Out Of Office: Key Lessons for Organizations

Here at Flip the Script we are geeking out over a new book that certainly flips the old scripts about how we operate in the workplace.  

Out Of Office: The Big Problem, and Bigger Promise of Working From Home is ostensibly a book about remote work. And its authors Helen Anne Peterson and Charlie Warzel admit that’s what they originally set out to write.  

Yet through the act of compiling their findings they realized what they were creating was much broader and more important than a user guide for organizations doing remote work. Instead, it became a compelling distillation of the current zeitgeist around our long-broken work culture. And in so their focus shifted to sharing lessons that successful organizations have (or could) be leveraging right away. 

Here are five things that are sticking with me after finishing the book this week.  

1. Remote Doesn’t ‘Work’ without Good Management 

“The Future of work is actually having to manage people.”  

This quote sticks with the authors and for good reason. It’s something we at Flip the Script have been focusing on long before this book. Organizations consistently demand miracles from Managers while offering little in the way of support or training.  

In remote work that affect is compounded as these individuals now have to set clear goals to measure performance instead of just measuring attendance. They have to create a positive culture and environments based on things like psychological safety. They have to re-evaluate their own identity as a manager, and they have to establish new norms for communication across their team.  

And the biggest secret? This is actually how management should work, whether remote or in-person. Helping make this clear and giving Managers clarity on the path forward is the main goal of our 12-week management course called EPIC that helps organizations upgrade their management best practices. (click here to learn more and sign up for our next cohort!).  

2. It’s not just about the location of work, it’s about the culture 

While so much attention gets focused on the physical locations in which work gets done, the book makes a strong case that the location matters a lot less than the culture that goes along with it.  

As someone who has worked remotely for a decade, the opening lines of the book really stuck with me.  

“You weren’t working from home during the pandemic.  

You were laboring in confinement and under duress. You were living at work.” 

The key lesson here is that when the pandemic forced everyone out of the offices, it didn't necessarily force organizations to change toxic work cultures. Employees who regularly were overworked at the office became overworked at home. Cultures where people felt they needed to do performative work to ‘look busy’ merely adapted new digital methods to do so.  

Yet, the  disruption caused by the pandemic also created an opening to rethink our old office ‘monocultures’ (which were mostly created by older, wealthy, white, men) and create new ones that are more inclusive and effective for everyone.  

3. Guardrails vs. Boundaries 

“Boundaries are personal. But guardrails are structural.” 

One very common challenge for remote workers is when work can be done ANYwhere, then EVERYwhere becomes your office. That blurring of the lines between home and work life can quickly burn out employees as they feel they always have to “be on”.  

It can be easy to tell workers to “set boundaries” between home and work life, but that’s easier said than done. Particularly when the organization's culture tacitly encourages people to be working and checking messages at all hours (a culture usually created by Managers).  

Instead, the authors make a compelling case for organizations setting common “guardrails” that are applicable to all employees. Particularly around when people are expected to be sending, reading, or answering messages. 

Leaving it up to individual workers to create their own boundaries inevitably only benefits a privileged subset of your organization who feel they can afford to set them. Setting strong guardrails at the organizational level helps create an equal playing field for all employees and helps prevent burnout.  

4. The Terrifying Potential Perils of Remote Work 

Perhaps the most sobering message to come from the book is the dystopian potential future that remote work can lead to if old corporate mindsets are allowed to guide it.  

Will workplaces adopt ‘Spyware’ that measures every click and mouse movement of workers?  

Will companies offload more and more office work to temporary workers? Or shift more office work overseas where they can pay a fraction of the cost?  

Will the ‘hustle culture’ of startups lead to more and more erosion of the line between home and work life?  

Or will companies simply say “no” to a more flexible non-office centered work culture and demand we all return to full- time office work?  

People (myself included!) often get so excited by the potential of a revolution in corporate office culture brought on by the pandemic and subsequent ‘Great Re-evaluation" of work and life, that we may miss or ignore the potential pitfalls. Because as the authors share, no setup for work is a panacea. There will always be give and take and the real goal is to be intentional and explicit about the cultures we create and the potential consequences.

Nothing is set in stone. And if we’re not intentional about designing something new and better, all the old toxic cultures of our offices will eventually infect our digital workspaces as well.  

There’s a ton more to take away from this great book. The pandemic has forced a long overdue inflection point in how we value and approach work in our lives. Organizations that haven’t begun the process of re-evaluating their internal culture and practices to meet this moment are getting left behind.  

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