Time to reset the way we work
How did your company start this new year? With layoffs, budget cuts or with growth plans? In Big Tech is the "farewell to our dear colleagues" season and if you read parts of the memos sent to staff they are full of explanations like "uncertain economy", "we had a strong 2022, but…" and more rare acknowledgements like "investing ahead of our revenue growth" or "we simply grew too big".
These are the same companies that offered lavish perks to recruit the best talents, from free meals to beer parties and offices looking like five-star resorts. The purpose of all this was only one: to keep people on the campus so they can generate the most innovative ideas. When you bring aspects of the non-work environment into the workplace you underline the idea that work and free time belong in the same place. You don't need to go home and live, you have everything in the office and it's free!
But is this a healthy approach to the way we work?
If you represent a company, is this the type of organisation you want it to become? One that inflates like a bubble when times are certain and cuts everything when times are uncertain? Offering perks that flatter, but refusing the perks people need? Investing in campuses and then not knowing how to get people back in?
If you are an employee, why do you sell yourself so cheap? Selling your free time for money you never have time to spend is the recipe for burnout. Work is an integral part of our life, but so is our personal time, family time or walking on a beach in a distant country before starting your remote work.
In the end, I think that work is the one that has to become more inclusive with our lives and not the other way around, work becoming our only life.
Anca Șerban, Head of Marketing @Pluria & #WorkFromAnywhere enthusiast
