It turns out, old habits die hard. In a survey sponsored by firms Qatalog and GitLab, researchers have discovered remote workers are still maintaining the “look busy” practices they did in the office. When not in the office, this looks like waiting to send emails at specific times so people think you’re working and attending Zoom meetings you know will not be productive just so you will be seen.
This has been labeled productivity theater and the study indicated that the average person wastes 67 minutes per day doing it. As much as 80% of remote workers say they are more productive than working in the office, yet they are still concerned with appearances. What a drain on time and mental energy!
So, how it this to be handled? Surveys indicate most managers don’t believe that remote workers are as productive as they would be in the office. So, the thought of simply saying to the team, “Work when you want to and the way you want,” is something that would probably scare most managers to death. After all, it implies that they have no control.
But this belief among management has fostered a belief among those they supervise that if you don’t look busy, the boss will get suspicious. It has placed employees in the untenable position of trying to work efficiently while trying to look busy.
When I work with managers, I emphasize three principles for leading in today’s workplace – Flexibility, Collaboration and trust. The truth is that flexibility has become one of the new watchwords in today’s business environment, whether you embrace it or it is forced on you. That barndoor has been opened on this, never to be closed again. The smart managers are also collaborating with their team on schedules, the way work is done, and the shared burden of getting it all completed. When these two principles are in place, trust thrives.
Most businesses are built around a top-down hierarchy, which results in an ethos of command and control. The events of past two years have challenged this long-held way of leading organizations. The people who work for you feel empowered now, more than they have ever before. Sometimes they’re not quite sure what this empowerment looks like. But they know that they don’t want to go back to pre-pandemic routines. Rather than trying to get that genie back in the bottle, let’s welcome this new collaborative way of getting the job done.