How 2020 Will Change Your Workplace
Kent R.
Meet Justin.
Justin has worked in the same department for the same company for 15 years. One of Justin’s prime – only, really – frustrations with his company has been its inability to offer remote work opportunities. As Justin moved into positions of increasing responsibility, he grew more confident in making the case for why remote work opportunities should exist for people in his department and across the company. Other tenured employees happily joined Justin in this pursuit.
Most frustrating to this collective? The company regularly put up the most predictable, easiest to reach for objection of all: Remote work simply wasn’t an option for the kinds of systems they had in place. Logistically, the company proclaimed time and time again, it just wasn’t possible. Why was that response so frustrating? Because it wasn’t true.
Fast forward to early April, 2020. Under growing societal pressure – and public health mandates – the company announced that the entire workforce would be remote. The transition took a couple of weeks but happened seamlessly. Justin and his teammates, thrilled but also dismayed that it took a global pandemic for the truth of the matter to surface, were virtually high-fiving during those initial weeks.
Fast forward to late June, 2020. Justin resigned. Why? Because the effectiveness of his department completely fell apart while working remotely. Logistically, everything was fine (as the larger workforce knew it would be). Culturally, things became a disaster.
It’s no surprise that 2020 has ushered in a new era. I would say bulldogged in a new era. Change that seemed incremental, if not nonexistent, is suddenly happening at a head-spinning pace. And, as we learned from Justin’s story, even the welcome change is not all good.
Here are 3 significant things to keep an eye on as we all adapt to the new normal.
Organizations need to figure out remote work. It’s no secret among those that know, that remote work, well, doesn’t always work. Not because it’s a bad idea, as in Justin’s case, but, rather, because it’s so poorly executed. The most common issue is that communication and a sense of culture are not properly cared for. Remote employees often cite “feeling like an island” as the biggest downfall.
In 2020, with remote work necessarily exploding, you’ll see successful organizations care for this by creating remote work programs and not simply saying, “Okay, you can work from home!” If you’re considering a remote opportunity, be sure to dig deep and ask the tough questions to ensure you are not walking into the nightmare version of what was once your dream of working from home.
Organizations need to walk the diversity and inclusion talk. Proclaiming, “We are striving to have more diverse leadership by 2030,” is so 2019. Now, in the midst of a justice and equality revolution, that’s not enough. Organizations need to put words into meaningful, immediate action rather than a platitudinal “hope” for one day and a claim that they “will do better.”
Here at The Change Laboratory, we often get asked if X company would be a “place I’d like to work.” We say: check receipts! Want to feel valued as a POC? Find out if there’s appropriate POC representation in leadership positions. Wondering if you’ll feel the love as an LGBT employee? Check receipts to see how many leaders identify as LGBT. And we’re talking right now, not the projections for 2025.
Organization need to make job requirements accurate and realistic. Here, too, is another topic that we’ve all been talking about forever. Why does company X’s entry level customer service position require a 4-year degree? Why does company X’s entry level engineering position require 8 years of equivalent experience.
Unrealistic and unfair barriers to entry need to go. Reprehensible injustice and economy-crushing levels of unemployment demand that we make it easier for all people to fairly secure employment. With Open Hiring movements on the rise, watch for decent companies to remove insane barriers to employment. You don’t want to work for a company where that’s not happening.