We’re wearing a harness when all we need is a leash

The global pandemic taught the business world what many people have known for years.

You don’t need eight hours plus a commute to get four hours of work done. The rest is just wasted time.

Unlike a traditional shared office space, remote work has now been scientifically proven to lead to higher productivity, reduced commute time and expense, improved mental health, fewer distractions, more comfort, lower carbon footprint, higher satisfaction, less sickness, more flexibility and fewer irrational worries about being judged for not wearing pants or eating lunch at a strange time.

What’s not to like?

One notable study, about seven months into the pandemic, surveyed six thousand office workers across the globe. They found that only one in four respondents was keen to go back to the workplace on a five day a week basis.

Which camp were you in?

Covid essentially proved that the genie was out of the bottle. That we couldn’t undo this experiment. It was this bell that couldn’t be unrung.

Naturally, bosses eagerly wanted to get teams back in the office. They claimed to be concerned about people being able to do their jobs effective. How everyone needed a shared workplace to foster collaboration and preserve company culture.

But the reality is, employers were just worried that employees were slacking off at home and not being able to do anything about it. With all their team members working remotely, they were left with no choice but to actually trust people do their work without constant supervision. They could no longer keep an eye on people’s screens anymore.

In short, management was losing its power. Companies realized remote work wasn’t as detrimental to productivity as they initial thought. Even with the small percentage of yield loss teams experienced, the benefits of working from home disproportionately outweighed it.

No wonder managers were scared. This was an unprecedented global evolution of the modern workforce. Arguably the biggest shift in working life since the second world war.

It’s funny, years later, we look back and shake our heads in foolishness at the unnecessary stress we put on ourselves by shlepping to a physical office every day.

Can you believe how many hundreds of hours, thousands of dollars, gallons of oil, and millions of hits of cortisol we spent commuting to the workplace each year? What were we thinking?

This whole workplace transformation makes me think of my dog. When we first brought her home, our trainer told us that using a harness was simply the only way to go. It gives owners more control, it’s easier on your arms and back, prevents the dog from jumping and humping, eliminates choking, discourages your pet from pulling and disperses pressure over the dog’s body to reduce strain.

Everyone uses them, she said.

Not knowing any better, we took her advice and started walking with the harness. And our dog absolutely hated it. She was stubborn, unhappy and lethargic. She even tried chewing the damn thing off when we weren’t looking.

About two weeks into it, my wife and I looked at each other one day and thought, what the hell are we doing? This isn’t working. It doesn’t matter what the experts say and it doesn’t matter if everyone else uses it. This harness is lowering our dog’s quality of life, not to mention ours as well. Let’s go back to the old way.

As you might suspect, within seconds of replacing the fancy harness for a simple leash, our dog was a different dog. Without the unnecessary constraints of this stupid cumbersome device, she was able to run and play and smile and just be herself again.

Taking her walks felt like a joy, rather than a chore.

This is what’s happening to the modern workforce.

For all these decades we’ve been going to work wearing a harness, when all we really need is a leash.

What if remote work wasn’t as detrimental to your productivity as you initially thought?