Weekly Subscriber News
23 February 2024
Happy Friday! That’s my feeling anyway. How about you?
How has your week been? Mine has been busy. I’ve realised that this ‘beat’ - the one in which I try and distill the key points about work on a weekly basis for paid subscribers is perhaps the busiest one around (possibly with the exception of keeping up with Donald Trump - gold sneakers anyone?).
My News
I was in the US last week, taking the temperature of work on the East Coast and I went to Philadephia, or ‘Philly’ which, coincidentally (although we did not coincide) was where Sneaker Con was held at which one D. Trump launched his latest bizarre scheme. I think this guy likes selling. Anything. Politics is pure product to him, no?
Back in London, I’ve been working on a new network called Workathon, to convene a group (in the US they say ‘a bunch’) of people in business, media, academia and thought leadership who are interested in the world of work. We have our Whatsapp and tonight we have our first Zoom: all the tools of the trade. But we are planning to meet in person. More importantly, we’re planning to provide - there’s no other word for it - leadership on some key issues and we’re just working out the details of how we meaningfully do so. Prioritisation is going to be key. What would *you* focus on - Felxibility? AI? Training? There’s loads to choose from. Comments welcome.
What’s Been Happening Out There
Well, do the eyes and the nose have it? I refer of course to the new Apple Vision Pro, the much-vaunted kit which will in theory be the way we work and play in the future. All I will say is that I think the former managing editor of TechCrunch, Daryl Etherington has a very valid point on his blog The Angle when he says that it “runs up against two things which capped its adoption at early adopters and technophiles from before it every became a tangible object: the lumpy meat on people’s faces, and their vanity”.
For something to work - it has to feel right. Zooms and Teams, one way or another, worked, and continue to work - although the tech is being upgraded and rightly in offices with floor-to-ceiling being a good options. But ease, comfort, this all matters. That said, the reviews say it’s a ‘marvel of AR/VR technology’ so if the price comes down and they toggle with the comfort, this could be the new screen. But I’m not convinced yet.
The RTO Debate - Return to Office - continues in an exhausting and exhausted way. Come ON people. Really? Why can we not just accept that hybrid working is here to staty but it isn’t one size fits all? That of course not every single workplace can work hybrid, just like not every single workplace should return to office full time?
Here’s an interesting piece on this, in which Nick Bloom of Stanford yet again points to data showing why ‘there is no RTO’. I especially like the comment by the future of work expert Brian Elliott over on Linked In, remarking on the staggering performance of AI company Nvidia, pointing out that “Every industry has companies taking a range of approaches when it comes to #flexible work and #distributed teams. NVIDIA seems to be thriving.”
In Britain, there has been a row (very common in the UK) about women at work, and specifically the idea, I confess to be astonished by, that the menopause be declared de facto a disability at work. This is the trouble with over-egging the pudding. It’s absolutely key that we discuss the different ways life stages affect the sexes at work, and the menopause is a key life stage. It’s crucial to acknowledge that women live and work in a world designed largely by and for men: This we know.
But I have concerns about this suggestion. Firstly, I don’t want to label a standard life stage a disability, nor do I want to load up companies with yet more compliance - that’s the shorthand way of putting it. Secondly, whilst women’s bodies clearly have particular needs different life stages, including menstruation, childbirth and menopause, this cannot become the defining way to look at us at work, especially when equal pay is not sorted, when the right to control one’s body’s reproduction is at risk etc. Careful what you focus on. But thirdly, I’m worried about overlooking large number of people who are officially disabled, physically, all of the time, who work. They - the more than 5 million people working in the UK alone - are not exactly over-provided for. As the brilliant Simon Minty, TV star in Britain on Gogglebox and disability consultant and trainer put it to me “disabled is the Cindarella of DEI”. Tough words. But I suspect true.
I have been variously thinking about and researching:
As it happens I have been thinking a lot about DEI in the workplace. It’s become just so fraught hasn’t it, a sort of hero to zero situation. Weaponised but also slightly changed perhaps from it's original, simple objective: inclusion. A long conversation. Sister Sledge’s 1979 “We are Family” is a Disco hit song which captured this inclusive vibe so well. So well that I noodled around trying to find out more about it. And Lo. According to paper dedicated to influential music lodged in the National Registry at the Library of Congress this song was a key example of “Disco’s underlying ethos: to establish the dance floor as a social space that cut across the boundaries of class, creed, gender, nationality, race and sexuality”. It got me thinking: The origin story of DEI - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - lies in the civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement. It began justly, innocently, honestly and with energy from the grassroots. Whatever else this now corporate, political, weaponised function has become must stay true to its roots. We need DEI. Done well.
That’s it for this week’s news. My next post will be early in the week and will be reviews of the latest books I’m reading and podcasts and blogs/Substacks to recommend.
As ever, let me have your comments!
Bon Weekend,
