Twitter: The New Face of Workplace Disruption?

Soooooo..Twitter just announced employees can work from home forever, like forever ever which is mind blowing but perhaps not such a novel idea given the grave impact of COVID-19 and how it has forever changed and reshaped the world we live in today. Other companies like Facebook, Microsoft and Google have made similar announcements but not like Twitter who has effectively shifted the transfer of power from their hands to their employees giving them full discretion over whether to return or not. When you think about it in practical terms, how do we ever really overcome the social distancing guidelines brought on by COVID-19? If you’ve seen the movie “Contagion” (if you haven’t, where have you been? It’s been trending on Netflix for weeks! If you don’t have Netflix, ask a friend for a password already) they introduced most of mainstream America to the concept of an R naught. An R naught defines a virus’s reproductive rate and numbers. In the case of Covid 19, scientists appear to be struggling to determine the exact R naught though some suggest that it has a median of 5.7 and an R0 (pronounced R naught) of 18 which means one infected person has the capacity to infect up to 18 people. If you add that to the fact that the virus has a proposed incubation period of 14-26 days, we are left stumped trying to figure out how exactly we get a handle on the entire situation. In recent weeks, media outlets have now begun reporting that the virus is potentially causing secondary reactions in children leading to inflammation and heart failure so it appears to me that we’ve got a serious more complicated issue on our hands.

All of this got me thinking about Twitter’s newly announced move and what it all means for the future of Working From Home. One the one hand, I’m thinking that’s LIT!! Even groundbreaking! Working from home is going to lead to unmatched flexibility and productivity but more importantly it's going to keep people safe. Studies have even suggested that employees are more engaged from home, working longer hours and producing better quality work. For employees at companies like Twitter, they are going to be able to start their days later or earlier, take random Pelton rides (if you're into that sort of thing) and perhaps never miss another little league game! On the other hand, the water cooler chatter will effectively be transformed to Zoom calls which unlike the water cooler, will now be recorded. If you are like me, this should be the point in which your skin kinda sorta starts to crawl a little. 

Moreover, my husband and I were listening to a podcast called Reset in the episode titled “The Future of Work” ft. Adam Satariano and Pui Wing Tam. Both discuss what working from home truly looks like and what measures employers might be willing to take to ensure your productivity. A few of these concepts included: location services on your phone to track your gps movements, QR codes on some sort of head apparatus to monitor if/when you are in front of your screen and even taking random screenshots of your computer while you are working. He talks about his manager knowing that he had gone down a random Spotify rabbit hole. I don’t know about you but my music is kinda mine, it's personal. The entire thing seemed not only a bit spooky but also, airing on the side of a full on violation of privacy. 

All of this prompted me to think about how companies will find a healthy balance. While the companies toting the work from home software swear it's legal, I still wonder if companies will roll out all or even parts of it. We all know that when we sign on to VDI or download work apps to our phones, we relinquish a bit of privacy to our employers but does this new software take it too far?

The reality is there has to be a middle ground where employers exhibit a ton of trust sprinkled with a bit of “verify”. Employees have to feel compelled to work hard while at the same time feel empowered (not necessarily entitled) to be the flexibile . Finding the middle ground means that employers might have to expect or even respect an employee's right to choose. For example Mary might like to start her day at 4:00am because that’s when her house is most quiet or Bob might want to start his at 11:00am because that is when he is most creative or how about Susan who wants to work in 3 hour intervals throughout the 24 hour period. All of it is possible and all of it is valid. The question becomes are employers ready to grapple with the idea of it all? And let’s not forget, we haven’t even scratched the surface of how this will impact school aged children. Will they return to school in their full capacity? Will some students go a few days and week and others on other days? Maybe it’s a fact that ‘in classroom instruction and remote instruction actually exist in a continuum. 

Now let’s think about the employers who will opt out of this and make 40-50 percent of their workforce return. How do they decide who should return and who shouldn’t? Will it be based on age, medical background, risk factors for members of your household or maybe a combination of all three. How do you really secure the office space without putting someone at risk because in my mind if one person is exposed, at least 18 others are too --and that's airing on the side of caution? The entire situation seems difficult to contend with and I’m sure employers all over the world are in war rooms mulling this over as we speak. 

Perhaps Twitter is at the conclusion of that conversation. They mulled it over and decided that working from home is the best option for all parties involved (both practically and financially). They’ve agreed to leave offices open for employees who want to come in which I’m sure will be a welcomed refuge for those going crazy from groundhog day. So in my mind, Twitter is on the forefront of something big, something that is going to spread like a wildfire throughout global workforces all over the world. And if it does, all of us need to make sure we are reading the fine print before we sign on, that we are taking advantage of company provided software and finally, that we revert back to the separation of church and state--for those of us currently using our personal phones for work business.

--Amirah

#followtheunicorn