Don’t flunk the 2024 IQ test
If you want to succeed in work and in life, learn from an improv group
“Gen Z actually hates working from home,” a story in Business Insider says. If you hit a paywall, and you probably will, follow this Twitter thread and you’ll get a lot of the key information. You also might be reminded of a book, “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.”
I’m not going to harp on the flaws of the article or how hideous the headline is, but want to focus instead on its main point: Generations have different attitudes about working from home.
What the article desperately needs is an improv group, a bunch of characters who pop up and say, “Yes, and …” Because if you do that enough times, it might change your attitude. And career. And life.
A smart boss will look at the chart and not only appreciate the headline’s blatant misrepresentation — you can certainly like working from home without wanting to do it every day, which is what the chart shows — but also the nuances involved in keeping workers happy and productive. One size doesn’t fit all ages.
This tweet from the story’s author sums up some key points:
Yes, and …
Suppose you go for a 30-minute walk each day. Do you prefer to have a walking buddy? If you walk alone, do you listen to music? Podcasts? Do you want it quiet to appreciate the scenery or lose yourself in thought? Does your mind wander or do you focus on something specific? Do you walk on a trail or a treadmill?
Your answer probably depends on your mood, the path, the time of day, the weather. Even if you have strong preferences, you’d get bored if you did the same thing every day.
Why should work be any different?
My wild ass guess: Life will pretty much return to normal by 2024. COVID will still be around, but vaccines and treatments will improve to the point that few of us will bother with masks or worry about crowds.
Yes, and …
Workplaces aren’t as human now as they were in 2019 or will be in 2024 (according to our Wild Ass Guess Almanac). When you pile health risks on top of the time and money spent commuting, mass transit has gone from a drawback to a dealbreaker. Instead of Critical Mass, workplaces have Critical Sit On My Ass At Home.
And some who do show up have (understandable) health concerns, so they wear masks. Conversations are certainly more spontaneous than on Zoom, but I’m not sure a world of muffled voices and hidden smiles is a better human connection. Don’t pretend you’re not losing something.
But you’re losing something at home, too. All the Zoom meetings and Slack messages in the world can’t replace spontaneous conversations with clever people. And work is a great place for finding new friends — something you desperately need, whether you’re in Gen Z or Gen Wheeze.
One person mentioned in the Insider article is Stanford Economics Professor Nicholas Bloom, whose research points to the benefits of allowing people to work from home at least some of the time. Bloom embraces nuance, which lousy bosses and lazy journalists overlook.
I can hear a boss now: “Good! I’ll make sure everybody comes into the office each Friday and sit down with them one on one, and we’ll have group meetings and division meetings and staff meetings. It’ll be great!”
No, and …
2024 will be about recapturing our humanity, the very thing that 2020 and 2021 stole from us. You’re more wary and less human than you were in 2019, whether you’re a boss or a grunt, a Republican or a Democrat, Gen Z or Gen B.C.
Smart bosses and workers will get it. If you want me to commute for an hour or three and spend the day away from my loved ones and comfortable home, don’t subject me to a bunch of crap that we could have handled on Zoom. You won’t lure me with free coffee and doughnuts, either. But you might with humanity.
Maybe you should strongly encourage people to come to the office every Friday, but make it fun. Talk about anything and everything. Celebrate life. Have a happy hour. Encourage group lunches.
If they’re not breaking bread, at least break the ice. Maybe have a speed-dating sort of thing (by some other name, for the love of God and HR), when people talk one-on-one for five minutes apiece with half a dozen colleagues. If they’re shy, give them an icebreaker topic: “teach me something in 2 minutes,” “tell me what you’ve done that none of your colleagues has,” “describe your favorite place in the world and why.”
Will those five minutes seem agonizingly long? Sure, sometimes. But they also might be the start of a beautiful friendship. Or mentorship.
Yes, and …
If people have more friends, mentors and mentees at the company, even if they communicate by Slack, they’ll be less likely to leave. And maybe more likely to visit the office. Humanity can be addictive.
Lots of workers have to show up every day because their jobs demand it, but if you’re forced to because of management whim — or you’re forced to work at home all the time — you’re in serious danger of flunking the 2024 IQ test. Make sure you appreciate what you’re giving up.
If, as the Insider story suggests, you end up working with mostly people like you — whether it’s introverts fossilizing at home or Gen Zers finding refuge from studio apartments — you’re being cheated. Not necessarily in work, but in life.
Because often life’s most powerful lessons come from people who are different from us: different races, ages, sexualities. Whether it’s something as scary as a gay immigrant coping with bigotry or as basic as a single parent managing their time, you can learn a lot. And grow a lot.
The last two years reminded smart bosses that they need to see their best workers as collaborators, not employees — and certainly not puppets. If you feel like you’re building something together, you’ll be less likely to leave. And maybe more likely to visit the office.
If I’m a good worker, we don’t need face time or even FaceTime. You can count on me getting the job done, even if I take lots of breaks to walk my dog and work some pretty weird hours. And I can count on you to have my back. In the words of famed Latin scholar Hannibal Lecter: quid pro quo.
2024 will test us all. Smart workers and bosses will thrive, but tons of others will flunk the IQ test. If humanity offers too many distractions for those who work at home, they might let their bosses down. And if bosses revert to being bossy, loyal collaborators might feel like cogs in a wheel. Then insecure bosses will start bringing everyone back into the office, including those colleagues who annoyed the crap out of you in 2019.
Yes, and …
Somehow, somewhere, someone in Gen Z will suddenly view their studio apartment as a sanctuary.
Murphy Slaw
Something old: The last week has been brutal for sports fans with the deaths of Bill Russell and Vin Scully. You can read, watch and hear great stuff about both of them, but let’s offer up this podcast by longtime Boston Celtics fan Bill Simmons.
Something new: The people behind the “Song Exploder” podcast just came our with “Book Exploder,” asking authors questions about key passages in their books. Susan Orlean will be the host, but the first episode features her being interviewed about her nonfiction tale “The Library Book.”
Something borrowed: Technology does the darndest things.
Something blue: One sign that you’re so red in the face that you might be turning blue: You’re upset because a restaurant you like expands its menu without slaughtering an animal.
LOL the weatherman. I totally know that feeling. I guess because I've been WFH for the past 22 years and a) hated dealing with office pettiness and b) am an introvert, I relish being able to do what I want when I want. I'm also the boss, the only employee and old so...Nice reading, Dave.
Thanks, Janet. Yeah, I think entrepreneurs (and retirees) will have their own version of the IQ test. I think the biggest thing will be to find the emotional and intellectual stimulation one way or another -- whether it's from family, friends, clients, proteges, whatever. Independence is great, but sometimes it can be a gateway drug to loneliness.