Future of Work Roundup: May 17th

This week’s Future of Work Roundup includes the day most people go into the office (if they’re going in at all), plus why you need to have the right tools to make hybrid work work for you.

The most popular day to be in the office is…

… not Monday. According to data from Kastle Systems, a security firm that monitors access-card swipes, folks like to put on a cute outfit and get out into the world on a Wednesday.

Gotta love Hump Day.

• Yes, and for so many reasons. We eliminate our Sunday scaries by staying home Mondays (and, hey, throw in Tuesday while you’re at it), Thursday is basically Friday, and Friday is, well, Friday. So breaking up the week right there in the middle makes sense for most people.

The bottom line: Understanding the rhythms of people’s preferred schedules means we can better maximize our time (and meetings) when we are in-person.

Source: Wall Street Journal

True hybrid work means you shouldn’t force your employees into the office at all

Just for a moment, imagine: a world where the intelligent adults that businesses hired were trusted to know when they work best.

Friendly reminder: we all WFH for, like, two years and everything was mostly fine.

• Case in point: Apple’s recent return to work policy uproar and subsequent employee backlash. This ordeal left many big businesses to reconsider their tight grip around forced in-office schedules, in order to keep their teams around and happy.

The bottom line: Hybrid work should be truly flexible, meaning individuals should be tasked with understanding and deciding how they work best.

Source: Quartz

Asynchronous comms is the future of remote work

We’re starting to get the hang of this hybrid work thing, but there are still several ways orgs can do it better – like having the right tools for everyone to work effectively no matter what time zone they’re in.

Sounds like our systems need a little spring cleaning.

• Teams need to evaluate the tools and systems in their stack, and decide what can go, what can be better utilized, and where they need to fill in the gaps. 
• More often than not, they are missing comms that allow for people to work asynchronously, like having the ability to watch meetings on-demand or use shared documents so people can more easily collaborate.

The bottom line: It’s not 2020 anymore. Businesses need to invest in tech that will allow for their teams to thrive no matter where in the world they are.

Source: Harvard Business Review