I've been working with a range of organizations over the past two years, / helping them determine / what their future of work should look like. // Now, / I'm not here / to make a broad statement / that remote work is / or is not universally good. // I think we're all smart enough here / to know that nothing / works all of the time. // I am, / however, / here to warn you / that we need to be wary / of our data. Let me give you a couple of examples. // Many people point / to their organization's effectiveness during COVID / as proof / that they're actually good at remote work. // Now it is proof that remote can work, / but not that it necessarily will. // COVID was a massive social experiment / with unique conditions. // Most organizations dealt with it by cutting the fat / and becoming laser-focused on / short-term efficiency. // In effect, / we were productive / because we were in survival mode. // But the question we have to ask / is whether that's sustainable. // Data shows around the world that people's working hours have increased, / and many say that they actually find it harder to delineate / work-life boundaries. // Data also shows that the experience wasn't the same for everyone. // With “The Economist” data showing that parents of school-aged children / experienced much greater stress than many others. // And data from Microsoft shows that it's actually even changing the way in which we work, / with people working more hours / but less collaboratively. // The question of whether we can effectively work remotely / needs / a contextual answer. // Contextual based on the people who are doing the work / and the tasks that they're trying to accomplish. // Remember, / one size / fits none, / and we need to think about the sustainability / of our effectiveness. // Now, / when it comes to the staffing discussion, / ask anyone who has recently been involved with hiring. // The most common question / that recruiters are being asked these days: / "What is your flexible work policy?" // In effect, / we’re facing the same escalation of perks popularized / by tech companies during the boom. // Do you have a barista pulling the perfect flat white in the lobby? // Do you have nap pods? // A ball pit? / A slide? / What about on-site daycare, / right? // So then instead of work from home, / we actually bring home / into work. // Your current or potential future employees are now weighing your hybrid work policy / as a key criteria in their decision / of where / they want to work. // And that / is the crux of this staffing challenge. // What you need to recognize / is that the comparison isn't actually between work from home / and office work. // Instead, / it's really between the perception of work from home / versus the perception of work from the office. // And you / need to reclaim that narrative. // Let me give you a couple of examples. // The first is what I call the recovered commute. // Many people have told me, / "I've saved so much time now that I don't have to commute." // My challenge to them? // What did you actually do / during your commute times? // Maybe you read, / maybe you caught up on calls or emails, / maybe you just used it as time to decompress. // Personally, / I used to get an hour to shake off a particularly rough, /annoying, / frustrating day / before I got home. // Now it takes me exactly six seconds to be immersed in my family upstairs. // Another example, / the after-meeting post-mortem debrief over a coffee, / right? // We use that to do some relationship repair, / maybe to do some collective sense-making. // The most important thing to recognize here / is that what matters most is the experience, / not just what the policy is. // We need to reclaim the narrative / to help ensure that everybody recognizes what a given approach / either buys or loses for them. //