At SWAY we’re building a workplace experience platform.
That means we think deeply about the pervasive and repeated pain points found in the rigid nature of the traditional model of work. A solution is found in the evolution to ‘work as a lifestyle”.
Work/life balance doesn’t exist, or at the very least looks different for every person. While one person may have an entrepreneurial mindset driving them to fill their free time with work, another may only want to work during his or her child’s school hours. Either person can accomplish the tasks their job requires, but their schedule will look different.
“Work as a Lifestyle” empowers enterprises and employees to find balance for themselves, choose the schedule that works best, and trust each other to produce growth.
Based on Choice. Built on Trust
Employees give their best work to an enterprise that simultaneously values their needs and capabilities. Micromanaging degrades their sense of value and makes them reliant on their managers to guide their day.
Creativity happens when employees make their own choices and take ownership of their work. The first step is choice in how, when, and where they work.
The next step is building trust. Because the current model of work promotes those who never leave the office -- first one in and last one out -- managers need to let go of their biases towards remote or flexible employees and let the work speak for itself.
Work as a Lifestyle: Employees
If you’re looking for work/life balance to come from your employer, you may be searching for a long time. Employees need to define balance for themselves and learn how to provide the best work within that balance.
Many times, you may need to take the initiative and ask for what you want. If you already work on-site for a business, consider negotiating two or three “work from home” days during your next review. Create a detailed plan to demonstrate how you’ll get work done, because your manager may not be proactively ready for change.
When those remote work days happen, be ready to chat online with your coworkers and answer questions quickly (since they can’t stop by your desk). Work like you would at the office, but in the comfort of your home or a local coworking or coliving space.
If you need flexible hours, whether as a caregiver or for your own needs, be very clear about when your coworkers can expect to hear from you. For example, in time-flexible arrangements, you may not reply to emails until the evening. Don’t be afraid to communicate those terms.
Your on-site coworkers will learn to trust your productivity and adjust their proximity bias, but clarity is necessary and the responsibility is on you to set clear expectations and boundaries
Work as a Lifestyle: Enterprises
With a model of work based in the industrial era, offices continue to control where, how, and when their people work. An agile model of work allows enterprises to use all the technology readily offered today to eliminate these barriers and hire committed, creative talent.
Every business has different needs, and agility will look different for each. Maybe completely remote work seems impossible, but your company could introduce work-from-home days throughout the week. As employees learn how to be productive at home, and others learn to trust their remote workers, you could grow into hiring someone from a different city to permanently work outside the office.
When hiring more remote workers, enterprises need to become agile and flexible with times of work. You may be spread over different time zones and won’t receive an immediate response to emails. But with scheduled video meetings, chat, and file sharing services, your employees will continue to be productive within these new timelines.
Some employees are leaving the corporate workforce completely in order to find the balance they need, but you might not lose them if you develop agile strategies demonstrating your trust.
Visit our blog post “Choose Agility in 2020” for more ideas to improve your workplace.
When Agility Doesn’t Go As Planned
Changing the future of work takes time and communication. Expectations must be clear from the beginning and often reiterated as your team spreads across the country. If an employee does not meet their workload, you may need to go through a time of more check-ins to rebuild trust in their work.
Employees are learning, too. In previous jobs, they may have had a micromanager who structured their days and constantly reminded them of the next step. Learning to structure their own schedules and work independently takes time, but pays off with happier, creative employees.
SWAY Your Mind to New Thinking about Work
At SWAY, we’re committed to reimagining the world of work, allowing employees to optimize their productive value and align with the productive needs of a business. We do this through promoting an agile model combining remote, in-person, and flexible work environments for growth across an enterprise.
If you’re looking for more suggestions on embracing a new model for work, connect with us at hello@swayworkplace.com.