How Can We Learn from Working from Home?
Make a guess, what is the acronym of the month? It is arguably one of the hottest buzzwords around given the state of the coronavirus. It starts with W and ends with H. WYH? Wash Your Hands? Close! But no. Here is a pat on your back. Oops. It is — cues mini drum rolls-WFH! WFH, short for Work From Home, has been spreading across the globe like, yeah you get it. Unless there is a need for you to work at a specific site or with a specific someone, there is a high chance you’ve experienced working from home by now. Say goodbye to exerting energy in being a functioning, sociable human being who grins politely at jokes that your colleagues made. Instead, you can now HAHAHA and LOL your way through and be equally accepted and loved by them. Less effort, same impact — a concept that some traditional bosses and companies may not necessarily embrace given how “things usually work this way.”
It is the internal struggle between “I want to see you work” versus “I want to see your work.”
If I’m not going for a pitch or meeting a client, does it matter that I’m in my favourite Spongebob pyjamas with bed hair doing up a proposal deck at home to be submitted to you by the end of the day? Do I really need to wake up an hour earlier to dress appropriately, perhaps in some constrictive business attire, and pack myself with other sardines on my morning commute to office? I believe Michael Jordan has an answer to these questions. Among many of the things that individuals disagree on, it is safe to assume that the biggest divide would be between Dennis Rodman and Michael Jordan. Michael has an insane work ethic when it comes to basketball. On the other hand, Dennis Rodman has an insane, if I may, play ethic. Michael would practise and work out hard across all seasons. In contrast, Dennis would work out hard as well, and play even harder. To put in comparison, Michael would have a good rest before a game, whereas Dennis would fly to Las Vegas for a good night of party before flying back for the same game. Two individuals, two different processes, three championships together. The reason?
Common goal is what keeps people on the same page. It is essentially the idea of — “I don’t care what you do as long as we win the title.”
It isn’t easy, and I believe the best way to sum this relationship up, whether it is between Michael and Dennis or your manager and you, would be that trust goes both ways. If there is little to no trust, our system would be very much like the panopticon. English philosopher (Ha!) Jeremy Bentham designed this institutional building, commonly known as the panopticon, where all prisoners can be observed by a single security guard positioned right in the middle. The design of the institution was brilliant as the inmates cannot tell whether they are being watched or not. They just feel that way. Even though it is physically impossible for one lone individual to observe all the inmates’ cell at every given moment, the feeling of being watched effectively regulates the inmates’ behaviour.
Let’s think about our office setting right now.
Where is the prison and who are the prisoners? We use a ruler to measure the distinct distance marking of an object, but what do we use to measure a ruler? In other words, if productivity is so highly sought after, what is the success metric of a good employee? What is a success metric of a happy employee? More importantly, do these two metrics complement or contrast each other? As counterproductive it is to assign a value onto something as intangible as culture and trust, I believe it is very similar to the take we have when it comes to the extent of how much our girlfriend can interact with her boy friends. Some of us forbid any unnecessary forms of contact of our partner with the opposite sex, and we say things like — “Cannot be she already have me, and she still needs to talk to some other guy right?” Some of us exercise reasoning and encourage some form of contact of our partner with the opposite sex, and we say things like — “Cannot be she don’t talk to her guy friends other than me right?” Some of us commit to trust and say things like — “I trust that he knows what he is doing.” We need to bear in mind that every one of us has different limits to our cannot be, and until we find and understand our common goal, we’ll always live in an environment filled with fear and insecurity.
