Tag Archives: Marissa Mayer

My Picks for Top, Informative “Future of Work” Videos

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Over the weekend, I went on a YouTube binge trying to identify the most informative videos on the future of work. This actually took quite a bit of time investment but guess I’m just obsessive like that! I selected the following videos on the basis of quality of content as well as diversity of opinions, hoping to cover the positive and negative aspects of work in the near future. These videos were also selected for conciseness as I know that not everyone can (or wants to) watch a bunch of hour-long videos (although there are some great lectures out there!). I’ve listed the videos in no particular order and have, instead, attempted categorization on the basis of what target audience might be most interested. They are all still worth watching regardless of who you are however! Enjoy!

Videos of interest to anyone thinking about larger workplace, economic, real estate, and job market trends

My favorite quote from the panel discussion below: One size misfits all.

Videos of interest to organizational leaders

Wonderful arguments, citing psychological reactions, made against the open office plan in the video below. Plus, the problem with optimizing for collaboration “way too much.” Recommendations on empowering employees for productivity.

Videos of interest to employees

Tom Malone, professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of the HBR article “The Age of Hyperspecialization,” explains why breaking jobs into tiny pieces yields better, faster, cheaper work — and greater flexibility for employees.

Drawn from observations and her own working life experiences — many and varied — Dr. Stanford will illustrate, through three ‘takes’- of an 11 year old, a 35 year old, and a 63 year old — what preparing for the continuously unfolding future of work means.

Video of interest to students thinking about their future career

Anders Sorman-Nilsson, founder and creative director of Thinque, discusses trends impacting industry today and how students can gain a competitive edge in the work place of the future.

Thinking about what tools will enhance collaboration of your organization’s virtual team?

There are still some spots available for Better Collaboration’s upcoming videoconference! These events are specifically geared towards organizational leaders and this next one, on April 24th 1:00-2:30PM EST (10:00-11:30AM PST), will feature Matt Boyd, Co-Founder at Sqwiggle. Sqwiggle is an always on online workplace for your remote team to work together throughout the day. Their slogan: Remote Working, Made Awesome.

Register at the Better Collaboration Meetup site and check out services offered through Better Collaboration.

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This one is for those who think that work environment doesn’t matter

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As a strong proponent of giving people more control over where they work, it was only a short matter of time before I ran up against those who erroneously insist that work environment doesn’t matter. Their claim is that the only thing that matters is that you’re doing what you’re good at and that it doesn’t matter where you are doing this at. They don’t get it. If work environment really doesn’t matter, then the following clip from the popular film Office Space would not register as anything significant. What’s the difference anyway if Milton works on the same floor as everyone else or in the basement if work environment doesn’t matter?

The truth is that, for ages, we’ve relied on environmental cues for information that signal situations in which we should be stressed, anxious, fearful, etc. It is common knowledge that a room in which the predominant color is red whets the appetite moreso than another color would. Why do various colors stir up different reactions? What about acoustic distractions? Odors?

We ARE affected by our work environment though, yes, there are elements of subjectivity and relativity. This reflects our natural individual differences. Some of us perform work in dangerous environments, however people who are able to do so tend to already be naturally predisposed to react to threats with more calm (the trait “neuroticism” on the Big 5 – a measure of emotional stability and tolerance for stress or aversive stimulation). Others may even be pumped up by threatening environments and experience more of a thrill. I have, in fact, performed some work that required workers to have fairly low susceptibility to fear and would happily entertain opportunities to work as an animal field researcher in some less comfortable, outdoor settings (though perhaps not everywhere). At least it’s not boring!

When it comes to work that requires very heavy reading, writing, analyzing, and researching however, nothing beats the home office for me. A number of us, though not all of us, would agree that we are more productive working in our home environment than in a boring, stale office environment. It wouldn’t be a huge leap to say that going from working at home to working at the office is a “step down” much like Milton’s move to the basement. So instead of smacking the whole issue down with a knee-jerk reaction and waving off the importance of work environment across the board, it’s time to take the educated approach. Let’s open up discussion and debate about the ways and extent to which it does and doesn’t. To what extent do boring (or stimulating) environments impact our brains for example?

And for those who still believe that work environment doesn’t matter or, more specifically, that you should be able to do whatever it is you’re good at doing no matter what the work environment…

Uh, we’re gonna need to move your desk downstairs into Storage B… Uh, we have some new people coming in and we need all the space we can get. And if you could go ahead and get a can of pesticide and take care of the roach problem we’ve been having that would be great. (Office Space, 1999)



Finally, more videoconferencing dates have been added for “Innovating the way dispersed teams collaborate!”


Register at the Better Collaboration Meetup page and email contact@BetterCollaboration.org if you have any questions. Better Collaboration is about helping organizations improve collaboration of dispersed teams.


    

  • Wednesday, April 24, 2013
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  • Wednesday, May 8, 2013
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  • Wednesday, May 22, 2013
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  • Wednesday, June 5, 2013
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1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Eastern time (EST)/10:00 AM to 11:30 AM Pacific time (PST)


See details on the Events page.


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This or That? Work-Life Preferences Survey

			
						

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From each of the following 4 pairs, select one answer:


























This survey is based on:


    

  • My reading of telework related literature and websites showing that a substantial number of people would not mind working more hours if it meant that they have more control over their working conditions. 
    • 

  • Observations and personal experience comparing self-employment (where it is typical to be working more than 40 hours per week) with regular employment (working 40 hours per week).
    • 



I’m just trying to gauge, to the best of my ability here, where this trade-off preference might end. I welcome comments that expand on the selections you’ve made. I’m looking forward to seeing your answers to the survey!


With regard to my own experiences, I would say that it’s easier for me to achieve work-life balance in a work-from-home, self-employed situation even though I frequently worked more than 8 hours in a day while being able to structure the work day around other non-work related tasks as I see fit. That is, the specificity of a work-shift and work location is more of an issue than the number of hours worked per week.


To round out this discussion, here’s a video of Nigel Marsh’s presentation, “Work Life Balance is an Ongoing Battle,” at TED Talks in Sydney, Australia. My favorite takeaway message from this:


“… governments and corporations aren’t going to solve this issue for us. Just stop looking outside. It’s up to us as individuals to take control and responsibility for the type of lives that we want to lead. If you don’t design your life, someone else will design it for you and you may just not like their idea of balance.” ~ Nigel Marsh



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Work-Life Detours: Reflections on Yahoo’s Remote Work Policy Change

			
						

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English: Yahoo! headquarters
English: Yahoo! headquarters (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


By now many of you have heard the news about Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, requiring all remote workers, regardless of where they live, to become onsite office workers or else quit. Even those who telecommute one or two days a week will no longer be able to do so. If you haven’t heard about this, here’s the story in a nutshell:







I don’t know, of course, the details of the situation and, much less, Mayer’s decision-making process when she chose to steer things in this direction. However I will say that, from an outsider’s perspective, moves like this one will damage the trust and faith of productive remote workers towards organizations that can’t take steps to resolve problems without yanking employees back and forth with changes in policy. Organizational leaders do have the prerogative to change their minds and take things in another direction. However extreme policies requiring hundreds of employees to suddenly uproot their lives and relocate so suddenly will have negative repercussions as a side effect.



Hopefully, the level of attention this news is receiving will open up the necessary discourse to instigate more serious inquiry into how to objectively assess employees’ productivity. As I detailed in a previous post, They need to see you there to know that you are working… Not!, serious investigation has not been happening! Visual confirmation of people arriving and leaving the office at certain, appointed times does not constitute objective assessment of productivity. Visual confirmation that people have spent nearly 8 hours at their workstation does not constitute objective assessment of productivity. Tracking and measuring results however, is the way to objectively assess productivity.



So you think that having employees work side-by-side and interacting face-to-face will enhance collaboration? Yes, a certain amount of that may help some come up with new ideas, although many writers and artists do this very well on their own. Moreover, anyone who’s ever been in a relationship before knows that too much time spent together can also cause friction, fallout, and unnecessary drama. Being forced to share the same physical space for 40 hours a week is a recipe for magnifying all the little, irritating traits and behaviors you find in your fellow coworkers. I’m going to go out on a limb by saying that more studies should be conducted on the impact of forced “togetherness” (according to time duration) on the quality of relationships with coworkers.



Often I have stated that the only way to guarantee that you can dictate when, where, and how you work is through self-employment, tough though it is to become established. I had been a huge supporter for clients who’re trying to launch their small business but, alas, I watched as some of them had to eventually give up and return to the 9-to-5 world. This news comes at a time when I’m also compelled by extenuating circumstances, for the time being, to focus less on self-employment and take up an employment opportunity beginning next week. It’s a good opportunity though, somewhere further down the line, I expect to keep chipping away at establishing a situation in which I can dictate the manner by which I work. I just figure this way I won’t have to be at the mercy of situations such as the one Yahoo’s remote workers are currently facing. For the movement towards accepting remote work options however, I hope that the overwhelming responses to Yahoo’s policy change will help turn this into a case of “one step back, two steps forward.”



Note to readers:



I’ll continue to contribute content 2 or 3 times per week and will soon make available a list of source materials that are readily accessible online. Also, look forward to future posts by guest blogger, Frederick Pilot, on the subject of work system transitional strategy and infrastructure.




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