Is Flexibility Just About You?

OH…how I’ve been flexible in my career! And how I’ve asked others to be as flexible as I made myself…

I can’t tell you about all of the…

• Calls I took at 2 AM because either I or a client were in different time zones…?
• The weekends and public holidays I gave up…
• The dinners I walked out of, walking halls and streets listening and reacting to “crisis”
• The fires I put out that turned out to have never even been lit, and the teapot tempests that were never even stirred
• The birthdays I missed…not to mention anniversaries…
• The countless redeye flights with no rest and the needless trips to far away places for a day’s turn-around…
• The accountability I accepted without raise or promotion because it was “tricky” regarding someone else…

The list goes on and on…not just for me, you will recognize yourself above no doubt.

On the other hand, I am proud that as a CEO and before as a team leader, I always championed work from home for those who required the help because of their family situations and needs…supporting remote access for the same reasons…I never docked vacation days or limited pay or advancement for the people who delivered in those remote situations, as was common. I did often have to guard the backs of those who faithfully served their clients and our company in these flexible arrangements that not all supported—which, to be fair, required a degree of flexibility from everyone to really make it work.?

I must also be clear that I have benefited from work/time flexibility, and there were many companies and colleagues who helped me by making themselves flexible as well.?

My readers know that I am an observant Jew and keep the Sabbath and a myriad of other holidays. I take off early on Fridays in the winter months, I don’t pick up if people try to contact me on the phone, or any other way until after Sabbath Saturday night. The same goes for all of the various holidays I keep.?

So, I’m sure many can understand the panic I felt when I started my first corporate job… Do I tell them? What happens when that clock changes and I cut out? Kosher food was easy…but this—going off the grid for twenty-four hours amidst the constant demands of a marketing agency—this was ulcer territory.?

Despite my worries, I can honestly report that not once in my career was it a problem. The system flexed for me and I flexed for it. Sometimes I worked through the night on Thursday or came in on Sunday (often) to make/catch up, but that was the pact.?

Flexibility is a two-way street.?

If you are only flexible one way, the system breaks.?

I would also like to acknowledge the incredible Barbara Ames, now retired, who made sure all of this flexed for me in my first job at Y&R in 1976 and who inspired me for the rest of my career, and for whom I have paid it forward for so many of different religions and personal needs.?

Flexibility has always been a debate in the workplace, and although the conversation continues to evolve, I’d wager it’s here to stay.?

Once flexibility was relatively simple and looking back, frankly funny...?

I remember an instance when I was the CEO of the New York office of Cohn&Wolfe… Today the CW in BCW, the primo PR shop of WPP.?

We had moved into cool new offices…way different than the staid, corporate, boring aesthetic of our parent company. We had begun to make a name for ourselves by actually being different in attitude, approach, and outlook. The summer was approaching…the term “corporate casual” was surfacing…and khakis were being worn by more than the Connecticut crew.?

We decided that we would have “Tieless Fridays” from July 4th to Labor Day. Imagine that…you didn’t have to wear a tie…The caveat: you had to have one with you, just in case.?

Clients loved it! They started booking Friday meetings. They loved the “flexibility” of it all.?

Meanwhile, I was fielding memos (still have some) with sentiments along the lines of, “Why don’t you start Clown Friday? Clearly you are one…” Or, “Naked Fridays would be amazing.” That’s right, ties were the heated topic of flexibility in those days.?

The late Harold Burson saved it and me…he thought it was a great idea and he loved it.

It’s a fun anecdote and I’m sure a little hard to imagine nowadays, but frankly, that’s not nearly the game anymore.

Back to the point.

When we speak about flexibility…certainly in the age of COVID…it’s about the flexibility to work from where I want as I want. It’s the right to be trusted to deliver my assignment without Big Whatever watching over my shoulder.?

But flexibility, as I have mentioned multiple times, requires everyone to be flexible to work.?

There is an absurdity to the notion that companies have to be flexible for inflexible employees. That is not a win for anyone…it is, in my book, a lose/lose as neither the company nor the employee will ultimately benefit.

Can we kill the rhetoric about new work models and interesting structures? There is nothing new here, working from home and remote work have been around…What do you think traveling salesmen were? Or those who back in the day, took in piece goods to embroider? There have been countless examples throughout the years.

No, it's not new…but we can give it all new meaning by demanding first and foremost an even exchange of respect. It's respect that leads to the kind of flexibility we all want, and that’s what causes business to flourish.

Respect for me…the employee…for my time, my life, my workplace, and my talent. And by the same token, accountability to and respect for our employers who have businesses to run, schedules to meet, KPIs to achieve, and in the best of cases, a world to change with us on board…

Respect is critical to empowered flexibility all around. What’s your view?