The future of office work: Difference between revisions

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 Covid lead broadly to two conclusions. The first was the [[thought leader]]’s, and it is basically [[This time it’s different|this time is different]]: the scales have now fallen from our eyes, we are no longer in the 1960s and even though we can now leave our homes without being arrested, a diverse and dynamic economy of gig-working, side-hustling cosmopolitan  youngsters will ''require'' flexibility so, since we now ''know'' the business can manage it — right? — there is no reason flexible working should not become a fact of commercial life.
-The other is the Man’s, and it is, “get back the the office, you punks”. With a twist: the Man teetered for a while between that — “these good-for-naught [[Meatware|meatsack]]s are in their goddamn ''pajamas'' and I’m not having ''that'' on my dime” but the COO got fidgety and said “hold on, Clive, we can sublet half the office and slash our IT bill if these clowns work remotely on their own PCs let’s just think about it for a bit” — so they compromised by cutting office space ''and'' making everyone come back to work.
+The other is [[The Man]]’s, and it is, “get back the the office, you punks”. With a twist: [[The Man]] teetered for a while between that — you know, “these good-for-naught [[Meatware|meatsack]]s are in their goddamn ''pajamas'' and I’m not having ''that'' on my dime”, but the [[COO]] got fidgety and said “hold on, Clive, we can sublet half the office footprint and slash our [[IT]] bill if these clowns work remotely on their own PCs so let’s just think about it for a bit” — so they compromised by cutting office space ''and'' making everyone come back to work.
-Which is right? Well, neither, naturally, for the reasons stated, but the Man is on the right side of history in terms of how things will play out. For a few reasons, but mainly because, as ever, [[This time it’s different|this time ''isn’t'' different]].
+Which is right? Well, neither, naturally, for the reasons stated, but the JC reluctantly senses that [[The Man]] is on the right side of history. For a few reasons — none being the ones [[The Man]] ''thinks'' are the right reasons — but because, as ever, [[This time it’s different|this time ''isn’t'' different]].
+The JC sides with the evil empire in few cases — except where it disagrees with [[libtards]]. [[South Park Republican]]ism refers.
+As to why, we offer the following.
 ===It isn’t COVID any more===
-It is true that working from home during COVID was, for professional office working types, a revelation and an overwhelming success. By some measures productivity ''rose'', at least in the early phases, but we should not close the case on this account. COVID was a weird, ''sui generis'' time.
+Working from home during COVID was, for white collar professional working types of a certain advanced age, a revelation. Generally, it was an overwhelming, unexpected, success: by some measures, productivity ''rose'' during lockdown, at least in the early phases, but we should not close the case on this account. COVID was a weird, ''[[sui generis]]'' time. For many reasons.
-Firstly, away from work, there was absolutely nothing else to do bar listening to podcasts while walking around the prison perimeter at a safe distance from your immediate family. No wonder people threw themselves into work.
+Firstly, away from work, there was ''nothing else to do'', bar listening to podcasts whilst pacing the  perimeter at a safe distance from relatives and other humans. No wonder people threw themselves into work.
-Secondly, all those informal interactions and interludes of unofficial humanity — you know, ''distractions'' — that are a inevitable but regretted consequence of sequestering humans in an air-conditioned battery farm were suddenly cut off. There, as everyone was isolated in a form of solitary confinement, there were no “watercooler moments”, no ''sotto voce'' carping about the boss, no exchanges of views about last night’s ''Celebrity Love Island'' — so people kind of just got on with it.
+Secondly, all those casual workplace interactions & interludes of unofficial humanity — you know, ''distractions'' — that are an inevitable but yet regretted [[externality]] of sequestering humans in glorified air-conditioned battery farms were ''abruptly cut off''. There, as everyone was isolated in a form of solitary confinement, there were no “watercooler moments”, no ''sotto voce'' carping about the boss, no exchanges of views about last night’s ''Celebrity Love Island'' — so people kind of just got on with it.
 Thirdly, when they did, they found, to their delight, it was not just they who were  discombobulated. Middle management was too. The bureaucrats took a while to adapt — to find people’s time to waste. Suddenly, the calendar was mainly bereft of all those opcos, steercos, stakeholder check-ins, line manager one-to-ones. Weirdly, even [[All-hands conference call|online meetings]] that could have gone ahead got cancelled.  So the meatware had the time, space and lack of distraction to get on with things. As lockdown continued the  middle management military industrial complex got its act together and the bureaucracy levels returned, but never quite got back to once they were. something about physical separation makes them harder to avoid, and even if the weekly operational robustness legal and compliance workstream catchup goes online ''it is a lot easier to multi-task on Zoom''.