will get their work done well and on time. Top executives appear most confident about that issue, with 84 percent of board members agreeing that their organizations’ leaders believe that home-based employees will do good work on time. What’s more, a decisive majority of respondents (77 percent) “strongly agree” or “agree” that company leaders regularly check in with employees to see how they are doing, suggesting that digital tools have allowed for a type of “management by walking around” that some believed would be difficult to maintain with workers residing mostly outside the office. Contrary to another common assumption regarding remote and hybrid arrangements, so far FOMO doesn’t appear to be a huge problem with remote and hybrid workers. Only about a third of all survey respondents identified it as worrisome. And the less senior employees are, the less likely they are to worry about FOMO at all. When asked to rate their level of concern about getting sufficient face time with their managers and others important to their careers, 43 percent of senior executives describe themselves as “very concerned.” Only 19 percent of individual contributors, on the other hand, consider themselves “very concerned” in that regard; “an impressive 40 percent say they’re not concerned at all,” said MIT SMR analysts. Higher-level executives are also more worried that hybrid or remote situations could make them appear to be insufficiently motivated about their work or careers, of which 41 percent of senior executives are “very concerned” compared to about a quarter of individual contributors who are “very concerned.” Likewise, a majority (52 percent) of respondents in the survey say the line of sight into their own career trajectories has improved, while another 36 percent say it remained about the same. Only 9 percent said their trajectories became less clear. “Clarity likely stems from increased trust in management. The vast majority of respondents believe that management trusts them and that they are being recognized for the work they do,” said the MIT SMR study, which found that a large majority of 83 percent said they have confidence in their companies’ senior leaders to strengthen the overall sense of belonging. “COVID hit suddenly like a thunderstorm,” said Kevin Martin, chief research officer at the Institute for Corporate Productivity. “With business under threat, managers and executives really rose to the occasion. And that seems to have made people much more comfortable and built their trust.” Of course, digital communications tools and video conferencing, in particular, have played a large part in keeping folks collaborating and connected to culture. So, what about the dreaded Zoom fatigue? It might not be as prevalent as it is repeatedly mentioned. According to Pew Research Center, most workers who regularly use online platforms to connect with co-workers say they are fine with the amount of time they spend on video calls. About one-in-four say they are worn out by it. Perhaps folks have built up some stamina. Back in October of 2020, 37 percent of regular teleworkers who often used online conferencing said they were worn out by the amount of time spent on video calls, said Pew, although there was a larger percent of workers operating remotely. If nothing else, this research suggests organizations have done a fairly good job of avoiding some of the expected and potential downsides of a dispersed workforce. “I think it’s a fair statement to look at these findings and say that managers in remote and hybrid environments have very deep concerns and understand the possible pitfalls,” argued Robert C. Pozen, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management Investments and coauthor of Remote Inc.: How to Thrive at Work … Wherever You Are (Harper Business, 2021). “They are being very intentional about how to manage these situations and seem to be pretty successful.” It also should cause those organizations to pause as they consider “returning to normal,” argued MIT SMR researchers. “It’s important,” concluded the research firm, “to preserve those gains in whatever new environments evolve beyond the pandemic, as opposed to simply going back to the ‘old normal.’” J Meeting per person Chats per person Average fter-hours work Average workday span What Remote Workers Say they Need Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 23% Access to same benefits as oce workers 22% Reimbursing costs for maintaning a home oce 20% Remote brainstorming and workshops (Percent saying it’s critical) 18% Social events for remote workers 17% Reimbursing costs of space in coworking sites Bad Bot Reported User Agent Types, 2016-2020 Source: Imper va (Percent saying it’s critical) 0% 5% 0% 5% 0% 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 75.9% 83.2% 78.1% 79.4% 68.0% 16.1% 10.4% 13.9% 12.9% 28.1% 8.0% 6.4% 8.0% 7.7% 3.9% Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari Mobile User Agents Other User Agents 13 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
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