Jessica Smith’s Post

Everyone in L.A. knows Thursdays are the worst days for traffic, and the extended 10 freeway closure is a twenty ton monkey wrench. But, that's assuming you still commute. Is it just me or is cubicle-life feeling more and more quaint? Have I just been remote too long? Is there still romance in a corner office view? If you're shopping introverts or extroverts, call me a hybrid model. Capable of self-reliance, but known to take the long way for human interaction. There's a positive energy flow that comes with life in the big city. But, I don't need to live or even work there to get a charge off it— I can always take the Metro. Does the return-to-office effort draw you in? If you're laughing from the comfort of your couch, what does get you up and out and into the world? #WorkFromAnywhere #ReturnToOffice #FutureOfWork

working remotely is not always about the employee. it's often about supporting those who are important to them. right now, i'm north of Toronto nearer the northern parts of the 900 km long Bruce Trail that my Love has yet to hike. effectively, i'm the chauffeur on this trip dropping him off and picking him up some 25 km further along the train. i like hiking too, but 5 hours x 3 days is a bit much for me. so, i spoke to my boss (me, of course) and decided to work away from my home office with its ergonomic set up (two screens and a standing desk) these few days so my Love could have his adventure. my office today is on my friend's patio using a cooler as a side table. i'm very lucky and grateful for the opportunity. it's also much quieter here than where I live. but that's another topic. often, support for our loved ones is not for something as joyful as a vacation. it is to provide help to attend medical treatments, to move to long-term care, to care for sick little ones, to coach a sports team, and more. #flexibilityISinclusivity yes, it can be wonderful to be together, but let's be more intentional about what's necessary to make room for the other areas of life which contribute to family and community. good corporate social responsibility includes flexibility. #inclusion #productivity #performance oh, if you like the t-shirt, i've made them available through TeePublic drop a comment por a DM and I can send you a link. the $1 or 2 from each shirt goes toward funding the Happy Space Podcast - where productivity meets inclusivity.

I don’t care whether you come into the office at 8 am. I don’t care if you choose to work from home or not. I don’t care if you work from the garage while they fix your car. I hired you for a job and I trust you to get it done. Just let me know what you need from me to be successful in your role. And I will show up for you. Because, guess what? The world has changed. Gone are the days of clock-watching and the 9 to 5 grind. We're living in a world where trust, flexibility, and outcome-based performance reign supreme. I couldn’t care less about how many hours you clock in, it’s about how much you can bring to the table. It's about how you grow, evolve, and contribute to our collective goals. In the end, it's not about the hours, it's about the impact. #Futurework #Passion #Remotework #Flexibility

While working from home, I’ve noticed more men walking alone or with their partners, holding babies or pushing strollers in the middle of the day... It got me thinking about my experience growing up with a father who worked away from home. During the week, he would leave before I woke up and wouldn’t get home until 6:30 or 7:00 PM most nights. I barely got to spend time with him during the week! Now, with my husband working from home, he has the opportunity to be more involved in our children's lives from morning until night. He’s available to get them ready in the mornings and pick them up from school for sneaky ice cream trips and river dips before dinner, creating core memories with them. I’m very grateful that both my husband and I work in the tech industry and that his company and my company, Elastic Path, have a fully remote structure, which allows both of us to spend more time together as a family. For those who get to work remotely, or have a generous hybrid policy, what has your experience been like being at home with your family more often? What are you doing with the time you would normally spend commuting? How does this differ from how you grew up? #remoteworking #hiring

Hybrid working is a net positive. But wherever you are, it has made it harder to concentrate. My latest #Bartleby column for The Economist is on working from nowhere https://lnkd.in/eGVxhRvJ

Four years ago today, Thursday, March 12, 2020, was the last time I ever worked in an office. At the time, I worked in a building with over 400 people in Chandler, AZ. The news that was coming out that day about everything shutting down was crazy: Harvard, the NBA, Disneyland. Needless to say, no one was getting much work done that afternoon due to all the reports about COVID-19. I started to feel so uneasy about being in a building with that many people knowing the rest of the world was starting to take precautions. I’m not a very dramatic person, but I casually packed up my laptop and told my boss at the time that I wasn’t feeling very safe and asked if I may go and work the rest of the day from home. He was very supportive and said that was totally fine. I remember leaving at 3:30 PM. Little did I know I would never return. We worked from home on Fridays anyway, but the next week, the entire office shut down and I still remember our daily 5-minute stand-ups that we would have every morning to check in with each other and they were super fun, at first. We all thought this would last a couple weeks, tops. Two weeks turned into two months, then six months, well, you know the rest. Eventually, the daily stand-ups stopped. Meeting fatigue. Then I was unfortunately laid off from that company in November 2020 to no one’s surprise due to the effects of the pandemic, as our main clients were small businesses. First and only time I was ever laid off in my life. I was very fortunate to find another opportunity just weeks later, 100% remote. Then that company got acquired, still 100% remote. Two years later, I was recruited for the company I work for now, still 100% remote. Considering I used to have a two-hour commute when I lived in Southern California and Phoenix, AZ for YEARS, I feel like I got so much of my time and mental health back not having to deal with bumper-to-bumper traffic every day. And not to mention the wear and tear on my car. I also find myself way more productive without the distraction of people trying to chat me up at my desk or taking my life in my hands every time half the office got a cold and would hack everywhere. No, this is way better. My company, TRAXERO not only encourages, but celebrates work/life balance, knows and respects the fact that working remotely can be just as productive, if not more. It’s good to work for an organization that trusts their workers and does so much to ensure we all stay connected. Plus, I love getting to decorate my beautiful home office and share it with my two dogs and cat and having my husband poke his head in once in a while just to say hi or see if I need anything. This was my "new normal". Now it’s just my normal. And I wouldn��t change a thing!

We can learn much from centurions and blue zones regarding the Future of Work. People who live past 100 years old: 1/ Live in small, livable communities 2/ Do light exercise without trying to - they walk everywhere (often ascending many steps throughout the day) & do things like gardening or low-impact sports well into their old age 3/ Don’t just live in small communities; they give of themselves within their communities through volunteer work or caring for elderly family members/friends (Regarding #3, blue zones don’t have any old-age healthcare infrastructure, and they don’t need it because older people aren’t cast aside…) 4/ Have resiliency because they focus on the types of tasks that are in their control versus going down the rabbit hole of all the existential crises that humanity faces 5/ Practice healthy habits as a collective - they eat well together, they practice their beliefs together, they take a day of rest together, and so on - by doing this together, they don’t “fall off the wagon” So much more goes into the success behind eclipsing a century on this planet. But what is very self-evident about the Future of Work is the fact that not a one of them has hit 100 by commuting to the office on a 9-5 schedule for the sake of “culture” and “innovation.” Forced office attendance is NOT going to solve this problem. And it doesn’t matter what Scott Galloway says about young men being a danger to themselves and society if they don’t go to the office (what an over-dramatization of the issue!). Or what Malcolm Gladwell has said about our need for autonomy being at odds with our desire to connect. Or what flat-out tyrants like Jamie Dimon have to say… If we want to kill ourselves and the planet, let’s keep commuting to work under fluorescent lighting… If we don’t, let’s bring work (which includes professional workspace) into our local communities! And let’s reinvent our downtowns to be about living, immersive gatherings, and culture (more about the human experience than corporate culture, but that too!). The Future of Work = Distributed Work Let’s remember this as we continue to get bombarded by nonsense this Fall regarding Return to Office, a.k.a. Return to the Past ✊ ______ Follow me, hit the 🔔 & follow #digitalhomad for more insights on the future of work/living   *These posts and statements are my own and do not represent the positions, strategies or opinions of CBRE.

What’s so appealing about workplace flexibility? 😀 School pick-ups and appointment drop-offs become simpler. 😀 The daily commute can be as lengthy and stressful as moving from the kitchen to your home desk. 😀 A difficult mental health day doesn’t have to be made compounded by a busy office. 😀 Both you and the dog get some exercise at lunchtime. But what does everyone naturally get from being in the office? 👍 Incidental conversations about what’s going on and any issues on the horizon. 👍 Huddles where you air problems, pick up on patterns and celebrate successes. 👍 Informal mentoring, face-to-face support and a feeling of wider community beyond your team. 👍 The immediacy and simplicity of knowing who is where, when and doing what. This is why companies like Dropbox Studios are reimagining their office spaces into community spaces, bringing the off-site vibe on-site (as Forbes neatly puts it). ‘Human connection can’t be fully recreated virtually’ the company states on its website. And we wholeheartedly agree. But it’s not just about workspaces, it’s about a greater sense of sharing. 👉 Get everyone behind the same purpose so they’re excited about what you’re doing and how they’re part of it, wherever they are. 👉 Make sure equality, diversity and inclusion aren’t lip service. Every voice needs to be heard, even the quiet ones. 👉 Be a partner in their career and value their personal contribution. How will you enrich the time they spend with you? 👉Think about how people are collaborating beyond their team and how these incidental community-building interactions are going to take place. 👉 Ask ‘what do people want?’ and then care about the answer. For insight, tips and inspiration like these from the front line straight into your inbox, sign up for our Breakfast Bites. Written with pressured people people in mind, it’ll give you a little something to mull over your coffee before your day begins. #talentinsight #talentmanagement #hrsolutions #hybridworking #businessinsights

Extended trips are becoming the norm as flexible work continues its growth. The adoption of hybrid policies have led to a lot of interesting changes in habits. A positive one is definitely better balance and enjoying more time with family while also being able to get your work done. Did you extend your trips this year? Would love to know what you are seeing at your company. ------- I'm Omar from inspace and I talk about how to make your digital and physical workspace better. Follow along to get insights, information and sometimes humor about the world of work. #flexibleworking #hybridwork #hybrid

What is so appealing about workplace flexibility?