By Andrew North – Creative Director, Icon Agency
Full disclosure.
I like going into the office.
For me, the benefits of socialisation, collaboration, human interaction and a more diverse range of coffee options far outweigh the upside of getting up an hour later, wearing pyjama pants in meetings and avoiding the commute.
There was a time when working ‘remotely’ was more WTF than WFH.
But I have been getting up and going into an office for way longer than I’ve been working from the dining room table, so for me, it’s normal.
Now, of course, ‘normal’ is a thing of the past. Or at least, the new normal is unrecognisable from the old one.
At Icon, we have a fully flexible policy in which our people can decide for themselves what ratio of home versus office works best for them. In fact, they can work from whatever location suits them best. If they go overseas for a holiday or to visit their much-missed family and friends back home, they can extend their time away and work from there.
And, whilst we like them to be in as much as is humanly possible – and numerically safe – the decision is ultimately theirs.
So, how do you strike the right balance that works best for both the employer and the employee? How do you ensure the health of the business as well as the health of the people who work in it?
And when and why is one better than the other?
I guess I can speak with the most authority about the creative side of the business.
From the time that Bill Bernbach first hatched the crazy idea of putting writers and art directors in the same room, the creative process has worked better, and the work itself has been better.
The sanctity of ‘the room’ has always been preserved. Creative people have been free to throw around as many crap ideas as they like in search of the great one, and no one outside of the room will ever know they were even uttered.
That’s the process. That’s what makes it fun.
But that’s not to say that the process can’t work, or doesn’t work when the collaborators are in different rooms in different homes, or even in different cities or countries.
It most certainly can. I can only imagine that some of the best work in the world over the last two years has been conceived and developed from different locations.
I know that some of our best work has.
So, remoteness doesn’t necessarily diminish the quality of the work. It simply changes the way in which it is created. And creative people are, well, creative. We find a way. That’s part of the job.
It’s also just one part of the agency.
Many of us spend a huge portion of our days in meetings. Does it really matter if the people you are meeting with are in the room with you or thumbnails on a screen?
I would say that it does, that there is no substitute for looking someone in the eye and letting body language do at least some of the talking.
Others would argue that the time efficiencies that remote meetings create far outweigh any perceived advantage brought about by physical proximity.
It goes without saying, though, that if the pandemic had arrived 10 years ago before online meeting platforms like Zoom and Google Meet were around, it would have been almost impossible to manage from a work perspective.
If there is one ‘upside’ to this whole mess, it’s that it happened now.
So for whom, and when, does it work better?
Some of us have children that need to be dropped off at and picked up from school or daycare, and days working at home can make this easier.
Some of us have dogs that need to be taken for a walk at the start and end of the day. You can still work whilst you’re doing that. You may not be able to put a Keynote presentation together, but you can take a phone call between unfurling poo bags.
Other people have disabilities, or physical or mental health issues that make working from home, not just a perk, but a lifesaver.
For many of those people, the ability to work from home means the difference between being able to work and not.
Of course, technology has a huge role to play in this new working world of ours.
At Icon, we have already begun investigating the virtual workplace and AI tools as part of our hybrid office model.
We are actively exploring and testing the full gamut of virtual platforms for team collaboration, and delving into every nook and cranny of the Metaverse. Don’t just take my word for it, though. You can read much more about what we are doing here The what, how and why of the Metaverse – Part 1.
Fortunately, especially in purpose-driven agencies like ours, all the Artificial Intelligence in the world can’t replace emotional intelligence.
So, whilst AI tools like Jasper.ai can carry some of the copywriting load, or platforms like MidJourney and DALL-E can create some pretty cool virtual imagery from a description, they’re not quite ready to completely replace humans just yet.
You could argue that we worked for decades, even centuries, before COVID, and going to work was just what we did.
And if the pandemic never happened, we wouldn’t know, or do, any different.
Well, it did happen. It’s still happening. And the world will never be the same.
Most companies (at least the ones that want to attract high-quality talent) have some degree of flexibility in their workplace strategy.
And most of those employers know that in this day and age, you need to make the workplace an attractive proposition and a welcoming, and inspiring place to be.
But, ultimately, the choice is left to the employee, not made by the employer.
In, or out?
It’s not for me to say which is better. All I can do is reiterate what I said at the start.
I like going into the office.
