The work-from-where conundrum: Life Hacks by Charles Assisi

As Covid numbers fall and workplaces begin to reopen, I hear conflicted voices. Some are wondering if it makes sense to maintain expensive real-estate that isn’t really needed. Others cannot rationalise going back to the drudgery of long commutes after having experienced the work-from-anywhere (WFA) life. Still others are grappling with how to compensate, in the WFA model, for the camaraderie that a workplace enables.

Still, conversations over the months, with dozens of people across the country, all point to the possibility that the workplace may not exist in its current form much longer. The pandemic has proven that most white-collar work can be done from anywhere.

Take banking. Talking to high-ranking executives makes it clear that, even in this field, most employees were able to adapt to working remotely. Data suggests that efficiency levels actually improved.

Some do want life to go back to life as it was two years ago, but they admit it’s not strictly for the work. After much discussion, a banker in his mid-50s finally confessed that what he was missing were the perks, such as his large office. That space amplified his standing. From there, he could look out and see people lower down in the hierarchy; berate a person if need be. A large part of his identity was tied to this aspect of his workplace, and he wanted it back.

A Bengaluru-based software professional in his mid-40s, whom I have always thought of as an introvert, admits that his work can be done from pretty much anywhere. But after the curbs were eased, he went back to a full workweek. Why? “I like to hear people talk behind the boss’s back,” he said, chuckling.

He admits that the millennials (those in their 20s and 30s) who report into him think differently. They don’t like being pinned to a schedule or a place. If they deliver as they promised, what they do with the rest of their time is not the company’s business, they argue. So, he doesn’t insist they come in.

The voices of those who have returned to their offices for the sake of the work are equally interesting. “It doesn’t feel the same” is a refrain I hear often. Anirudh Suri, founding partner at India Internet Fund and author of The Great Tech Game (2022), points out that it will take time to establish a new normal. “Most workplaces must change. Some have moved two steps forward and one step backward,” he adds.

There is another vital aspect that must be accounted for: the rapidly changing nature of work itself. Typically, work is defined as a job or a task that a worker is paid to perform, because they find it fulfilling, it meets their needs, and it meets a need in their community.

Those needs are changing, and are being met in rapidly changing ways. My younger child tells me she wants to be a YouTuber with a culinary channel. I’d never thought of that as a career option until she pointed me to Kat Norton, also known as Miss Excel because she markets intricate courses on how to get the most out of that software program. She has a combined following of over one million on TikTok and Instagram. She earns millions a year, and has zero employees. Who am I to argue with that? It is, in fact, the kind of tale hacks like me live to tell.

(The writer is co-founder at Founding Fuel & co-author of The Aadhaar Effect)