Another week, another ‘Wave’ 🗞️

5 news items from the world of work and workplace you can digest in 5 minutes.

This week:

1. Are companies offering the flexible options employees want?
2. NYC will use cell data to study the impact of hybrid work
3. Employers are failing to recognize why staff won’t RTO

The Right Perks: Are companies offering the flexible options employees want? U.S. workers reported being most commonly offered relaxed dress code (55%), flexible start and end times (33%), and choice over the hours they work (flextime) (31%). But when asked by Gallup which options they would change jobs to get, there were two clear winners: increased paid time off or vacation time (57%) and four-day work weeks (44%). “How can leaders ultimately decide which flexibility alternatives work best for their organizations’ on-site employees? One way is to involve those employees in thinking about which realistic flexibility options might improve their overall lives and their team’s performance,” said Gallup ’s chief scientist, Jim Harter . Read Full Article.

Work From Anywhere: Are ‘work from anywhere’ weeks the new summer Fridays? While many companies have returned to some measure of in-person work and laid down the law on return-to-office policies (with varying degrees of success), a small group is experimenting with a compromise. At companies like Google and Mastercard , employees are given “work from anywhere” (WFA) weeks, usually two to four per year, that allow them the freedom to travel or visit loved ones. “Prior to the pandemic we were butts-in-seats culture — we were in the office all the time,” said Laura Proctor , senior vice president at ad agency Doe-Anderson . But after the Covid lockdowns changed everything, employees didn’t miss a beat, Proctor said. “We developed the work from anywhere program as a way to acknowledge that we know people want to explore, we know we're coming off a time in our lives where many of us miss seeing our family and our friends for months, years.” Read Full Article. 

No Parties Needed: WeWork isn’t working — again, reports The Washington Post . The flexible-working startup once worth $47 billion has lost its CEO and CFO in the space of a few days. With everyone from Alphabet Inc.’s Google to Deutsche Bank AG going “hybrid” for the foreseeable future, WeWork is still failing to break even. “For those arguing that creating more fun in the office will help, WeWork’s woes suggest otherwise. If cities and workplaces really want to lure people back to their workplaces, perhaps they should make them better to work in, not party in,” said Lionel Laurent , Bloomberg opinion columnist. “Improved public transport, more affordable real estate, quieter workspaces with faster Internet would change the game. Given studies that show the average knowledge worker needs as many as 23 minutes to get back on track after being interrupted, who wants to work to the sound of a ping-pong table?” Read Full Article.

Work Behavior: NYC will use cell data to study the impact hybrid work has on mass transit, reports New York Post . The federally-funded study conducted by the city Department of Planning will analyze a series of data points provided by cell phones used in office buildings and other locations to better understand people’s movements following “long-term shifts” in travel patterns first triggered by the pandemic. “The use of cell phone data allows for the opportunity to understand trip behavior, economic activity, footfall, and significant mobility patterns with more precise location and time information in comparison to previously accessible data,” reads the plan by New York Metropolitan Transportation Council . The draft report explains the need for a “comprehensive analysis” of the shift to remote work in order to “guide future decisions about the region’s transportation network and economic growth strategy.” Read Full Article.

Understanding Employees: Employers are failing to recognize the drivers behind workers’ reluctance to return to the office, according to a recent Unispace study. The majority surveyed (58%) say there are too many distractions in the office. Many lamented the lack of privacy and 27% feel they are more effective in a quieter environment. Surprisingly, however, their managers take an opposite stance, with 83% stating the office enables their employees to be productive, believing it’s the commute that most discourages more regular attendance. But they might have every interest in doing so, according to the Unispace survey as the majority of employers (84%) claim that career prospects are limited for people who only work from home. Read Full Article.