Follow up observations to my April comments. As general background our firm of about 30 is having its busiest year ever and, since our lease is up in October, is in the process of purchasing a building (longer story). We have hired two people since March, both are happy to work in the office. We now have about 5 of 27 folks working in the main office, 5 of 5 working in our Nashville office.
1. I have yet to talk to an employee in ANY industry who does not believe they are way MORE efficient from home. In fact to try to suggest otherwise elicits a pretty strong response. As an employer, I am not seeing this as the case. While we are still hitting deadlines, collaboration and coordination is lacking. Sets are requiring a level of redlining that we previously had not had to do. Moreover, it is has occurred several times that I called an employee to task them out but got no answer, a situation that clearly does not happen in the office. Interestingly two of those times I was calling a junior employee to offer them a design opportunity working with me. Due to the no answer I moved on to someone who did answer. (I suspect the employees did not have my number in their cell so they just chose not to answer an unknown number).
Which brings me to my next observation.
2. This is seriously detrimental the the professional growth of junior employees. They are just not exposed to as much, there is not as much mentoring or those wonderful random moments of education that occur in an office. We have started our Friday continuing ed through Zoom but it is easy to tell that several employees are not paying attention, instead are clearly watching a second screen.
3. There are a number of employees who, I am certain, due to covid will not be comfortable in an office setting until there is a vaccine, herd immunity and the CDC, the WHO and Dr, Fauci unanimously declare all clear. Additionally there are employees who are enjoying working from home and will probably never want to work in an office full time again.
Interestingly, with two exceptions, both groups happen to be made up of our youngest employees. I am deeply concerned about their professional growth which, currently, is not a problem they see. We are struggling with how do you grow your junior staff if they only want to be in the office one day a week? A year ago I would have said no way to them working from home but now, even if it is against their best interest, post covid I need to let them continue to work from home if I want to retain the staff.
4. The most unexpected, and disturbing, result of the months of remote working is a changing mindset of our management. Our firm prides itself on being a cohesive team, being a large family. Folks genuinely like each other, went out together, helped each other move. The firm financially supported an employee three years through cancer treatment, sponsored kid's schools , sports teams, employee races and endeavors. Generously gave time off for bereavement, family issues even sabbaticals. I know all my employees spouses, their kids, heck I even know their pets!
However, the remoteness, the lack of daily contact and small human connections that occur naturally in an office or at the office baseball game or bbq is changing this. I had thought this was just me but have spoken with a few of my most trusted employees and they told me the same thing. They are beginning to see other employees as a means to an end, cogs in a machine that is getting the work done. One told me last night he finally understands how some firms simply hire up or fire down as needed. He realized those firms just view staff as interchangeable means to an end and was disturbed to realize he was beginning to think that way.
Since the current situation is clearly not changing anytime soon, I would be very interested on how others are weathering all of these changes. How is this effecting your practice, your staff, your personal perceptions? How are you maintaining normalcy?
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[ Nea May] [Poole] AIA
[Principal]
[Poole & Poole Architecture, LLC]
[Midlothian, ] [Virginia]
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-15-2020 17:48
From: Scott Knudson
Subject: 20/20 Is remote working proving to be efficient?
How is your firm ensuring efficiency in a remote working environment?
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Scott Knudson AIA
PMKC Leadership Group
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