That "I don't like Mondays" who sang The Boomtown Rats, the-band of Bob Geldof, never would have existed if the pandemic of coronavirus had spread all over the world in the summer of 1979 (the year of his musical success), as the global experiment of telework. Those were other times when glosaba the laziness that comes with having to go to the office, especially on the first day of the week.

And these are different times now, when the possibilities offered by the hybrid models are changing our working lives-and the staff, by the way-the way they work and interact with chiefs and colleagues from office.

Each Wednesday to become the new Monday may not be a drama, or news of the year, but it demonstrates that our work life has been a shift that even we find it difficult to calibrate.

The guilt -or part of it - you have it, how not to, a new study, this time from the University of Stanford, led by Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, who in may of 2020, said that "we are at home working with our kids in unsuitable venues, without options and without days in the office. This will create a disaster of productivity for companies."

Bloom is an expert in remote work and how companies plan to let the employees decide for themselves what days they are going to work at home, either individually or in a team.

On Wednesday, as the problem...

The Stanford computer has been surveying more than 30,000 professionals from may 2020. When asked about the preferences back to the office, 32% answered that I wanted to work at home five days a week; and the rest, something less than half, said that he hoped to work in the office between one and four days a week.

The idea of choosing one day of the week to take a distance is not new. Olga Sanchéz, CEO of Axa, was convinced that taking the time to think is what you could give it the needed strength to lead your company. Chose on Thursday to disconnect, with the clear conviction that "to advance, it is necessary to stop".

In the case of the computer Bloom at Stanford University, the research work is complicated a little more, when the researchers decided to expand the survey and ask what two days I would choose the people if you could work from home a couple of times a week. It seemed evident that a large majority (64%) would choose Friday as one of his days of working from home, followed by the Monday, with a 56%. Why is the Wednesday, may become the new Monday? Because only 18% supported the work from home that day.

The Stanford study concludes that let the people choose to you could quickly turn into a logistical nightmare, with offices in nearly empty on Friday and filled to overflowing capacity, Wednesday. That fateful day...

There is an added problem:if 82% of the employers are going to the office Wednesday -mostly because it will have more choice that will have consequences in terms of social distancing.

The ‘problem’ of the meetings

It does not stop there, the team of Bloom, posed in their investigation, the problem of the meetings becoming more and more common in the part of the participants are at the headquarters of the company and the other party binds remotely.

The Stanford study recalls that "some companies have decided to address this problem by making all join the meeting from their laptop computers, wherever they are. The issue is that if the topic of the meeting has a certain importance or is controversial, the participants who are in the work place can continue the conversation at the end, while those that have joined together from home are out of this possibility."

It is one more example of how the relationships changed in a hybrid model that combines employee face-to-face and remote. The survey Work Future of LinkedIn shows that 65% of workers recognises that it's going to feel "very" or "fairly" deshabituado to life in the office, being aware, also, that for 7 out of 10 the social distancing has impacted negatively on the relationship with the rest of the companions, despite the facilities of communication that digitalisation brings.

With the pandemic we have developed new models of work that have led to more innovation, flexibility and integration of professional and personal life. As a result, the study of LinkedIn explains that, in one way or another, routines, work habits, and relationships have changed. Spend the day with other people (31%), and socializing in the workplace (37%), talking with peers (27%), wear the right clothes (26%), or make in-person presentations (25%) top the list of situations that concern to professionals, and you will have to re-familiarize yourself.

And now that we're days you preferred to work at home or come to the office, you must remember that before the pandemic is being handled theories about the day -even the hour - ideal for the convening of a meeting to be effective and productive.

Since it has long been clear that the unnecessary meetings and unproductive are one of the main factors that cause loss of time at work, along with the emails totally dispensable and Power Point eternal. However, despite this security about the thieves of time, the meetings have not always been adequately prepared, neither before nor now, in a new hybrid environment.

Rarely clarifies its purpose; it does not establish clear objectives; nor is it known what you want exactly and what information should go all the attendees. Clear Agenda, and strict enforcement of the hours of beginning and end are the keys. Before the pandemic, some theories have posted on Tuesday, just after eating, as the ideal time for a meeting.

Monday and Friday -favorite day to work from home in the new situation, according to the Stanford study - were considered prior to the pandemic as the worst for a meeting before, among other things because both days tend to be used as an extension of the weekend, and use them implies that you can miss some member of the team.

As of Tuesday, at four in the afternoon is because whether to convene a meeting at 9 in the morning, the participants will have to prepare for it the day before, or come without having prepared adequately. In a meeting convened at 9 in the morning, only one out of every three is prone to take advantage of the time.

In the late hours of the evening, people are more likely to be pending the end of the meeting to leave home. And a meeting at the last minute is always harmful, not fosters the motivation and enthusiasm.

Some experts are hesitant with the theory of the punctuality of the trains francs: it is to set hours very accurate for the duration of the meetings, such as "10:12 hours 10:36 hours". It serves as a warning and predisposes to the attendees to take advantage of the time.

The dilemma of the equity

The research of Bloom and his team of Stanford University, adds that the people who work remotely full-time or most of the time, are much less likely to be promoted or to be favoured by a promotion to his colleagues who work at the headquarters of the company.

The fact that organizations rarely promoted to positions of greater responsibility to those who are not in the office, and those who can't measure conveniently has always been one of the factors that held back those who were raised to work in remote before the pandemic and the global experiment of telework caused by the coronavirus.

The traditional distrust of many heads to telework, or certain formulas flexible, always have diminished the chances of ascending of those who were welcomed to these patterns of activity.

All of this has to do with the most rancid theories about presenteeism and with the fact that certain organizations have valued ever since the much more that the true productivity. The wave inevitable of confidence in employees that has been extended with the experimeto world of telework has swept much of the obsession to be and not to be done really.

The Stanford study also focuses on an issue of equity that has to do with the fact that "in most of the companies not everyone can work remotely". Bloom explains that "only half of the employees surveyed were working from home due to the Covid-19. Those who could not work from home have had a pandemic quite serious, and as businesses re-open, the employees are also lost the advantage of working from home".

Before, work in remote affected only the few that were out. But now it also impacts on those who are in person at the headquarters of the company, and that they must learn to work with people (colleagues, but also bosses) that is in their house.

The expert of the Stanford recommends that companies compensate their employees are stuck in the office with additional money. Research shows that employees value the ability to work at home in about 6 to 8 percent of their salaries, and Bloom believes that a bonus of 5% or more it makes sense for employees who do not have the option of working from home, as a kind of compensation.

It seems obvious that we walk towards a new model of organization based on the project management, in which the heads that are only for control as it will not be necessary. The micromanagement is no longer working in organizations, and is the opposite of confidence.

It is advisable to resolve the dilemmas that leads to the fact that it is not possible to associate the need to physically see the people at work to the availability that may have these professionals, and the new situation in which we live brings us to interact always with people who will be out of the office. In addition, we will have to be able to work with people who are not close physically, even in other countries, which expands the scope of our professional relationship and makes the computers are increasingly diverse.

Source:

Community RH | https://www.comunidad-rh.com | The Management portal for People of Latin america.