Posted at 2:00 p.m.
The women’s place
All of your arguments are interesting, but the one I hadn’t thought of and which concerns me is that of the place of women in business. In fact, work-family balance is more often the concern of women. Our society has made a lot of progress over the last decades on the place of women in senior management and I fear that all these efforts will be mitigated by this new mode of work organization that is teleworking. I support your proposal to manage with empathy and according to the realities of each one, so I believe that companies should set up programs enabling women to make themselves known and to be able to gain easier access to projects or strategic mandates when children or aging parents need them less.
Lucie Veilleux
Hard to let go
So much ! I held the same speech in 2007 (you read well 2007!) whereas the company for which I worked for a long time had just acquired a competitor. Already, working with his competitor from yesterday presented its share of challenges. Well ! This happy bunch used to work full-time remotely. In order to attempt a certain fusion, they were asked to work three days a week at the office… horror! People were really not happy and it showed in the interactions. We never managed to make mayonnaise take… When your boss arrives at the office, puts on his headphones and doesn’t leave his office, that’s telling you how much he doesn’t want to know anything! I have since retired, I don’t miss it!
Elene Dubois
Autonomy, productivity and efficiency
The only problem with telecommuting is the city center which is emptying, its vitality is taking a hit. Otherwise, with today’s technology, we’re more productive, spend fewer hours in traffic, can put out fires even in meetings and all those hollow sauce principles lean management suddenly have less control over distance. To have returned to the face-to-face days “obligated” and to have noticed that my whole team was working sitting in front of their screen, where is the added value? No more unsolicited discussions in the corner of the cubicle, no more fishy smells — it should be forbidden to bring fish for lunch to the office — no more parades of wannabes in fitted jackets and suits. Who really misses infantilizing meeting/workshop days? Telework allows for increased productivity, more efficient time management and real autonomy.
Martin Levesque
hidden illusions
What insightful thinking! I fully share your observations and concerns. There are more issues related to working from home than people think. Behind this enthusiasm hide many illusions. Thank you for this awareness column.
Jacques Marsan, public communications and media coach
Still the women who suffer
I agree with you 100%. I see very well all the advantages of teleworking for mothers, but it is still women who will pay the price of not being present in the office for all the advantages that you give to being in the office.
Martine Perron
Human needs
This hybrid mode of work, if most of the time is done at home, leads to a loss of efficiency at work because of all the missed opportunities to collaborate and exchange informal practices, which are not transmitted only in person. There is also this human need to be part of something. We still spend a good part of our life at work. It would be dehumanizing to spend all this time alone between four walls. There are several advantages to hybrid work, but let’s not forget that it is the employees who could be the first victims if it were to become an obligation, or even a way of saving companies.
Chantal Desjardins
The benefits of being together
Hello Laurence, sorry for this quick familiarity, but I recognized myself so much in your article on teleworking, it gave me the impression that we had known each other for a long time. With each sentence of your article, I had a nod. We are heading so much towards a wall with teleworking, worse with the hybrid form, it is obvious like the nose in the middle of the face. For employees this may seem like a benefit, but time is on our side for us leaders, they will realize the benefits of being together. But during this time, the management challenges multiply and become more complex. The phenomenon of entrepreneurs abandoning businesses is certainly linked to this. We are also beginning to experience other perverse effects of telework such as the quiet quitting, among others. Wishing that the year 2023 will be the year of a return to normal. This will be my time limit as manager/owner before accepting offers from American companies to buy my information technology companies.
Luc Séguin, President and CEO, 5Xperts inc.