Flexible workspaces and the development of mobile technologies allow work to be done wherever and whenever. This should increase employee flexibility and satisfaction. However, recent studies discuss the problem of decreased communication and interrupted information flow. Probably the most well-known example of the phenomenon is Yahoo Corporation and its CEO Marissa Mayer: the decision to give up their WAH (work at home) strategy in order to boost up productivity. The real work was claimed to happen at the office, and innovation to take place only when employees are co-located. Eventhough the development of technologies changed the way we all work, and we are becoming available “at any time”, nothing was claimed to replace face-to-face interaction and information sharing in the kitchen during lunch or common facilities while having a short break.
During my Master’s thesis interviews with international corporations the same idea was expressed multiple times. Employees would not use traditional offices that much, they’d rather work from home and everywhere else, and that would affect the information flow around different teams. Large office buildings where everybody had a dedicated personal workspace would feel empty, and the motivation and inspiration to work and be innovative would decrease. Employee satisfaction surveys would show worse results, and mobility of workers would be the main reason behind that.
The idea of remote work is a “work of yesterday” and has its limits. Remote work allowed doing tasks in remote locations from time to time but the work and employee itself was anchored to the main physical location which then caused problems and lack of information flow due to employees working remotely and not bringing information back to the office. It might have been the case in Yahoo and it was definitely the case in my Master’s thesis’ organisations.
The “work of today” is more mobile and physically-free, where employee is able to fully participate in the organisation’s workflow from any place at any time. So what was missing in the organisations that I studied? Was it the lack of employees at the office that interrupted all information flow? No. It was the lack of understanding that work is done differently nowadays, and mobile technologies allow us to crunch the data, share the information, reach colleagues and take actions in minutes while being on the other side of the world. Face-to-face contact does not bring as irreplacable value anymore as it used to, because alternative options for collaboration exist. Employees need to be proactive and understand that they can collaborate in other ways than sitting next to each other at a meeting or standing next to a coffee machine.
