Social vs physical connections
You know me and my mild obsession with the nature of work and trying to puzzle out why some people insist on doing the absolute most mind-bendingly stupid thing which is to force every single working person to work in exactly the same way regardless of what they do or who they are?
Well.
Six months ago (I know; I’ve been busy OK?) Statistics Canada released the result of research that shows the proportion of Canadian workers primarily toiling from home has risen from 7.1% in 2016 to 24.3% in 2021. In May 2023 it was down a bit to 20.1%.
The context is important, as not every job can be done remotely. According to StatsCan, it’s roughly 40% of Canadian jobs that can be done from anywhere, but it varies greatly across regions and all manner of socio-economic situations. By and large, it’s people with office jobs who can work remotely the most. Creatives, too.
Some weirdos worry that working from home means slacking off in front of the TV all day. Perhaps they’re projecting a little bit. More likely they lack imagination. In any case, here’s some actual data about that: “In February 2021, 90% of new teleworkers – employees who usually worked outside the home before the COVID-19 pandemic but worked most of their hours at home during the LFS [labour force survey] reference week – reporting accomplishing at least as much work her hour at home as they did in the office.”
StatsCan notes that it’s unclear the extent to which employers’ views on this align with employees’ but it adds that views on productivity vary greatly across industries, regions, etc.
There’s a bunch of interesting data in that StatsCan research paper that I encourage interested readers to peruse, especially when it comes to reduced commuting and its impact on emissions, and also time savings for so many Canadians who are better at balancing their work life with everything else when they are masters of their own schedules.
More recently, a column in the Toronto Star references a study that shows social connections — essentially how well you know and trust your colleagues — are as effective if not more than physical proximity in fostering good communications and efficient team work.
The study conducted a quasi-natural experiment with a global pharmaceutical firm, which relocated two regional offices. This relocation provided a unique opportunity to measure interpersonal physical distances and social networks before and after the move. The findings were revealing: social proximity, in the form of affective closeness and network cohesion, mediated the effects of physical proximity on collaboration effectiveness. Employees who maintained strong social ties with their colleagues, characterized by frequent communication and mutual trust, were able to collaborate effectively regardless of physical distance. This suggests that fostering affective closeness and cohesive social networks can substitute for the benefits traditionally attributed to physical proximity.
I am so completely not an expert on team work, but I am an expert in getting shit done regardless of location. I’ve done some of my best work on planes, in cars, in coffee shops, on the bus, at a friend’s, while jogging (I do look really cool when I stop to tap an important insight on my phone, all sweaty and gross and totally lost in my thing), and even, on a few occasions, in an office. My couch is my favourite writing desk, and I don’t care what anyone thinks about that.
I’m an expert on how I work best but also on trust and relationships. When someone needs to micro-manage the way other people work it means they do not at all trust their own ability to create an environment where professionals feel they can bring their best selves and forge real connections and mutual respect with their co-workers.
Old habits are hard to break and for too many people, in my not-at-all humble opinion, the insecurity related to managing workers in front of whose face they’re not brings on too much stress with which they can’t cope so they revert to whatever feels safe. I have argued and will continue to say until my ears turn purple that this sort of behaviour makes them poorer as an employer because it turns off the best, most creative and most skilled workers from contributing their best to shared endeavours. That’s because the best and most creative workers thrive on real social connections, including trust, and profoundly dislike pointless, rigid, one-size-fits-all rules.
By insisting on pointless, rigid, one-size-fits-all rules anyway, insecure managers wind up filtering out the best and end up with unimaginative, obedient, not especially motivated or skilled people who will never challenge anyone but never have an original idea either.
Like everything else in life, it’s a choice that comes with consequences. In the immortal words of the dusty old knight in the third Indiana Jones movie, you must choose wisely.
