When Coworkers Are Complete Strangers

Have you ever met—or do you ever expect to meet—your new boss in person? Even as some big firms demand everyone back in the office, many workers at firms offering remote or hybrid arrangements never meet each other. Can companies find a way to build a culture around this? And speaking of culture, we have some tips around avoiding the all-too-common slipups that happen during holiday work parties, as well as a look at how this year's fluky holiday calendar has thrown scheduling for a loop.

1) Strangers Among Us

For decades, most casual workplace banter was not about work. Colleagues talked about The Sopranos or planned the next basketball-league practice or swapped tales of woe about parenting in the age of flip phones. But there’s a new norm for millions of workers: 58% of the US workforce, or 92 million workers, report that they can work remotely sometimes, according to one study. Roughly one in six companies is entirely remote. Yes, remote and hybrid workers are employed, with all the trappings of work—company laptops, deadlines, and performance reviews—but they’ve never met a colleague in person, and they’re not attending the company holiday party. No matter how dedicated they are, their overall engagement with their company and coworkers is, by definition, impersonal and fragmented. 

The vast majority of companies are operating on hybrid or remote arrangements that seem to leave little room for culture. How, leaders ask, does an organization maintain a thriving culture among people who have never met—and whose only relationship consists of talking about work (and minimally at that)?

Read the full article here.

2) A Rough Year-End Schedule

Most years, managers schedule a vacation week, and that’s that. But this year is a whole different story—a wonky period in which both Christmas and New Year’s fall on Wednesdays, and Hanukkah begins on December 25th. In each instance, employees don’t want to work the following Thursdays and Fridays; meanwhile, parents are in a childcare crunch. If leaders don’t deal with it now, they could run into unexpected delays or miss key priorities.

To be sure, employees in industries that don’t shut down—such as healthcare, hospitality, retail, and transportation—are accustomed to working year-round, as are others who work with clients in those fields. In 2023, 28% of U.S. employees worked on weekends, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, suggesting that roughly 20% to 25% of the workforce is employed by organizations operating seven days a week. But that leaves approximately three-quarters of employees hankering for two full weeks of holiday vacation.

Read the full article here.

3) 5 Ways to Avoid Holiday-Party Slipups

They’re baaaack.

Office-holiday-party season is in full swing, and firms are celebrating in all kinds of ways. From small team gatherings to large catered blowouts to Zoom cocktails, leaders are experimenting with different formats and settings this year. Data from ezCater, a marketplace connecting business-party planners with restaurants and caterers, shows that 54% of company parties will host 100 or fewer guests, that one-quarter of companies are planning formal sit-down meals, and that nearly half of all parties will take place in the afternoon, during work hours.

For employees, navigating holiday parties always involves a delicate blend of personality and professionalism—and different settings can make them even trickier. 

Read the full article here.

Other Must-Reads from Korn Ferry

• Office Workhorses: Will They Be Needed? - Nearly two-thirds of employees in a recent survey describe themselves as the “office workhorse.” Why that could be a problem for leaders.  
• Spy on Me—Just Not at Work - Year-end data “wraps” by consumer firms show people are tracked much more than they realize. But if it’s not at work, do they care?
• The Trust in All of Us - Korn Ferry CEO Gary Burnison explains how the trustworthiness we want to see in others starts with ourselves.

Check out Briefings, our bimonthly national magazine, for in-depth and unusual looks at critical leadership issues.