The employer vs. employee reckoning on “maintaining the culture”

That picture above is from a New York Times “DealBook” report on working after COVID, which is probably the 97,121st thing published on that topic in the last seven days. As you can see from it, the highest # of days that employers want employees in the office seems to be 3 (29%), and the highest number of days that employees want to be remote seems to be 5 (also 29%).

There’s a potential reckoning there, for sure. I think in a lot of white-collar, supposed “knowledge” work, we already had this push-back for years. In 2008, I was at ESPN in New York City. One of my direct co-workers was from Washington State; his family was getting together in Idaho for a week, at a lake cabin. He wanted to attend, but not take vacation. Our boss was demanding he take vacation. He kept talking about how the cabin and the mountain had WiFi and he didn’t want to burn vacation days on it; he’d just work while he was there. They had literally four straight days of fights about this, and I think eventually he was forced to use vacation, with the boss saying snarkily “Well, enjoy your family time.” But to all of us, even in 2008, pre-Obama even winning, it underscored that a lot of white-collar stuff can indeed be done remotely. Then we had another 12 years where that reality was out there but everyone trudged into offices most days, even though the distractions of an office are about a $588 billion GDP hit annually.

COVID shifted a lot of stuff. Exactly what it shifted and for how long and what the long-term repercussions are? We have no clue. But it’s going to shift something about our relationship to work, be that physical or emotional or both. Here’s what it seems like the first wave of change will be.

A push-back on definitions of culture

Culture is what you call a “suitcase word.” It carries many definitions to many people. Some people do want to wear jeans; some want nap pods. Some want opportunities for growth (many do, actually) and some want dry cleaning on-site. Some want access to the top dogs. Some want to leave by 3:50pm to get their kids and not be bothered. All these things are elements of “culture.”

The problem has long been that executives, who shape the culture but are also not beholden to it —…