What lies ahead for the future of work? While none of us have a crystal ball to see the future, keeping up with the news helps team leaders be one step ahead and adapt to workplace changes and trends.
To help managers make sense of the latest news and separate the signal from the noise, we are back with the latest episode of the latest workplace trends digest. Generally, last week was turbulent and uneasy:
Microsoft announced layoffs and Salesforce is trimming its workforce. Yet, there’s good news, too – amidst recession and uncertainty, leaders are still committed to hybrid work and helping their teams stay fulfilled.
Lastly, looking back at the past is as helpful for detecting patterns and trends about the future of work, as tracking the news of the present. That’s why you might want to go back to our collection of workplace trend digests and explore other change-making news stories.
Layoffs
Elon Musk reportedly wants to lay off 75% of Twitter’s staff | TechCrunch
It was clear from the get-go that there will be a “before” and “after” for Twitter when Elon Musk takes over it. Everybody speculated on how well remote work would hold up and how the corporate culture will change. In his explosive fashion, the billionaire is going beyond the wildest expectations, as he allegedly plans to lay off 75% of the company.
Microsoft reportedly lays off up to 1,000 employees | Axios
The last two years were a wild ride for Microsoft. The company’s profits are rising steadily and new products are consistently entering the market. Yet, as most tech companies, Microsoft is bracing itself for the hard times by reportedly laying off up to 1,000 employees.
Salesforce hit with layoffs and a new hiring freeze | Protocol
In 2020, Salesforce infamously laid off hundreds of employees after announcing record quarterly revenue and going on about ESG goals. Back then, the company got wild backlash for leaving hundreds of people hanging amidst the pandemic. Since then, there were no major layoffs at Salesforce, but it looks like Salesforce is at it again – it has announced a hiring freeze and layoffs have been reported.
Gopuff fires up to 250 employees amid a slowing economy | Bloomberg
The instant delivery startup with a 15B valuation is trimming its customer support team: the company is letting over 200 people go. GoPuff motivates the decision with the need to adjust to the turbulent market. It’s not the first time the company has laid staff off this year – it has already shed part of its workforce in February.
Remote and hybrid work
How LinkedIn redesigned its HQ for hybrid work | Harvard Business Review
Coming out of the pandemic, how do you build an office space that accommodates all work styles that have emerged over the last 2 years? LinkedIn took that challenge on and redesigned its Silicon Valley headquarters. Some decisions are predictable – reducing the number of workstations, others are surprisingly creative, like designing so-called “social floors” and spaces that would meet the needs of introverted employees.
5 ways to create team resilience in the era of hybrid work | World Economic Forum
A once-in-a-generation shift in work styles is not just about alternating between the office and remote work. It’s a profound change in the way we view work as a social contract. In the workplace of the past, the leader was seen as the caretaker of the team – in that in the workplace of the future, ensuring progress is a team effort. Knowing how to involve everyone on the team in long-term decisions makes teams more resilient and helps them through the trying times – be they a pandemic or a recession.
Office workers embrace hybrid working as post-pandemic norm | FT
Financial Times shares new data to explore how well teams are getting used to a post-pandemic workplace and track attitude changes. According to the numbers, hybrid work is gaining momentum and most believe it will be the work style of the future.
The best cities for remote work | New York Times
With remote work becoming commonplace, gone are the days of choosing a place to live purely based on career opportunities. Now that employees can work with companies across the country (and from all over the world), they are using the opportunity to move away from urban centers. So, if you have the ability to live anywhere, where should you go?
Culture and leadership
How to intervene when your team has too much work | Harvard Business Review
With Great Resignation on one end of the spectrum and layoffs or hiring freezes on the other, a lot of leaders are short-staffed and struggling under the pressure to hit performance targets. If your team, too, is struggling with insane workloads, learn what you can do to alleviate their stress without losing efficiency.
How managers can help teams avoid burnout | CNBC
When you read articles about “quiet quitting” or Great Resignation, at one point, they mention burnout. It is truly one of the reasons why teams collapse and employees lose engagement and enthusiasm. Team leaders can have a hard time dealing with burnout (especially since employees don’t admit to it until it’s too late) but there are simple techniques managers can adopt to minimize burnout’s disastrous effects.
How to fight back against the inhumanity of modern work | New York Times
Humans have a lot of strong suits – we are resourceful, creative, and determined, up to the point of spreading across the entire planet and aiming to explore extraterrestrial space. Yet, we have weak points as well – having bodily needs, being distracted, or feeling unmotivated are also intrinsically human attributes. In a modern workplace, where machines become increasingly ubiquitous, these human qualities are a nuisance, so they are being pushed out of view. As a result work is becoming inhumane, putting enormous pressure on the humans it’s supposed to sustain and support.
Everything you need to know before embarking on salary transparency | Quartz
Do you know how much your teammates make? Most likely, your answer is “no” – payment transparency is still far from being a universal practice. That’s why the issues like unfair payment are quickly swept under the rug. To increase job equality, forward-facing leaders are introducing payment transparency – but the shift has its unique challenges. Learn which systemic changes you should implement to make sure transparency brings the team together, not apart.
Workplace trends
Women leaders are leaving the workforce at a record rate. It’s the ‘Great Breakup’ with corporate America, Sheryl Sandberg says | Fortune
We’ve seen a wave of resignations among female leaders – from Liz Truss leaving the post the British PM after just 46 days in the office to Sheryl Sandberg leaving Meta a few months back. The latter spoke up on “female leader exodus” giving it quite a catchy name: “The Great Breakup”.
The Office of the Future Is Greener, More Social, and Might Even Include Childcare | TIME
The main problem with hybrid work is that going to the office is now a choice. When you have the choice to not spend extra time getting dressed, commuting, and spending the day at home instead of a crowded office, why would anyone decide to come in? Getting attendance to the pre-pandemic levels in a hybrid work is a unique challenge for leaders – that’s why we have to focus on making the offices of the future “commute-worthy”.
The War to Define What Work Looks Like | The Wall Street Journal
In some ways, the workplace of today feels like a battlefield, where two opposing camps – workers and bosses – are constantly fighting for the upper hand. The Wall Street Journal takes a closer look at the interplay of managers hoping to bring work to its pre-pandemic and employees, eager to hold on to the freedom and flexibility acquired in the last two years.
How Gen Z sees its place in the working world? With trepidation
As the new generation of American workers enters the workforce, some are hopeful, while others are anxious. A new survey by McKinsey tries to understand Gen Z and gauge out what’s on their minds. For team leaders, this data is a well of insights ready to be applied to day-to-day work operations.
As always, this week’s digest on the future of work is brought to you by oVice: a virtual office platform that wants to align the needs of interaction-hungry managers and freedom-seeking employees. We are excited to see the evolution of remote and hybrid work and want to support leaders in creating digital workplaces that keep the joys and benefits of human interaction.
Learn more about the way oVice helps organizations lead the edge in the coming future of work by going through our customer stories. Of course, if you want to judge the platform for yourself – feel free to visit our demo space and explore it feature-by-feature.
