Online meetings are levelling the office playing field
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
I can't move out of London so that I can afford a place with a dedicated study/office room because "hybrid working" means I still need to be within commuting distance (any property within commuting distance is £,£££,£££, even before covid). Hybrid working rules at my place mean I can only physically go to the office a couple of days a week (e.g. cannot do Mon to Fri, but have to go in on assigned days)
It is professionally crippling, at least for me.
Edit: comments about "just do a longer commute the days you do go in" are valid, but not applicable here: I have care commitments that can't be ignored while I am on a train.
However it’s pout out at least that keeping meetings online even when present in the office can be a really useful tool for helping everyone to have equitable access. The assumption that all of our meetings are done online from individual devices wherever possible has made it much easier for remote and in-office workers to collaborate on the same level.
The fact that you say this without at least the slightest hint of awareness of why many people now shudder at what cries for "equity" have morphed into highlights why the backlash against equity programs is growing.
And I find this incredibly disappointing, because I do believe that equity programs that try to raise opportunity and standards for all is a good thing, but all too often I've seen it just morph into "Tall Poppy Syndrome".
What a garbage economic system we live in!”
Let me share what I gathered:
1. Francesca really likes working from home. She has the time to pick her son from school and feels empowered but she's also worried because Johnson and other British conservatives are pushing against "work-from-homers"
2. "The permanent secretary for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Sarah Healey, recently told staff that she would keep online meetings, because they were more effective and also helped women participate."
3. “Being interrupted and talked over puts women off from speaking out in meetings – it silences them,” she says. “On Zoom, interruptions are very messy, if people just try and shout over others everything sort of seizes up.”
4. “In physical offices we have what sociologists call a hegemonic masculine organisational culture, where white male characteristics are seen as virtues,” she says. “To think online spaces can completely remove that culture is a bit too naive but maybe some of those ingrained habits can change – if people are reflective.”
What did I just read?
Factoring in what you've said, you don't have access to a dedicated environment and don't see how to make moving out further to afford the dedicated space a possibility. That makes it clear to take advantage of the space your employer is offering you then. Go into the office.
If you don't want to commute into the office every day, the other replies below are the path. Instead of commuting 30 mins each way into the office M-F move further out, commute 1 hour each way but on Monday & Friday. You're still spending less time in a week commuting but now live further out.
Personally, my home setup is much better than working in an office, so I plan to work remotely indefinitely if possible. But it is not for everyone and office cultures would do well to ensure in office and home office workers are able to have similar experiences.
Set the expectations for your family,I think that's really it.
And yeah, I'll have my daughter on my lap during meetings, or I'll be standing while rocking the baby occasionally. No problem, colleagues are understanding and I'm actually performing very well, so it should be possible for others to handle this.
Obviously a different business is if there is no fully dedicated care (e.g. Both parents work)
Additionally, “masculine hegemons” can no longer use their arm-waving skills to win arguments.
Hard-hitting journalism from The Guardian, as usual.
If anything, it seems to me like they have a fairly reasonable employer and working environment.
Online also makes meetings more effective, people are less likely to go forever and waste everybody time. And, when they go forever, you use their empty blabbing for some chores.
So, yeah, you loose disadvantage at no cost to actual work effectivity.
A better spin from OP would have been
“… in favor of people whose contributions to society complicate their ability to attend the round the clock marathon of back to back meetings that all seem to suspiciously last for an about hour versus those who have few skills and positive contributions to make to the world at large and worked into a system where the only valuable thing they have to offer is to endlessly discuss things.”
I do agree with OP’s sentiment that the article was pretty shallow and tropish. Not much new or insightful. Almost like a group of editors had a meeting and asked “what should we run today?” And an hourish later, we got this.
I’m not a woman so the point isn’t quite the same, but I can absolutely observe the effect of online meetings generally reducing the temptation of certain people to dominate the conversation.
I concede I was being hyperbolic and uncharitable. I don’t think the article deserves much better, though.
I don’t do well IRL, but online I can shine.
Could one assume that people who prefer meetings (online or in person) over an online text conversation or email thread have poor written communication and reading comprehension skills?
I don't doubt that online work has helped a lot of people participate, but as with all things it's an environment that will work better for some and worse for others. What we should have is both—companies and teams where the expectation is that you'll come to the office every day and meet in a conference room, and companies and teams where most meetings are done online.
I agree that there's so many different ways to work, that one modality is never going to make everyone happy.
Are you my boss?
Seriously though, I’d be working 100% from my home if my boss could parse anything from video meetings. But he can’t, so I’m in once a week for all our project meetings. I don’t actually mind it most of the time, I like the break from home and being able to whiteboard.
I agree that fully remote work isn’t the universally level playing field so many are making it out to be.
There just isn't a good solution for "opting out" from this behavior in-office, so remote work has been a great boon in this direction in particular.
A solution to this is "being more entrepreneurial," wherein you can decide who you work with -- albeit, with sane expectations (e.g. you're not going to scale to $100m value without having to eat a lot of shit, but that's true with climbing the corporate ladder too).
And it's not just zoom. In fact the biggest driver is Slack/Teams and the like. Everyone has an equal voice on slack. Interruption is impossible. Thoughts can be curated, recorded and edited in real time. And it can all be asynchronous.
No longer an issue at all now that I don't have to be in a job where someone expects me to be in one position in one place in one room for hours at a time to get work done. Going for a walk or laying in bed for a meeting is no problem.
It is long past time we actually used the remote communication ability our handheld networking and computing devices have enabled and quit pretending it's still 1960. If ISIS can manage war campaigns over WhatsApp, I think your business can figure out a way to make it work.
There is a reason so many vets get into business or consulting.
So they disprove their own point by the end of the article...
I've already got a final warning work, and it still feels impossible to do anything from at home. It's effected my self esteem and really damaged my career. I think I'll try to get an ADHD diagnosis and then I'll be considered disabled and will maybe get some help and legal protection.