The Office is Dead, Now What?: A Post-Pandemic Field Guide for Leadership

By Maryanne Spatola

Everyone thinks the pandemic caused a terrible work experience for employees. In The Office is Dead, Now What? A Post-Pandemic Field Guide for Leadership, Maryanne Spatola makes the compelling case that the pandemi

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Release date: Jan 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9798885044745

Book preview

The Office Is Dead, Now What?

A Post-Pandemic Field Guide for Leadership

Maryanne Spatola

New Degree Press

Copyright © 2023 Maryanne Spatola

All rights reserved.

The Office Is Dead, Now What?

A Post-Pandemic Field Guide for Leadership

ISBN 979-8-88504-450-9 Paperback

979-8-88504-474-5 Ebook

I dedicate this book to my love, my husband Mark, my biggest fan, who believes in me even when I don’t and enables me to chase big dreams.

And to leaders everywhere who aspire to be better. COVID-19 was a rough journey for people leading teams and organizations while trying to keep their sanity.

Cheers to building healthier, stronger leaders and organizations!

Contents

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Introduction

How to Use This Book

Part A

How We Got Here

Chapter 1

A New Lens on Work and Life

Chapter 2

The Quest for a Better Workplace 

Chapter 3

Humans at Work

Part B

New Ways to Lead

Chapter 4

Recognizing Your Leadership Gaps

Chapter 5

Progress over Perfection

Chapter 6

Empathy Is Your New Superpower

Chapter 7

Sending Signals

Chapter 8

The Deciding Factor

Chapter 9

Adaptability Wins

Part C

Building Better Organizations with More Effective Leaders

Chapter 10

The Mindset Reset

Chapter 11

Tips, Tools, and Additional Resources

Chapter 12

Apply Your Learning

Acknowledgments

Appendix

Introduction

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You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.

—James R. Sherman

I’ve been on my soapbox about the future of work and the need to transform and align the human resources (People) function for a long time.

In my view, the pandemic is our most significant opportunity to bring prolific change to the workplace. We discuss it on a regular basis in the classroom.

The Future of Human Resources: Innovation at New York University is my signature course. I’m an assistant adjunct professor in the human capital management graduate program teaching there since 2011.

Students and clients alike hear this mantra, My greatest hope is the pandemic will accelerate the workplace into the future of work, happening now, and we can take the lessons from it to make better organizations.

In September of 2022, media coverage about CEOs mandating people to come back to the office gave me pause. My fear of executives reverting back to the way it was was unfolding. 

I was sitting in my office browsing through my Flipboard app when I saw this article come through, Goldman Sachs Is Ordering Employees Back to the Office 5 Days (or More). After two-plus years of employees working remotely, CEO David Solomon branded working from home as an aberration. It’s an aberration that we’re going to correct as quickly as possible (Colvin 2022).

I felt this sinking feeling rise in me. Did we learn nothing from the largest remote working experiment in the world? Worst of all, this delusion of returning back to the way it was is nothing more than that—a fallacy. I kept hearing the voice of my millennial children in my head, who frequently say, I can’t wait for the baby boomers to retire and get out of the workforce. I’ve never appreciated that sentiment more until now.

Two words summarize my twenty-five-year career in human resources: Change Catalyst. 

My wheelhouse is helping organizations align strategy with the talent needed to optimize business results. Before falling in love with the human resources profession, I worked in senior line positions running education departments and product development. I am a recovering computer programmer too!

Starting my career on the business side before working in human resources gave me a different lens on the purpose and value of the human resources function.

Human resources is an executive function, like finance, that exists to help organizations achieve their strategic goals. As a chief human resources officer (CHRO), I was the executive team point of contact for specific accounts. One of my assignments caused some speculation with one client.

At our first meeting, my colleague, the chief operating officer, said, She’s not your typical human resources person. Maryanne knows the business as well as I do and has a client-centric approach to her work. You’ll be in good hands with her.

In the 1950s, personnel administration, the precursor to human resources, was an administrative function processing payroll, handling benefits, and processing employee paperwork. The human resource’s function has gotten progressively better since then moving toward strategic partnership with the business focusing on talent, organization design, and strategy.

The human resources department name has evolved along with it, moving from human resources to human capital to people. In companies where the function is named People, the top job is often chief people officer.

The pandemic thrust human resources to the forefront of the crisis, leading organizations through undeniably one of the most complicated, uncertain periods in history. 

During my tenure as a human resources executive, I transformed existing teams and functions in human resources to become strategic, people-centric, and outcome focused. My sweet spot is working with leaders to develop strong leadership practices that shape culture, engagement, productivity, and business results.

I’ve seen many mistakes organizations make when attempting to create a healthy, productive work environment where people can bring their best and whole selves to work. I say attempt deliberately, knowing that most leaders in organizations are not doing the wrong things with malice. Instead, they are stuck in old mental models of leadership practices that haven’t worked in decades.

Organizing labor efforts date back to the 1800s in the United States. Unfair labor and pay practices sparked decades of activism resulting in the formation of unionized labor. In 1834, women at the Lowell Mills in Massachusetts staged a protest on wage cuts. In 1909, immigrant steelworkers strike Pressed Steel Car Co in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, demanding safer working conditions for better pay. Steelworkers were being exploited because of language barriers. The greatest labor fight in all my history in the labor movement (AFL-CIO 2022).

In its history, unionized labor has fallen in and out of favor with employees and employers alike. In 2022, the National Labor Relations Board saw an increase in petitions published in an article, Union Organizing Efforts Rise in First Half of Year. "One thousand four hundred eleven workplaces filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board, the first step in joining a union, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal data. That represents a 69 percent increase from the same period in 2021 and the most of any year since 2015" (Harrison and Haddon 2022).

COVID-19 ignited a significant shift in workforce expectations. Employees are demanding flexibility and are willing to quit jobs when it’s not offered. The pandemic surfaced health-related issues such as burnout and mental health that are lingering in a confused labor market, giving rise to the Great Resignation. In October of 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the lowest US unemployment rate, 3.5 percent, in fifty years, during an economic slowdown (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2022). 

Yet, new jobs continue to be created. Josh Bersin spoke about this in an update report on the economy, The Economy That Just Won’t Quit: Why Jobs Keep Getting Created. While some of this is due to the economic cycle (and the money pumped into the economy during the pandemic), I believe something bigger is going on. The labor market has fundamentally changed, and we’re probably never going back to the old market again (Bersin 2022).

As companies continue to require a return to the in-person office, employee resistance grows. My hope is post-pandemic we don’t swing the pendulum on work and life completely back to the other side but rather figure out how to live and work differently so we can build stronger, healthier organizations.

We’ve come upon another inflection point with the labor market, particularly for knowledge workers. Leaders at all levels of an organization need to think differently about how they design organizational structure, create inclusive cultures, and innovate in a post-pandemic world.

Modernizing talent strategies becomes critically important. Until they do, managing the polarities of working remotely and in the office will continue to be a struggle for many organizations.

Ravin Jesuthasan, CFA, FRSA said it well at the May 2022 World Economic forum during his presentation, Transforming Work, Reshaping the Future, in Davos, Switzerland. The genie is out of the bottle. Anyone who tries to put it back in is maybe not being realistic about what’s actually happened (Jesuthasan 2022).

The pandemic irrevocably changed the workplace, and it’s time for us to move forward, not backward.

Here are a few compelling reasons why:

•Global research shows that 72 percent of corporate leaders plan to offer a hybrid model (Steelcase Global 2021).

•Among fully remote workers, 60 percent said they would be extremely likely to look for other opportunities if their employer decided not to offer remote work at least some of the time (Telford 2022).

•Sixty-four percent of those working from home at least some time but rarely or never did before the pandemic say it’s easier now to balance work with their personal life (Parker, Horowitz, and Minkin 2022).

•Nearly half of Gen Z (45 percent) and millennial (47 percent) employees surveyed said they are willing to give up 10 percent or more of their future earnings in exchange for the option to work virtually from almost anywhere (PwC 2022).

•Ninety-one percent of CEOs plan to maintain the heightened pace of digital transformation post-COVID-19—or to move even faster (Workday 2021).

Everyone thinks the pandemic caused employees to have a terrible work experience. I disagree. The pandemic amplified the faulty leadership practices we’ve endured in the workplace for decades and put a spotlight on them. The pull to return to something that no longer exists feels like retracting to the comfort zone rather than considering what’s possible. 

Make no mistake, there is magic in the room when people gather. And there are many reasons to gather. New client kick-offs, collaboration efforts, and onboarding to name a few. Some people prefer having an office space to go away from the distractions at home and to be social with colleagues. Industries like manufacturing, hospitality, and healthcare will continue to have professions that require in-person work.

The pandemic has shown us there are new ways to lead that are better suited to treat people as whole human beings and achieve the organizational results we seek. 

Three overarching themes pulsate throughout this book: 

•Changing workforce expectations for life and work

•Evolving workplace designs that invite people to do their best work

•Leadership lessons learned because of the pandemic

Today, some fortunate few can say with confidence, I love my company, I love my boss, I love the work I do, and I feel like I belong. Far too many can’t.

I’ve taken my twenty-five-plus-year career in human resources, combined it with twelve years of adjunct teaching at New York University, and layered it with tons of speaking engagements around the future of work and the future of human resources to bring you this book.

Many of us would agree that the workplace doesn’t work any longer. The pandemic forced us to face it and has shown us better ways to work together, albeit in unconventional ways. I see a new way forward.

Executives at all levels, human resources leaders, managers with people leadership responsibilities, and individuals who aspire to be people leaders are invited to enter a space of curiosity, self-reflection, and learning while reading this book. Bring an open mind ready to test your assumptions and beliefs.

This book is written from the lens of a coach following a process of guided self-discovery. A process that offers tips, tools, approaches, and reflective questions to help us reimagine effective leadership practices for new realities. It provides a global, cross-industry perspective with leadership lessons for work and life.

Think of this book as an after-action review. Now that we are emerging from the pandemic, what leadership lessons did we learn? What do we not want to repeat? And how do we lead differently going forward?

We’ll explore the five leadership practices that cultivate more innovative solutions, greater productivity, and lead to better business outcomes. We’ll reflect on and discover what it means to lead in uncertainty, lean into discomfort, and become a future-ready leader prepared for whatever the world throws your way next.

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There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. Every reader will examine what this book offers, hang it in a frame of reference around their experiences, and then make adaptations for their effectiveness in the context of what they do every day.

This field guide is a pragmatic approach toward increasing leadership effectiveness at all levels.

If you’re ready to step up and become a more flexible, adaptable, and empathic leader, turn to the next page and let’s get to work!

How to Use This Book

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The secret to change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

—Dan Millman

At my core, I’m a coach and teacher. My lens on life and work is one of learning. Coaching, teaching, and learning permeate every part of my world. Coaching is the underpinning of this book. 

Coaches often enter the profession burned out by what is wrong with the workplace and leadership. They saw the writing on the wall before the mass reexamining of the workplace that came with the pandemic. My career in corporate wandered through periods of hope and disappointment. Tenacity and grit kept me going for over twenty-five years.

One afternoon, I had coffee with a coaching colleague of mine, Mike. I described the resistance I encountered working in an organization with a toxic culture. Again. I had been there for nearly ten years, trying to bring positive changes to leadership practices. It was a repeat conversation for Mike.

He asked me, What will you do differently this time?

I replied, What do you mean this time? 

He reminded me I had been complaining about this situation for over a year. I was spinning my wheels with no hope of actualizing the necessary changes for this organization.

My conversation with Mike helped me find the courage to take the leap and start my own business. I decided I liked organizations better from the outside. 

Coaches stay connected, through their second career, to executives and managers, and throughout the pandemic, became trusted resources to guide them through.

Coaches had a front-row seat to the challenges of the pandemic imposed on executives, human resources leaders, and managers worldwide. I witnessed it firsthand in my own business. 

Before leaving the corporate world, I changed jobs every five years because I needed a new challenge. I love connecting the dots between old and new. Pushing around the edges of my success led me to discover new growth opportunities. Becoming a chief human resources officer (CHRO) wasn’t on my career radar when I was a computer programmer. Yet, the skills I developed as a computer programmer served me well in my CHRO role. Analyzing data, formulating processes, and developing people were three synergistic capabilities I wove together years later.

Your success as a leader depends on the degree to which you continuously evolve. That’s where this field guide can help. My assumption is if you got this far with this book, you at least have an interest in knowing more about the leadership lessons we’ve learned from the pandemic and are considering what you want or need to do to pull them through to whatever normal is next for you.

Executives sit in seats of power simply by title, hierarchal position in an organization, or by running with the pack of other executives across the firm who have decision-making authority. If this is you, I invite you to take a pause. Understand the motivating factors for future decisions around workplace flexibility, culture, and talent. Reflect on what’s possible and