Great reset? More like Fake Reset: Leaders need a reality check if they think their best staff will give up hybrid work
- Reference: 1627461010
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/28/the_fake_reset/
- Source link:
" [1]The Great Reset " recast the massive economic dislocations produced by endless lockdowns as a chance to rethink and rebuild the world's economic foundations along more sustainable and equitable lines.
If that proposal seems a bit rich – coming as it does from the world's richest and most powerful – it felt positively predatory to these friends of mine. They immediately began to propose nightmare scenarios where all existing money loses its value, replaced by some centrally issued and controlled digital currencies – something that would look like a mechanism to ensure greater equity, but would quickly be revealed as an overarching instrument of control.
[2]
As with all of the good intentions that come out of the World Economic Forum, The Great Reset came to nothing. Instead, as the pandemic receded – temporarily, it would appear – we have been left stranded on the same stretch of coastline as before, with all of the same questions about sustainability and equity, only amplified by an additional set of worries about resilience and safety. Our prospects alternate between a hyper-charged [3]Roaring Twenties and a brittle sense of permanent vulnerability.
[4]
[5]
Is it any surprise that so many long for a return to a pre-COVID normal – a time when they could reasonably expect each day to be much like the day before?
From my experience, it seems that the more you benefited from the world that was, the more likely you are to yearn for its return. In multiple conversations with C-suite executives, I've been shocked to hear them say they expect everything to soon return to the last normal they ever knew: February 2020.
[6]
We can see this tug-of-war between wishes and reality playing out across the technology workforce. Bosses [7]demand workers dutifully return to their offices, during defined hours, for defined roles. Workers resist, working when they can from wherever they can, shifting to a focus on outcomes rather than output. Managers wants the levers of control back to their pre-pandemic settings, while the managed recognise that as a mirage – a fantasy of control – and get on with it.
[8]Apple delays recalling staff to offices until October as Delta variant romps across US
[9]Happy 'Freedom Day': Stats suggest many in England don't want it or think it's a terrible idea
[10]Salesforce: Forget the ping-pong and snacks, the 9-to-5 working day is just so 2019, it's over and done with
[11]SAP co-CEO: I'm leavin' on a jet plane... Davos knows that I'll be back again...Oh babe, I hate to go (back to work)
Should the bosses press this point too far, they'll learn that their staffers [12]would rather quit than fight for their right to hybrid work. Enough leaders at enough firms have got the memo that things have changed to present alluring opportunities for all the talented folks who simply can't be bothered operating their lives along lines that the pandemic has made redundant.
The talent migration already under way will reinforce this trend. The firms clinging to the past endure repeated raids that denude them of their best, most talent individuals. They'll progressively be hollowed out, while a new generation of firms – those that have embraced the maxim Fortune Favours the Flexible – amplify their capacities to innovate, adapt, and grow.
The Real Reset isn't something mandated by a cohort of cloud-dwelling billionaires. It's created by the individual decisions of millions of people who know their futures depend on leveraging the flexibility that is the one silver lining in this whole long horror show of COVID-19, and hitch their wagons to that star. Leaders who bury their heads in the sand, wishing for a world of work that can never return, will be left behind, defenceless before the next wave. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Reset
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YQEqsp-g3mp08uefu7DRRAAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/18/ukgov_integrated_review_cyber/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQEqsp-g3mp08uefu7DRRAAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YQEqsp-g3mp08uefu7DRRAAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQEqsp-g3mp08uefu7DRRAAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/02/apple_retail_hybrid_working/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/20/apple_staff_return/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/19/freedom_day/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/10/salesforce_wfh/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/22/sap/
[12] https://news.yahoo.com/great-resignation-upwards-40-workers-100240012.html
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Flexibility is key.
Starting out on your career, living in a shared house, you might relish the chance to get into the office, have the bants, be around for Friday pints and so on.
50 years old, kids self-sufficient to a large extent, why would you want the commute every day?
It Depends…
If your work is IT based, then sure, you can work from anywhere. However, there is a whole world out there beyond your basement hideout that works differently.
Re: It Depends…
Ultimately on what works to achieve profitability, no matter what you wish for, whether or not you get it comes down to money for the bodses and investors.
Sure, staff can walk but only to the next job, if the job functions well with WFH staff, fine, if not what are the choices? Keep walking?
I don't think there are any permanent and settled answers as it is too soon to see where things are going.
The great reset
The WEF's plans tend to be quite long-term, certainly more far-sighted than the average middle manager. The working from home scenario becoming commonplace somewhat plays into their hands as it encourages every kind of transaction to be done over the internet. A digital currency underwritten by those guys would just be the start of it.
Even the great reset won't do anything about the boom-bust cycle though.
Generals always fight the last war
Many managers will want things to go back to the way they were, but that's not going to happen as those who have talent will be able to work flexibly from now on.
As for The Great Reset, it's either a sinister plan to take over the wealth of the planet or some crazy vague aspirations depending on who you ask. I'm pretty sure the governments around the world are not organised enough to come together and "build back better". Either that or they are all just pretending to be inept, and it's all part of the big plan. ;-)
Going on-site has certainly been made redundant in IT
The last 18 months have not only demonstrated that IT workers can do their jobs perfectly well from any Internet connection, it has also demonstrated that they're doing their jobs just as well - if not better - than before.
I do hear regrets about not having water-cooler conversations any more, and there is a wee bit of pining to see other human beings again, but I'm convinced that most IT workers will stand by a sizeable portion of working from home time during the week.
And I'm not talking about two days per month.
A large consulting company I work with has mandated one day per week at HQ - rotated by teams. Of course, it's a consulting company, so it figures that there are coordination meetings and such that justify bringing in a group of people so that they can exchange usefully, as humans beings do. Also of course, it's a consulting company, so it figures that, the rest of the week, the company wants it consultants working for their clients - remotely.