Hybrid working

Working from home has been a necessary part of life for almost

everyone for well over a year. It has been fun, stressful at times and has

without doubt made people start to think about what is important to

them. That all important work life balance, that was previously on the ‘to-

do list’ or seemingly unattainable – or we were just too busy to think

about it!

May 2020, we are fully in the first lockdown, weather is incredible and

the pace of life has started to slow down to a melodic Adagio. The

franticness of getting setup at home is over, and we are starting to get to

grips with what ‘working’ from home entails. The conversation around

the new world water cooler – video conference call – is about how we

need to make changes and we can’t go back to the way things were. I

remember watching my kids across the road in the dodder, the sun

blazing in the sky and they were whiling away an afternoon playing in

the river. Shorts up (or off), nets in hands and a clear absence of any

care in the world. The nostalgia of my youth firmly cemented in my mind,

and so grateful that I was there and present with them to smile along

with the mini triumphs and disasters unfolding. Childcare forced on us,

necessity was the mother of innovation and now the father of practical

adaptation – sharing child care and working shifts. How we work has

changed, and will continue to evolve because change is not a static

instrument, it continually responds to new stimulus and environmental

factors.

However everyone is different, I have not been a huge fan of working

from home. Over the last while I have tried to reflect on why that might

be, because at a basic level it should work across the board for

everyone. There is no commute, dress code to a certain extend gone out

the window, and at some point everyone has said they would love to

work from home. So what doesn’t sit right.. there is a trade-off with

everything or every decision we make. So for example, by not being in

the office then we have no face to face interaction with our friends and

co-workers. No lunch, no park walks or Pilates classes. I’ve also grown

tired of working in a coworking space in my own home, the kitchen table

to the nursery to the bedroom. Like most people I don’t have a dedicated

desk in my home. The ritual aspect of getting ready for work is

important, perhaps like the analogy of crossing the white line in sport

means your head is now in the game. Getting dressed for work requires

thought, and the process of going to dedicated work space for me has

been very important. I know I am here for a purpose and when I leave,

that purpose stays there. The delineation between the office and home

or the slow eroding of boundaries between work and home, with work

emails on our devices we have slowly become always connected.. ergo

always available. This hasn’t been healthy for a while, and the does

seem to be a collective consciousness that it can’t continue. When all

the trade-offs are considered, unless you have an excessive daily

commute, then the exclusively working from home argument isn’t as

strong as it once was. How does that old saying go, be careful what you

wish for?

I have recently embraced the hybrid working idea and I really have

enjoyed working in a dedicated work space. It was not working for me at

home, kids don’t always understand boundaries and that includes doors

or the level of their voices, and when daddy says this is really important

it tends to go over the heads. My affectionate lockdown name for them

has been the ‘thought hoovers’. Anything other than answering emails,

something that required some thought or perhaps a train of thought

would inevitably be disjointed by a dinosaur symphony or something of

comparative decibel levels. FOMO or distraction take your pick but

productive work was off the agenda.

To Iconic Offices I go and it has been reinvigorating on a number of

levels for me. I work the schedule that suits me because of the flexibility

the Iconic office hours gives, 24hrs a day. I can work my hours around

our shared family duties and other things that life throws at me. I have a

schedule again, and my productivity has increased with higher value

work prioritised in the Iconic Offices and anything falls outside of this at

home. I know I cross the white line coming in, I know what needs to be

done and how long I have to get it done. There are also like-minded

companies and people on the floor. It is nice to chat with people,

connecting with the community and finding out a little bit of what they do.

This will probably not surprise anyone, through being polite and stopping

to have a chat it turns out that Kevin is a provider of a resource I am

going to need very soon. A little luck on our side, where the cards fall in

the right way and a new business relationship can thrive through a

coffee in the shared office.

The future of the way we work was already changing pre-Covid 19 with

AI and automation creating efficiencies in our workflow. The paradigm

has evolved to where and potentially when we work, and how we

evaluate productivity. Leo Varadkar spoke about the right to disconnect

and how we must embrace a more fluid approach to the working

environment. This will require compromise from employees and

employers alike, and flexible workspaces like Iconic Offices are going to

be a stable part of the conversation.