The Off-Site Is the New Return to the Office

The Off-Site Is the New Return to the Office

Click the link above to read the full article.

Author Chip Cutter, is a reporter covering workplace, management and leadership issues in The Wall Street Journal's corporate bureau in New York.  

Many of our client conversations over the last several months have revolved around what their working environment looks like and how their companies are handling potential return to work protocols. In our own industry, annual conferences seem to be a thing of the past and have been replaced with Zoom conference calls. Saves money, saves time, but I think we lose one of the major benefits of these conferences and that is being around friends and fellow professionals in your field. These conferences were all about networking after the presentations. Having lunch, grabbing a drink with colleagues you had not seen in the past few months to get a pulse of what they are hearing, thinking, etc. You don't run into someone at lunch during a Zoom conference call.

Nearly two years after the pandemic sent many white-collar professionals home, bosses are eager to reconvene employees, hoping that in-person interactions will spark new ideas and help to lessen feelings of isolation and Zoom fatigue as Covid-19 drags on. The challenge is figuring out where and how to gather.

A couple of important points above, those in-person interactions often spark new ideas, re-energize employees, build and solidify relationships. There is certainly a mix of introverts and extroverts in the world, and the isolation aspect is real. Some people do thrive off engagement, conversation and energy of a room filled with people.

“Even the people who, at the beginning of the pandemic, couldn’t wait to get into the office, and couldn’t wait to see their colleagues on a three-day, four-day, five-day-a-week basis, I think even their behavior has changed,” Mr. Colis said. “Just being able to do an amazing job and wear sweatpants is a difficult value proposition” to give up, he said.

On the flip side, this is maybe even more important. The ability to still do your job and wear sweatpants. Tough to beat for some. The working from home efficiency differs between people. Just like anything, some maybe more efficient and able to do a better job and some people may get more distracted working from home, I don't think there is one right answer here.

“The No. 1 danger to Salesforce and other companies is that people are going to become disengaged in the culture of the company,” Mr. Hyder said, one reason his team set a commitment to meet face-to-face once a quarter.

Corporate culture can be a big selling point when hiring talent. Many companies pride themselves and pitch their culture as a competitive advantage over others. Hard to maintain that culture when employees are working from home and interacting on Zoom calls.

One thing not mentioned in the article is the Metaverse! Something that we are reading more about here. If you have had a Zoom call with CJ and Jerry, you know we prefer to meet in person, safely of course, to a Zoom call. And if you know Jerry, you can imagine what he thinks about the idea of a virtual reality, metaverse meeting! 

The article linked and mentioned above was published February 5, 2022 and written by Chip Cutter. You can follow his reporting at The Wall Street Journal.

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