It’s my third week as a hybrid organisation of one, and I am enjoying the new working routine! It’s very busy and also tiring to have so many new things to deal with each day, but it’s very much what I was expecting.
What I am missing at times is of course the colleagues I have worked with for many years, and in a more abstract sense, a bit of fun and interaction that comes with being part of a team. From the research I have done about hybrid working and virtual teams, I know that it takes a lot of effort and intention. So I set about making my own fun.
Regular readers will be very familiar with Posey, my dog, who for the past three years (well, nearly) has kept a faithful vigil next to my desk. Together we get through long conference days, difficult meetings, research reports and course design. And Posey is a dog who knows how to make her own fun. Sometimes just by rolling round on the carpet in the sunshine, or with her favourite cuddly toy.
But back to Halloween and hybrid working. In case the connection seems tenuous, I think Halloween is a good example of the kind of thing that in a co-located working environment is hard to miss. Cafes and canteens may have seasonal treats or pumpkin flavoured everything. There is likely to be talk of trick or treating… plans for the holidays and so on. Interaction like the ‘Secret Santa’ gift exchange is hard to replicate when you are in a team that’s distributed across the globe or when, like me, you are a team of one.
The ‘spooky’ side of home and hybrid working is that it can often feel quite lonely or isolated. Sometimes you don’t talk to another human being all day, and when you finally step away from your desk it’s dark outside. Days can easily blend into each other into one long grey slog.
Marking days like Halloween or a change in season provides me a bit of inspiration to have some fun, be silly and join into activities that I wouldn’t usually, and which can make my day more memorable.
This year, I am organising some radio with the wonderful folk at Reclaim Hosting, as part of my work with them. Get ready for Reclaim Halloween Radio on DS106radio come October 31st! I have some small decorations in my office as well, some autumn blooms and a small pumpkin and… fun tights to wear in orange and purple. Some of you may roll their eyes here, but those of us who appreciate those things will understand. In my mind, everything that helps inject some fun into my day is fair game.
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… and come walk with me. How about a day along the windswept West Wales Coastal Path? The title image for this post is taken at the tip of the St David’s peninsula around this time of year. Let’s have a day buffeted by autumn winds surrounded by colourful heather, looking out to the endless horizon. I would love to have a day like that today.
In reality, although that part of the Coastal Path is only just over two hours from my desk, I am much more likely to take a walk along the Taff Trail with the dogs today. Not quite as dramatic when it comes to scenery, but my daily miles are a wonderful daily escape, a practice for my body and mind that benefits my wellbeing as well as my productivity.
Walking is a big part of my life. It’s a necessity when you have two big dogs that want to cover 3-5 miles a day. It’s a hobby, as I walk, jog and run my way to greater physical fitness. It’s also where I like to think, reflect and have important conversations. Over the past ten years, it’s definitely become a kind of superpower that gets me through tough days.
I like walking on my own, with the dogs, with someone else, sometimes with headphones in, sometimes in my head, alone with my thoughts. During my postgrad years I developed an academic interest in walking, and some of my PhD thesis was based on ethnographic walking and a phenomenological exploration of place and landscape, so it’s fair to say that I’ve read quite a lot a about walking as a practice, as a method of enquiry, as a way of life.
It’s always inspiring to read of great explorations or long walks, spanning a whole country for example. My own walking has stayed at a much more quotidian scale. I don’t really care whether I’m taking turns in my local park, walking through bustling city streets or trudging along the Coastal Path. What is important to me, and what makes it work, is that I get to reflect and process whatever is on my mind that day. If I have the company of a coach or a friend (or most commonly my partner), I have the added benefit of someone else’s perspective and the principle remains the same.
When I worked with my mentor Margaret we used to meet up every few months for a longer session, and we always tried to make it a walk. Between these meetings all our work happened online, via email or a phone call, but whenever I really needed to think something through, figure out a new vision for the next three years or confront a difficult situation in my role as CEO, we would walk together and talk it through.
Parenting books often suggest that the best way to have conversations with teenagers is not to sit around a table, facing each other, but to create a less confrontational atmosphere when you are side by side, driving in a car or walking somewhere for example.
In a work context, particularly if you work virtually, there’re many situations in which you face each other, or a whole screen or room full of people. You face each other, stare at your own reflection, at someone’s bad hair day and so forth. It’s not often conducive to focusing on thinking and reflecting. Screens are distracting.
Stepping away from the screen can feel hard. Technology is sticky, capturing our attention, and removing yourself from its constant nudges is a key reason why taking a walk is helpful. Walking is an embodied experience, you are moving through the world, experiencing it with your senses. All of which is helpful for getting a fresh perspective and to gain clarity.
Of course, it’s not often possible to head out for a whole day on the Coastal Path. More often, a walk around the local area has to suffice, and in my experience it works just as effectively. With a bit of forethought you can even gain some of the benefits of a walk indoors. Whenever I don’t have the time to actually go outdoors, and I have a call I really need to focus on, I put my headphones in, put the screen to sleep and pace up and down in my office. Sometimes with my eyes closed, sometimes looking down at the floor or nowhere in particular. I am still moving, focusing, and not distracted by screens. It does take some practice and discipline to make this work, and it’s much easier to give yourself the benefit of actually going for a walk, but on days when you have 10 back to back meetings it may be the only option.
I am really looking forward to exploring how to step away from the screen in my upcoming course on hybrid working. I am not sure if many people realise that walking can be a hybrid working superpower… but we’ll have fun finding out. Incidentally, I designed the course to be podcast based, focusing on audio rather than video content, so that folk who would like to walk along with me could do so as they work through the course. It’s free, so why not register 🙂
Some of my coaching clients, for whom I also offer walking sessions, really enjoy having a session talking on the phone whilst exploring their local park and pathways. And sometimes, when we are able to meet in person, we get to walk and talk together. Those are always the most exciting days for me.
I haven’t done any coaching on the Coastal Path as yet, but I have had many, many excellent conversations whilst exploring that beautiful part of the world. So.. if you are ever in South Wales or if you have a path near you that would make for a good place to think, get in touch.
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This past week all my networks about hybrid and virtual working have been dominated by attention grabbing headlines from this year’s KPMG CEO Outlook survey:
Most bosses think you’ll be back in the office 5 days a week within 3 years (Fortune)
Two-thirds of CEOs think staff will return to office five days a week (The Guardian)
Most executives expect a full return to the office by 2026 (The Times)
These headlines are usually accompanied by predictions around the disadvantages employees not willing to return might face:
87% of CEOs globally – 83% in the UK – told us it’s likely or very likely that employees who make an effort to come into the office will be rewarded with favourable assignments, raises or promotions.
There is some mention of the need to carefully handle a return to the office, to take into account what employees need and want, but overall, there is a strong sense of relief that established corporate power structures are flexing their muscles by demanding that workforces return to their rightful place in every sense of the word.
When I carried out the research for my book on virtual working, I found a distinct lack of evidence that the employment policy landscape in the UK or the US was changing. Other countries, especially around Europe, used the increase in home working during the pandemic to establish laws around employees’ rights to disconnect. But here in the UK there was no sense from government of urgency to create similar policies for the long term. Instead, UK policy flexed to accommodate emergency measures and short-term solutions.
So what do we really know about what the landscape looks like in the UK beyond the outlook of CEOs? Are workplaces really preparing for a return to the office, five days a week?
This is an interesting report, based on YouGov survey data, that explores flexible and hybrid working in the UK. The report focuses on employer and employees perspectives related to changes to flexible working law.
What I found most useful is that the report gives you a sense of what the current overall scale of flexible and hybrid working is in the UK, and also how many different practices this encompasses, with everything from working from home to having a four-day week and from zero-hour contracts to career breaks.
Hybrid working, in the context of this report, requires employees to still be in the workplace for a specific number of days per month or per week. The report states: “Over half (52%) require hybrid working employees to be in the workplace for a minimum number of days in the working week/month, while 46% do not. Private sector employers are more likely to say they have a minimum requirement, and voluntary sector employers are more likely to say they do not. Overall, employees are most likely to be required in the workplace for two (35%) or three (33%) days a week.
Is this a long-term trend? Or simply organisations operating more or less as before, but with more flexible and hybrid working added on top of existing practices? When it comes to long-term impact on resourcing office space, pay and equality, the report only includes brief mentions. It does highlight that employers perceive a positive impact on productivity, recruitment and retention as well as employee financial wellbeing.
When it comes to hybrid working specifically, the report states that “Eighty-three per cent of organisations have hybrid working in place. Forty-five per cent have a formal policy, 24% take an informal approach, and 13% are developing policies through learning/trialling. When CIPD last asked this in a similar survey in June 2022, fewer had hybrid working (77%) and fewer had formal policies in place (34%).”
This is really interesting, particularly when thinking about the managers leading teams in half the organisations that have hybrid working in place, but do not have formal policies. The need to develop skills for manage this scale of changes in the workplace is clearly becoming more urgent as the proportion of workplaces who offer flexible and hybrid working increases. The report reflects this as a negative impact of more flexible and hybrid working:
Specially, ability of managers to lead teams effectively (-18)
and identify as challenging for managers managing remote teams from a wellbeing and performance perspective (41%)
Developing your skills as a leader or manager in this context is particularly difficult because so few organisations have expertise to draw on and there is little formal training led by experts who actually have a track record beyond their personal experience of working from home.
Interested in evolving your approach to Hybrid Working? Registration for my next course starting 20th October is now open and it’s free for everyone. Sign up today.
Changes to workplace laws
One of the biggest changes in the UK this year is the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill. This Bill has wide-reaching consequences for employers and employees, including granting employees the right to request flexible working from day 1 instead of after 26 weeks (background info) with the aim to make employment ‘flexible by default’.
As part of the work of the Flexible Working Taskforce, there now are a growing number of resources for employers and employees, including:
This follows on from last year’s UK consultation Making flexible working the default (December 2022) which included a focus on better understanding how informal flexible working operates in practice. It is very clear how far-reaching this particular issue is, even if the proposed changes to employment law don’t encompass all aspects:
Flexible working doesn’t just mean a combination of working from home and in the office – it can mean employees making use of job-sharing, flexitime, and working compressed, annualised, or staggered hours. … The ‘Making flexible working the default’ consultation recognised that flexible working is different for every employee, employer, and sector – it does not come in one size only. For an office worker, they may benefit from a job-share so they can better care for their children, or a factory worker may request different shift patterns that suit their balance between home and work. Because of this, the government will not instruct employers or employees on how to carry out their work, instead we encourage both parties have constructive and open-minded conversations about flexible working and find arrangements that work for each side.
However, the proposed changes do not go far enough in addressing the wider issues at stake here and this WIRED article provides a helpful insight into what’s not being tackled.
What does this tell us?
The change in the law around flexible working seems to be paying lip service to what employees demand, but is not going far enough in tacking the hybrid working issue that grab the headlines. This bill won’t protect the rights of employees if bosses increase demands to return to the office full time or ensure that those not returning won’t be disadvantaged. It doesn’t put onus on employers to up skill managers or upgrade infrastructure to exploit the full potential that hybrid working could offer. What it covers is too broad an area and not clearly enough defined to support hybrid working specifically.
There’s also something else at stake here, which comes out in the KPMG survey, a sense that work is all about people, “that business are about people, after all”. There is a lot of talk of nurturing wellbeing, supporting careers and offering the right sort of value proposition to employees with whom “hybrid working is extremely popular”.
Businesses are about making profits, and I am pretty such that the companies that take part in the KPMG survey and those quoted as ‘leading the return to the office’ such as Amazon and Google, are not seeing how giving employees more flexibility, continuously up-skilling managers to adapt to flexible workforces and making less use of extensive corporate campuses will benefit their bottom line.
Hybrid working is extremely popular not because some people can’t see that it’s more fun to have a coffee with colleagues than staring at endless video calls through a laptop screen. Hybrid working is popular because it enables people to cope with the competing demands of their lives, including family or caring responsibilities. It means spending less time and money on commuting, eating lunch alone and buying office appropriate clothes. Hybrid working has opened up a new perspective for many that work matters less, and being outside, spending time with family or simply taking a breath is more important than work.
Yes, hybrid working is complex and not without downsides, as I have explored at length elsewhere, but these headlines about mandating a return to the office seem to be much more about executives clinging onto old power structures than caring about people. Let’s not give into that and instead use the momentum created by the increase in hybrid working during the pandemic to shape the future of work for good.
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Today is an exciting day. It’s the first Monday of the first week in which I am full-time in my new business. Maren Deepwell Coaching & Consultancy is now fully underway. Woohooo!
It’s been a long time coming, and I didn’t really know what to expect from today. It feels a little strange not to return to the familiar busy inbox and long-time colleagues after returning from a two week holiday. Instead I sit at the same desk, in the same room, but in the unfamiliar virtual HQ of my new venture. It does feel strange and also thrilling.
As I have had months to wait, plan and prepare for this day, I have intentionally made a schedule for my first day and my first week on the job. The purpose is to provide a structure within which I can start to establish my new workflows, processes and routines.
Of course, the structure I put in place needs to flex in response to the demands of the new projects and clients I get to work with, that was clear to me from the outset. That said, one of the reasons why I set out to work on a free-lance basis is that I get to have a lot more control over what my days look like.
Monday mornings are not my favourite time of the week, and used to be taken up with a lot of catching up with emails, staffing matters, meetings and so forth. When I sat down to decide what my ‘ideal’ start to the week would look like I had to pause and think. After decades of not having much choice, suddenly having all options open felt a little daunting. Quickly I realised that what I really want to start the week with is time to think. To use the energy, focus and creativity I have early in the day to work on things that require some vision and some uninterrupted time to think.
Thus, my schedule for first thing Monday morning now reads: thinking time. And it feels awesome to have such a start to the week.
Today was my first morning of thinking about things, and I am quite pleased with how it went. I use Asana to plan and organise my work, and I set up a weekly task for Monday mornings, so I can keep a running list of anything that I need to work on or think about. Today’s list included writing a strategy document for the remainder of this year, to update my business plan for Q3, and to think about my financial strategy and reporting. Plus, blogging my first day.
Our day at home started early today, so I was at my desk first thing, with a blank screen in front of me, ready for ‘thinking time’. It’s a bit odd to change jobs as a home-worker, as you don’t have a lot of physical changes to help you make a transition like this: No new commute, new office, new desk or coffee with new colleagues.
Instead, I made efforts to change my digital set up and create a new workspace for myself: a new desktop, a new desktop organiser, new tools like a new email client, calendar and so forth, as well as nice filing structures etc.
Working with Canva and Asana, I made good progress on the strategic tasks for the day, updating various plans and actions, scheduling tasks and thinking through what I would need to do to achieve my objectives for the last few months of the year.
It’s been a while since I started a new role, but what I am quite certain of is that time flies when you have a lot of new experiences, and so I want to chronicle some of my days via the blog (and some via my closed work journals). I love looking back at my entries from previous roles and projects, and reflect on how much things have developed since.
It’s my first day back at my desk today after a two week break, and I am happy to report that both rest and fun where had! It’s been a while since I had two weeks off, and my top tip for my future self is to do that more often. One week is never quite enough to really relax, and I loved the extra days before and after travelling to Crete that the extra week afforded me.
My partner and I did plenty of reading by the pool, mini golf, gym, lazy lunches and even longer dinners, enjoying the late summer vibes and Greek produce. Pretty much every picture has me eating or drinking or my face is hidden in a book. I took five books on holiday (I prefer taking printed versions abroad), and all were devoured.
My other activity on holiday was to take A LOT of pictures of plants, and to turn some of them into water colours. Having not done a lot of drawing for a while, and I really enjoyed the creative, easy practice of making a drawing a day. It was awesome to indulge in my love of plants, and to learn more about the local plants along the way.
Here’s a peek at the result:
Now that I am back, I’m busy getting ready for some new projects, including the next run of my podcast based hybrid working course. Join us from 20th October – register free now. Keen to learn a bit more about the story behind the course and how I came to be so interested in all things hybrid and virtual working? Listen to the story which spans from Germany to London in my art school years, and from Athens to Oxford as my work moved from Art to Anthropology and then Education, this episode sets out what I think is interesting about hybrid and virtual working, why it’s important and why now is the time to really find ways of working that work for you.
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In this week’s podcast I share some of my personal history and how I came to be so interested in all things hybrid and virtual working. From Germany to London in my art school years, and from Athens to Oxford as my work moved from Art to Anthropology and then Education, this episode sets out what I think is interesting about hybrid and virtual working, why it’s important and why now is the time to really find ways of working that work for you.
Listen to the episode:
What are your hybrid working conundrums? Leave a comment or email me with you questions and problems when it comes to hybrid working, and I’ll pick these up in the upcoming episodes.
One of the consequences of the global pandemic in the workplace is an increased demand for flexible and hybrid working. In response, employers are offering staff to work from home more regularly, and come into the office or on campus for less time each week. Flexible working is intended to increase staff satisfaction, productivity, and retention at a time when we have moved from the great resignation of 2021 to an endemic of ‘quiet quitting’. At the same time, effectively working from home has become a sought after skill in the workplace, particularly as some of the negative impacts of long term home working on (mental) health, equality, diversity and inclusion and staff engagement have started to emerge.
Bridging the gap between the growing hybrid workforce of knowledge workers and the (lack) of organisational vision for the post-pandemic workplace, are the managers and leaders leading increasingly virtual teams. It is their job to translate the newfound flexibility into effective collaboration between colleagues. It is their challenge to establish communication channels that engage a hybrid workforce with diverse needs, balancing work with other commitments. A workforce for whom coming to the office or on campus may be a hated necessity or indeed a much sought after opportunity. Not everyone loves working from home, sharing a desk or meeting in a coffee shop.
If you are looking to move from overwhelm and burnout to finding balance, then this course is for you.
Develop the skills you need
This course is designed to help develop skills to:
Audit your hybrid working habits to find out how your current habits are impacting on you and what to change;
Set boundaries for a better life/work balance and stick to them even when things are busy;
Increase productivity away from the screen by using strategies for communicating and collaborating outside of meetings;
Communicate more effectively in the hybrid workplace in a way that works for you and reduces digital overwhelm.
Course activities
Listen to the podcast
The course has four parts and each part is introduced by a podcast episode that sets out the key ideas for the topic. I have chosen the podcast format to enable you to follow the course at your own pace, listening when it suits you and also to minimise screen time needed to take part in the course. Whether you listen to the course as you walk the dog, cook or sit in a comfy chair, this course is designed to take you away from your screen and constant stream of notifications. You just have to listen.
Reflect on your practice in weekly hangouts
Each topic is accompanied by prompts and questions to help you reflect on your professional practice. We will use these prompts in weekly course sessions to take a deeper dive into ways of working in the hybrid workplace and reflect on how your habits aligns with your goals and values. You can choose whether you write your reflections down, share them with others in the course or keep them private for yourself.
Explore new ways of working
Each topic comes resources and tools to explore. You can try out new idea for yourself or join one of the weekly drop-in sessions for personalised support.
Who is the course for?
This course is designed for emerging and established leaders and managers working in a hybrid or fully virtual setting in education and the not-for-profit sector. We will focus on how to develop effective home/hybrid working strategies. Whether you are collaborating online on a project, organising distributed volunteers or managing a whole hybrid working department, this course will support you to move from overwhelm and burnout to finding balance.
Register today
4 Week Course Listener – free
Listen via your favourite podcast app
Follow at your own pace
Explore resources via the show notes
Upgrade anytime!
4 Week Course Explorer – £29
Course content straight to your inbox
Weekly course hangout & drop-in support
End of course summary with resource pack
Certificate & badge upon completion
4 Week Course Explorer + Personal Coaching – £229 Course Explorer package PLUS:
