Making Daily Headlines · Page 4
The Office Wins Back the Chairs but Misplaces the Team
· New York time
About half of in-office workers describe their desk jobs as remote, according to New York Fed research reported by CNBC. The finding points to a gap between physically attending an office and experiencing the collaboration that employers often cite when they require workers to return. A badge can establish that someone entered a building. It cannot establish that colleagues worked together once everyone got there. The research suggests that being in the same office is not necessarily the same as feeling connected to a team. That distinction matters for companies paying for space and asking employees to commute in the name of shared work. It matters for workers too: a trip to a desk may look very different if the people they work with are elsewhere or if the work remains largely solitary. Employers can require presence, but collaboration is a much less obedient item on the attendance sheet. The resulting vocabulary is wonderfully awkward. A worker can be in the office and still call the job remote, while management can point to a crowded room as evidence of a successful return. Both descriptions may capture part of the experience, and neither settles whether the arrangement produces the promised teamwork. The modern office has mastered the logistics of bringing people together. Its next assignment is the harder one: giving them a reason to notice that they are together.
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