I’ll let you go to the article to read about those non-negotiables, but I agree. I think this is the real problem when it comes to bosses complaining about how remote isn’t a good option. They haven’t managed a remote team; they’ve been managing a team that works outside the office. There is a difference.
Everything that brings us the most happiness and spreads that happiness across society gets set aside because we are supposed to identify ourselves based on our jobs.
So yeah, maybe the French won’t necessarily still get to retire with a pension at 62. (though Nathan does a good job of explaining why that isn’t impossible, this was a choice made to protect the wealthy from being taxed, after all.) I still think many of us could learn something from the French, and Europe in general, about where our jobs fit into the fuller picture of our lives. If you aren’t making time to “live,” what’s the point of all that time spent at our jobs?
This, of course, is the rub. The value of a one-on-one meeting is subject to the ability of the manager and the direct report to conduct a quality meeting. While that sounds pretty simple, let me ask you a question.
Have you ever been taught how to have a quality one-on-one meeting with your boss or with a direct report?
As learners, we should do everything we can to give ourselves a better chance to change our brains when trying to learn new skills. Learning about neuroplasticity and the best way to encourage that brain state would be a good place to start, and then we can move on with our lifetime of learning.
I suspect this will remain a very niche thing now, though. The issue is the expectation of what the “work day” is. Granted, if you work in a customer-facing position, even a remote job where you have to interact with customers in real-time virtually, it’s unlikely they will be OK with a meeting at a time outside the 9-5.
On the other hand, there are plenty of jobs where those interactions make up part of the day but not all. Why can’t the other part of the day be outside the 9-5 so we can take care of other things during the day? You know, when doctors’ mechanics, banks, and other services are open, or when we want some time outside in the sun?
Time is money, indeed. Increasingly that means that the time spent commuting is being viewed as time employers demand that we aren’t getting paid for, that we could be getting paid for from freelance efforts if we didn’t have to commute.