemic exposed just how severely unhealthy these packed-in open spaces truly are.
Why has the challenge of best positioning employees within an office building plagued us so consistently over nearly half a century? I think 2020 gave us a hint and shined a light on Propst’s “barren, rathole places”.
Trust is Empowerment
Many years ago, when remote work was first coming into vogue, the tech corporation I worked for at the time allowed employees to work remotely “at manager’s discretion”, not long after which my team’s manager revoked the option, demanding everyone be in the office every workday. I remember his justification was, to paraphrase, “How will I know you’re working if I can’t see you?” We stayed onsite while he stayed hidden in his office behind a closed door (when he wasn’t working from home).
Some years later, another big tech company I worked for had a very flexible remote work policy. My team’s manager was of the opinion that it didn’t matter where we worked, as long as the work was done (and done well). We were inspired to work well, supported, treated as valued team members, and as a result, we all put in our 200%, whether in the office or remote.
If you don’t trust your employees to do their work when you’re not looking, then why employ them? You cannot have an all-star team — in the office or not — if the team isn’t made up of people you trust to get the job done. If your team knows you trust them, that trust is empowering, and your A-team employees will work all the more diligently.
Granted, there is the occasional slacker who goofs off entirely during their work-from-home days. But that minority will find ways to goof off just as often when in the office, despite the supposedly watchful eyes of management. Put simply: If you can’t trust them working remotely, you can’t trust them in the office. That’s a bigger problem.
Major Capital Savings
Perhaps one of the strangest rebuttals I’ve heard from a past employer was something down the lines of “how will we justify the office space we have if everyone is working remotely?”
Exactly. That’s the point.
That struck me as an especially bizarre putting-the-carriage-before-the-horse sort of argument, but it was indicative of how deeply ingrained the supposed need for office space is among our society. Following that logic, we do not need an office for employees; we need employees to fill an office. This is not the kind of thinking that survives technology advancements.
In February of 2020, Forbes noted that organizations supporting teleworkers experienced an average of 21% increased profitability. Imagine how much capital can be saved if real estate is reduced to house only those who truly need to be in the office. Smaller offices and fewer locations mean capital freed up for bigger and better ventures. That’s not only good for employees; it’s good for management and it’s ultimately good for shareholders.
Coming Up Next
There is plenty more to say on this topic. Next time, in Part II, we’ll take a look into how this trend can help widen the pool of talent you hire from, what a remote world means in terms of cyber security, and what benefits await those who need or prefer to return to office life.
