I can’t see my way through all the noise, office, home or hybrid? Stay or go?

If the noise is coming from others, then we need to learn to turn off that noise. Easier said than down hey Vic, well yes, but learn we must, because what we need to do is firstly tune into what it is that YOU want. What makes YOU happy, motivated, secure, what drives you to get up each day?

Second thing, can you see your next step in front of you? Because right now, we just need to take it one step at a time.

How many people are you hearing say – make a plan for the year? Where do you want to be in 5 years? What’s does the next 6 months look like? This can be great for some but after the past 2 years this may be overwhelming and the cause of anxiety for others.

So tune into YOUR inner voice, as they tell us on the safety demonstrations on aeroplanes, we have to put our own mask on first before we help others. 

These two steps will help you to make the right decision for YOU.

We are going into the recovery phases from the COVID pandemic and during this time we are still going to be a mixture of working from home and the office indeed a hybrid world will continue for some time (perhaps even forever). Even if your organisation all comes back to the office 100% you will have suppliers and customers who will use the hybrid model. Even if you work alone, perhaps you had an office away from home. 

How can you start this process of where you work?

Here is a little flow chart couple of  things you could try:

What is the outcome of today?

Do I need to be with colleagues/clients to achieve the outcomes?

Where are these colleagues/clients based?

Can we achieve this on video?

Do we need to be together?

Are they local to me – ie can we meet remotely off-site or is the office best?

Let’s also remember that we are all different in personality and behaviour terms, some of us have a need to be with other people, some of us have a need for quiet, undisturbed space. When you add this into the mix of questions how does impact the answers?

You see, it isn’t a simple straight forward “one size fits all” to be honest, it never really has been, although when you look back in history to those days we all worked in individual cubicles – trust me, I do remember them in the first job at the bank, face down, work, work, break, work work, home. 

I look back only to remind myself of how the workspace has changed over the years. How technology has influenced that change and how privileged I feel to have seen so much of it happen in y life already.

I recall the first fax machine, the wonder of how I could put a piece of paper through this scanning type machine and it could be sent anywhere in the world (okay as long as they also had a fax machine and data connection)

Then came email, laptops, working from a different office, so much more. The things that have happened and how we have adapted. 

My first job in a bank, I remember my role as Chief Cashier, counting, millions, I mean millions of CASH NOTES in the safe – we hardly ever see cash now, how times have moved since then, buying things by touching my phone to another screen – oh technology how you have moved me and I could write a whole other blog on that)

I’m sure you could add yours……what are your memories from the world of the office and how it has changed?

Do you agree technology has had the biggest impact on how and where we work?