A Lone Voice for Working Together

The Pandemic has had a profound impact on all of us. There was unimaginable death, suffering, mental illness, alcoholism, abuse, etc. Thankfully and hopefully, the Pandemic is over. However, I fear the worst is yet to come. This time it’s the after-effects of the Pandemic and the lasting impact it has created.

Before I make a point about working together, let’s look at some staggering numbers *:

• ?Consumption of alcohol went up by more than 30% among the adults
• Non-alcoholics turning to alcohol was at its highest levels during the height of the Pandemic
• Smoking percentages went up. Nonsmokers turning to smoke picked up as well.
• Loneliness and depression amongst young kids, teenagers, and adults increased so much that there were insufficient facilities or experts to treat them all.
• Self-harm and suicide rate for girls between 13-18 went up by double digits.
• Millions lost their lives, and families became orphans.

While the above numbers are historical and sad, the Pandemic achieved something that dynasties, wars, religions, castes, classes, languages, and cultures could not, i.e., divide people and create mistrust. Even your best friends of 20 years wanted you to take a Covid test before coming for dinner!

One such divide is the debate about the future of work (working from home, hybrid, or working from the office). This single and often controversial debate has divided the world and created significant stress levels for all. Employees believe employers want to control their lives by asking them to work from the office; employers believe employee productivity has suffered, and the overall business is suffering. As a result, they are making a case for a hybrid or full-time return to work.

We don’t need machine learning algorithms or AI to understand what happened here. We are human beings, and blood flows through our veins, and by that very definition, we need to touch, connect, interact, laugh, and cry with other HUMAN BEINGS. This was not possible during the Pandemic. This was the single biggest culprit that disrupted our lives.

Creating, maintaining, and growing relationships is at the core of our well-being, whether at work, with family, or with friends. Yes, I understand that we lose time commuting, contribute to traffic congestion, water cooler talk, etc. Unless and until you are the type who spends the entire day at the water cooler, I am tempted to believe these water cooler talks allowed us to develop relationships with our colleagues. These relationships allowed us to do everything humans need to survive and thrive (have a few laughs, discuss, or have an afternoon beer on St Patrick's day in NYC).

Whether you agree with my line of thinking or not, the reality of life is that we spend more time with our colleagues than with our families. You spend eight hrs. a day talking with, communicating, and working with your colleagues (in some form or function).

Whenever a young graduate asks to work entirely remotely, I feel sad and scared. I have had multiple roles in my life- as a student, employee, father, husband, founder, and entrepreneur and each of these roles was enriched because of the presence of other people in my life. ?

I am making a case for a different kind of work. The place of work does not matter, but working together matters. You and your colleagues live near a beach; grab your laptops and get to work. You like to walk- how about a work walk (I just invented that word)? Do you like coffee? How about a Starbucks or a DD? Organizations should be less worried about where their employees are working, and they are working together to create value for themselves and the organization. This should not be a debate about one vs. the other.

Life has shown that we humans are at our best when working with others PHYSICALLY. I do not believe the argument that some roles can be done entirely remotely, alone, and in a cave! Every role can be enriched by working with other people. ?

This is my case for a different future of work- Working Together.

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PS: * all the numbers are from publicly available sources.