Tag Archives: work culture

Can change happen from the inside or is opting out the only option?

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My mission is to change working life as we know it. 

It is high time that we do. Studies have shown that stress-related mental health issues have sky-rocketed in the past few decades and that more than half of all global workers are unhappy in their work. Ever since the pandemic people have been opting out of their work and careers in numbers never before witnessed and many of those who haven’t actually opted out, dream of doing so. 

It is clear that something has got to give.

I opted out of a career myself about a decade and a half ago to start working on a PhD. It wasn’t something I had planned – although I had been dreaming about doing something else. I came to a point when I realized that I just had to do something about my situation. Going on the way I had was out of the question, and I needed to create a lifestyle for myself where I could live and work in a way that worked for me. It wasn’t easy – opting out never is – but in hindsight, it turned out to be a good choice. Haven’t regretted my decision for a second. 

Still, ever since I started researching opting out, it has been pretty clear to me that I don’t want to be an opting out coach. I don’t want to dedicate my life to helping others opt out too. I don’t believe that is a sustainable solution. 

Opting out isn’t easy. It’s not something people do on a whim. Most of the time it happens because a person just cannot continue living and working the way they have. It is a time of crisis, of turmoil and of searching, and, despite what influencers and the like may tell you, there are no guarantees that a person comes out of a crisis better and stronger. I don’t think we should idealize crisis as the catalyst for change it can be.  

That’s why, instead of helping people opt out, I have made it my mission to help create workplaces that people won’t feel a need to leave. I want to be involved in creating workplaces where people can thrive instead of being the sites of suffering that so many workplaces are today. This is what my research has been about. I mean, we know a lot about why people leave, but what do we really know about how to organize work so that they won’t long to leave? 

These are some of the questions my research provides answers to and I’m writing a book about it as we speak. But lately, I have been wondering if I’ve actually gotten it all wrong. Can we change workplaces from the inside or is opting out necessary? 

I remember a few years when I first met my friend and colleague Birgitta Wahlberg. She is an incredibly inspirational woman. She is a researcher and activist and she is key in changing our understanding of and laws on animal rights. She is a firebrand and an iconoclast. I met her when she was giving a talk about the shocking treatment of animals in the food industry, and she said something profound. She said that there are two ways society can change, either through crisis and devastation which forces change, or by planning and implementing the change in a controlled fashion before everything crashes. She pointed out, however, that unfortunately humanity tends to choose the former. We tend to not make big changes until we are absolutely forced to.

I think about this often. I mean, this is also it is true for individual opting out processes. People seldom opt out until they experience some sort of crisis that pushes them to do so. But does it have to be that way? And more importantly with regards to what I’m trying to achieve, does it have to be that way for organizations?

Part of the problem is that we need a systems’ shift. We need to redefine how we think about work, and we need a change not only our practices but also our actual understanding of work and of how we organize work. 

When people come to listen to me talk about my research, they generally agree with me. They agree that something has got to give. But then they go back to their organizations and it’s business as usual. It’s as if they know on an intellectual level that we need change, but they are so caught up in the system and their everyday work that being the change just isn’t on their horizon. Also, in this competitive economy, where organization work hard to survive, it is hard to be the one to break the pattern and do something differently. 

So, the question I’m struggling with is, am I naïve to think that we can do this? Can we change working life as we know it in a controlled fashion before everything crashes and burns? Do organizations even want to? 

The thing with change is that it simply doesn’t happen unless you experience some kind of light-bulb moment that makes the change feel absolutely crucial. This is what a crisis does. And acute environmental issues or health issues do among others don’t seem to be providing the light-bulb moment organizations need. But, maybe and increasing number of people refusing to stay can? A lot of people researching opting out seem to believe so. 

There are of course organizations that are already doing great things. But on the most part it is still business as usual. 

So, tell me, have I got it wrong? Can we inspire organizations to change working life as we know it? Can we create change from the inside or is that just not disruptive enough? Or should I rather be putting my energy on coaching people on how to leave? 

What do you think?

Here’s what’s wrong with the debate on remote work

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Ever since the pandemic, the debate on remote work been both fascinating and frustrating to follow. 
 
Before the pandemic, remote work was practically unheard of. Some organizations allowed it do different degrees, but on the most part it was rare. Then when the pandemic hit everything changed overnight. People weren’t allowed into the office and all of a sudden work that had been considered impossible to do remotely turned out not only to be possible, but actually worked quite well. People realized, that working from home offered a lot of flexibility and now, post-pandemic, most employees don’t want to stop doing it – at least part of the time.
 
Employers, on the other hand, feel differently, which really isn’t very surprising. Research has shown that managers found remote work during the pandemic to be much harder than other employees did. They couldn’t fall back on old management routines but had to come up with new ways of managing their teams when team members were no longer right there in front of them.
 
Now, post-pandemic, organizations have been trying to call their employees back to the office with varying success and some have even abolished the possibility of working remotely altogether. Employers argue that face time is crucial for innovation and development as well as for new recruits, which is true, but getting people to want to come into the office is still challenging. Some organizations set rules for when you have to be in the office, but no matter what they decide, people still aren’t happy. 
 
The on-going debate has been very black and white. Is remote work good or bad? Should people be allowed to do it or not? Yes or no? There are arguments for both sides that are valid, but the debate doesn’t really seem to be going anywhere. That is because it’s missing the point.
 
First of all, one problem is thinking about remote work in terms of how we used to think about work when everyone came into the office. Yes, it is true that innovation suffers if people don’t engage enough with each other. But this isn’t actually a problem of remote work, but rather an issue of leadership. If people work remotely, we need to make sure we create opportunities for collaboration and innovation. This is fully possible. We need to make sure we have routines for including new recruits in the community so that they feel welcomed and become part of the team. It doesn’t happen automatically just because we’re in the same building, but it certainly doesn’t happen if we don’t consciously make it happen when working remotely.  We need new routines for leadership and organization. Just like during the pandemic, we – both managers and employees – need to do things differently to make it work. 
 
The other thing that frustrates me is how organizations go about deciding what their policy for remote work should be. It seems that no matter what they decide, people are unhappy. What strikes me is that most organizations fail to see that remote working practices and policies are a question of organizational culture and any changes made with regards to ways of working should be treated as any organizational change. 
 
In order to get people on board with change you have to involve them in that change. On the one hand, you have to allow them to create their own understanding of why the change is necessary and, on the other, you have to let them be a part of the solution. If they actually feel the need to change and have been involved in developing new solutions and routines, they will naturally also be committed to them. 
 
The same goes for remote working practices. Those of you who grapple with this, have you talked to your employees about it? Have you asked them what their needs are? Have you involved them in thinking about what it is you want to achieve as an organization or as a team and what they best way to go about it is? It’s not just a question of how many days to work on and off site. It’s a question of what needs to be done how to best create solutions to achieve that. 
 
Some say people simply don’t want to come into the office anymore, but this really isn’t true. It’s just that they don’t want come in if they don’t feel like there is any point. People have seen what a positive impact working remotely can have on their lives and their wellbeing. 
 
Experiences change us and we can’t go back to the way it was before the pandemic. We can only move forward. Remote and hybrid work are here to stay in one form or another, and that is not a bad thing. They are an excellent way to provide employees with more flexibility and to create sustainable lifestyles and solutions for work. Office work isn’t a thing of the past either. 
 
We can figure this out, but we need to think about work a bit differently than we’re used to.