Making room for both quick and deep thinkers will yield the best ideas and results. Is your workplace a space where deep thinkers can take time and come back to ideas and discussions? If not, there’s some valuable insight that isn’t being shared with you.
That’s a shame.
Have employees given up on trying to change the workplace? If that many people don’t bother to speak up, that’s a condemnation of workplace culture. We all say we want engaged employees, yet many of them are disengaged to the point of not bothering to try to make a difference.
I stopped my quote at that word “intentional” for a reason. I use that word often in this context. Whether you have teammates who are fully remote, hybrid, or just located in a different office from you, everything needs to be done intentionally. Communication, meetings, goals, expectations, etc., all need to be purposely set. If you want your team to feel free to disconnect after hours or on weekends, then you have to do that intentionally. If you allow work to creep into every hour of every day, or get lazy about communication, or demand an immediate response to an email late at night, even one time, you set the example that your team follows.
There are so many more interesting things we could be talking about. Yes, we are all here to connect and learn from each other about our work, but it doesn’t have to be the beginning and end of every conversation. Maybe instead of “what do you do,” I’m going to start asking folks what one thing they have learned this week that has them most excited? No offense to your job, but that conversation is going to be more interesting, in my humble opinion.
What have you learned this week?
Yes, it’s a dumb question that creates bias and other problems in the hiring process. On the other hand, when you need a job, you need a job. If mentioning something in response to the “outside of work” question creates an interest or connection with the interviewer, it’s to your advantage to do it.
College football is maybe the most white, upper-middle-class version of that. There are others. (Travel, outdoor activities, etc.) We should live in a world where all employers are working to remove this kind of bias from hiring, but we do not live in that world. The one we live in grants an advantage to the job seeker who can find a common interest with the interviewer. You might as well do some research on the people you’re going to be meeting with and turn this bias to your advantage if you can.
I am likely very much in the minority in working this way. That’s OK. My point is that remote work should be flexible. Find what works for you that allows you to meet the job requirements and provides balance to your days. That’s the whole point.