Yes, we all know that while work from home offers efficiency and avoids a long commute, office work provides a better environment for communication, collaboration and overall growth of one's career.
“Working from home”, the Germans like to call it “home office” (in English it means something else), which actually means “Von zuhause aus arbeiten” in German, is mentioned more and more often these days. It saves a lot of time commuting to work and ensures a better work-life balance.
However, if you are no longer in the same office as your colleagues, some processes will need to be changed to adapt to remote settings. For example conducting brainstorming sessions can be one of the more difficult tasks.
It makes me think of my days at DFS – a LVMH company (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) with offices worldwide.
For a long period of time, I was working with my colleagues in Hawaii and Okinawa, since I was responsible for the Japanese-speaking markets after the Chinese-speaking markets. I came to the Hong Kong office every day, but I was mainly working with my overseas teammates.
Aside from having to report to my boss (Vice President Global Creative) who sits in the same office, I didn't work directly with my team-mate in the same location (Hong Kong) - I mainly worked with my team-mates there in Hawaii and some time those in Okinawa and Guam. I often have to be in the office at 6–7am to be able to make a long distance call while the team-mates overseas are still in the office (their last 3 hours in the office are my 6am to 9am).
For getting a to do list for the collaterals and work on it, send it back was not an issue at all. But something more difficult would be this: after brainstorming on the phone call, I have to work on some creative ideas and then pass on the layout draft and reference to the team-mates abroad so that the photographers can follow the creative direction during the photo shoot.
Above from left to right: creative brief layout, reference and directions, final layout for the campaign
Because I worked closely together with my teammates overseas, and communicated almost daily through emails and calls, I felt like I knew them better than my teammates sitting around me in the Hong Kong office. When they had to fly over once every few months for the global team meeting, the feeling was very interesting because I felt like they were just working on another floor downstairs.
Below: other adaptations for the same campaign
Back then, no one thought it was remote work, but it definitely was. I had to work with my teammate abroad from my office in a different time zone.
When I look at new work opportunities now, I see that many companies offer 2 days work from home and 3 days in the office. I think it's a very good balance, just here's the "issue" - Sometimes I see a potential position that I trust will be a good fit for me and not being in the same city, and I may only be able to go to the office once or twice a month - for those company it could seems like a big problem, but I personaly believe that if the skills and personality match, it shouldn't be an issue.
Why?
Do you remember the day you had to burn the output files into a CD and give them to the delievery guy, who then had to take the CD to the print house for production?
A few years later, we uploaded the data to the print house's FTP server and now we have a cloud and other online transfer tools.
Most technical things can be done online. When it comes to communication, you now have all your calls and emails under control and can easily arrange video calls.
While I still think it's important to meet teammates in person to build a human connection, as this is something that cannot be replaced, I still believe that we don't always have to sit in the same office to deliever great work.
Like I said, I work closely with my teammates abroad and even though I only see them in person a few months once, I still feel like they work with me every day and I know their working style well, even better than the people sit in the office who I don't work on the same projects with.
I'm NOT saying we don't have to go to the office anymore. For cases like leading a photoshoot then you should be there in person. I think that ideally we should go back to the office at least once a week, and if the job suits our personality and skills, there shouldn't be such a restriction.
I believe remote, flexible workers tend to be happier and more loyal employees, however coming back to the office to build connections in real life is also a must, just it shouldn't be an every day thing.
What do you think?
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