04. Google excuses + chief remote officers
Welcome to my newsletter #WRKPLC which will be published every 2 weeks. This is where I will share my thoughts on interesting headlines and emerging topics from the past two weeks, plus cool office designs and opinion pieces. If you don't get a lot of time to keep up with the news, #WRKPLC will do the heavy lifting for you.
HYBRID WORKING / The new job title created by hybrid work
As more companies embrace hybrid working, there is becoming a greater demand for improving the remote experience for workers. While job titles differ from company to company, these chief remote officers are essentially there to seek out opportunities to enhance the remote/hybrid working experience and what needs to be improved. Are we that done with staff surveys that we need this new job role?! Full article here on BBC News.
RETURN TO OFFICE / Is hybrid working still a thing?
A short but sweet piece from KPMG which shares some of their findings from their latest report; the CEO Outlook. More of a top line than a deep dive but interesting to see these findings from top level leaders as it feels like employees have had a louder voice around hybrid work of late.
It’s possible that the findings shared around hybrid working won’t surprise you too much but I find it’s still important to maintain a balance when reading around a subject. The one thing I took away from these sections around the future of work is that there is a slight leniency towards hybrid working being a positive thing but there is still a split opinion. Read the top line findings here. If you’re interested, you can download the full report here.
WORKPLACE / *Types on Google* “Legit ways to skip work”
This was just a fascinating bit of data. The collective view and shift in attitudes to work in the last 2 years has been quite remarkable as this Google search data shows.
Recommended by LinkedIn
Google searches for excuses to miss work hit over 2.2 million in 2022, up from just 112,400 in 2020. The belief is that the data points to The Great Resignation and return to office as reasons for the spike in searches.
There’s not a whole lot more for me to add here, check out the story below.
PRODUCTIVITY / Don’t you trust me?!
There is potential for the issues around trust to simply never go away – and this is making us less productive. At least that’s what has come out of a report in the U.S which looked at the relationship between employer trust and employee job satisfaction, productivity and predicted tenure.
I feel like we have taken a huge leap away from presenteeism = productivity but maybe there is still a hurdle to clear for some workers which is resulting in this ‘productivity paranoia.’ Certainly in the U.K, the rising cost of living could be have a negative impact on how we view working from home in relation to job security and double guessing what our employers would prefer us to be doing. Read the full article here.
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