Another week, another ‘Wave’ ???

5 news items from the world of work and workplace that you can digest in 5 minutes.

This week:

1. Remote work levels flatline at 5x those of 2019?
2. Employers are using personality tests to navigate hybrid work
3. Remote workers are adopting new practice called ‘body doubling’

Fivefold Increase in Remote Work: Full-time office work is ‘dead’, reports CNBC. Although it ballooned during the pandemic, the share of remote work seems to have settled at 27%, about 5x the level in 2019. “That’s huge,” said Stanford University Economist Nick Bloom: “It’s almost impossible to find anything in economics that changes at such speed, that goes up by 500%.” His research shows it’s the equivalent to almost 40 years of pre-pandemic growth, almost overnight. Read Full Article.

CBRE Returns to Coworking: CBRE has paused plans to build a new tower, moving their HQ to a former coworking space instead, reports Bisnow. The real estate firm has confirmed that plans to build and lease a new 27-storey, 750,000 fq ft office tower are on hold and that it will instead move its global headquarters to a former Hana coworking facility in Dallas’ Klyde Warren Park. Read Full Article.

Personality Testing: Employers are finding personality tests — measuring how employees think and feel — more useful than ever while navigating hybrid work, reports The New York Times. Personality testing is roughly a $2 billion industry and has come to be applied in practical ways in the office, helping to shape professional relationships. Some managers find them particularly useful for remote teams, because personality tests can prompt much-needed conversations about how workers like to interact. “Covid has opened our eyes to the fact that there are different ways in which we can work,” said David Noel, Senior Vice President of Global HR at Scotiabank, who uses a personality test called Plum. “Personality testing can be a part of that.” Read Full Article.

Reducing Burnout: Is flexible working reducing burnout? Burnout remains a critical issue in the workplace with 42% reporting experiencing burnout—an all-time high since May 2021, when Future Forum started measuring. 53% of employees who are dissatisfied with their level of flexibility at work say they are burned out, compared with 37% who are satisfied. Employees with no ability to shift their work schedules are 26% more likely to say they’re burned out. Underinvestment in technology can also aggravate burnout levels, with workers who perceive their companies to be “digital laggards” being 31% more likely to report feeling burned out at work than those who say the companies they work for are innovators. Read Full Article.

Working Together: Remote workers are adopting a new practice called ‘body doubling,’ in which they watch strangers work online. Nicole Onyia goes live on TikTok for about five hours every day to “work alone together” with her 100,000+ followers. Traditionally done in the same room, the trend is now taking over TikTok live and Zoom as remote work leaves many struggling to concentrate while alone, or looking for community. “If you observe a whole screen of people focusing and working, it’s much easier for your own nervous system to calm down and to almost subconsciously mirror those positive behaviors,” Navarro says. I call it coworking from home! Read Full Article.