Deconstructing the Workplace

The workplace is changing. It is long overdue. "It is time" (said in the voice of Mufasa from "The Lion King").

There will always be those who will resist any change and deny that change is even needed. Their perspective is to continue to do things the way they have "always been done". My guess is that perhaps the idea of change is interpreted as those people losing a structure or environment that is personally beneficial and lucrative. Maybe they perceive that a change will somehow risk any advantages or comforts they experience from keeping the work environment as it is.

I think about those companies who obviously had leadership who resisted change. The first company that comes to mind is Blockbuster. I would imagine that there were some employees who warned them that they had to keep up with the current trend, which was moving away from brick and mortar and instead to streaming. I can almost hear someone say "That is ridiculous! No one is going to stream movies! People like having to drive to the store, walk up and down the aisles looking for a movie, waiting in line to check out, returning the movie in 3 days or paying a late fee -- that will NEVER change!" We all know how that worked out for Blockbuster.

The world forever changed as a result of COVID. Companies were forced to change how work was done in order to stay in business. Employees who could perform their jobs from a computer were permitted to work remotely. The ability to work remotely, eventually impacted how employees viewed work. The challenges of physically working in an office became a little more apparent. The time and money savings of working remotely was becoming more evident. People began recognizing how toxic their in office work environments really were. There was a major toll on their mental, physical and emotional health.

What happened next? The Great Recession. People were leaving organizations who refused to allow them to work remotely. Then companies started complaining that there was a "talent shortage". Some organizations decided to threaten their employees with job termination if they did not physically come back into the office. Other organizations started suddenly having mass layoffs and then turning around and posting mass openings. More recently, there have been discussions around the dangers of "quiet quitting" and "quiet managing".

Where are we headed? Some may think that we will go back to how we did work prior to the pandemic, because that is how the workplace is supposed to be. I think it would be extremely irresponsible to bury our heads in the sand and ignore all of the troublesome issues that have been highlighted around poor and damaging workplace practices and behaviors. Changing the workplace may impact the personal comforts and financial benefits of some who profited from the pre-pandemic way of work, but it is clear that change is coming.

We are headed towards a new way of working and a new type of workplace. It's time to talk about those uncomfortable workplace issues. The mediocre and damaging leadership practices. If we don't talk about it and get to the roots of why toxic workplaces exist, we won't be adequately informed. It's time to "Deconstruct the Workplace" and use the lessons learned from what doesn't work to create strategies to build workplaces where employees thrive and companies profit.