Work from home: is it time to return to the office, C20 panel asks

DUBAI: The digital era has transformed the way people work and live, and has become more evident as the coronavirus pandemic forced everybody into an online environment to learn, work, and communicate.
In a discussion, titled the ‘future of work,’ at the second day of the Civil Society 20 Summit (C20) a panel of experts and business leaders discussed leadership in the digital age.
The C20 is one of the eight official engagement groups of the G20, which allows civil society groups to put forward a non-government and non-business voice.
Panelists of the ‘Rethinking ‘Leadership’ for a Digital Age’ session said they agreed that leadership must work hand-in-hand with technology and that “there must be a greater understanding between leadership and authority in this digital age.”
“Leadership sometimes needs authority, sometimes it does not,” Salma El-Yassir, co-founder of Womaneze, said, stressing that it is important to understand the difference between the two.
Yassir further explained that the lack of understanding created underlying fears, leading to some resisting change, including a shift to technology-driven work.
Roberto Croci, managing director at Microsoft for Startups MEA, said leadership in the digital age was not about technology, but more on people.
“It is human centered. Leaders misunderstand their role, always thinking about themselves… but it is about others,” Croci told the panel.
“A leader should come out as vulnerable, it is okay to be human. A good leader should be asking the right questions [since leaders] do not have all the answers.”
Anastasia Dedyukhina, founder of Consciously Digital, said she believed that “leadership should work hand in hand with technology.”
“A great leader is not only listening to people but also listens to suggestions. The [coronavirus] pandemic is a perfect example, if a leader listens to employees it will invigorate leadership,” Dedyukhina said.
But Dedyukhina warned that technology tools were not necessarily neutral, as some digital tools end up putting workers on a digital leash.
“Small things [such as digital communication versus personal communication] make a big difference… technology adoption has an effect on employees,” she explained.
“Technology is taking a toll on people. That is not our natural state of being. We cannot be expected to be at a screen for hours on end. Companies have to be cognizant and aware and make allowances for it,” Yassir meanwhile commented.
For Croci, some leaders are not updating the way people are being measured for performance management.
“People must be rewarded on outcomes and impact. Who cares if you work nine hours in your laptop? The small mannerisms of leaders show how to respect your employees,” Croci explained.
“We are seeing signs of digital fatigue in this new normal. Long meetings are not natural, are not healthy.”
The panelists likewise had critical views about working from home, which has become common across workforces around the globe since the coronavirus pandemic broke out.
“On the short term [working from home] can be great, but the last six months has been just about surviving,” Dedyukhina said, and mentioned a study where home-based employees were eager to return to office work, fearing their chances of promotion were jeopardized by their physical absence.
“The idea of ownership of a day initially feels great but it stops, and then becomes tiring. It may be time for leaders to reconfigure, and give workers a choice of working from home or in the office,” Yassir said.
“It could be time to do a combination of things, trust people to do their work.”
“How you are measuring your employees… you do not necessarily have to be a Google or Microsoft. It is the way you care [for your employees]. Think of your employees as human, would you do this thing to yourself? We need a human-centered leader at these times,” Microsoft’s Croci meanwhile commented.

Work from home: is it time to return to the office, C20 panel asks