Missing the point?

We're witnessing powerful trends in the workplace today.  Working from home; the "great resignation"; employee empowerment; a 4-day work week…  Although employees at many technology companies might be feeling less empowered these days - who can miss the headlines about Oracle's layoffs? 

            “EMPOWERMENT”: 

A term meant to give survivors of restructure the illusion they have a role in the company's future.

Unknown Sage 

Then I read in LinkedIn that those laid off employees have received an average of 70 new job offers.  Truthfully, it's hard for me to believe that those 70 new opportunities are equivalent to the jobs they lost.  But that's not the point. 

Emphasis on work-life balance makes me wonder if employees believe their managers are opposed to work-life balance.  I don’t think so, but I turned to a subject matter expert for further insight. 

Wikipedia states, "Clayton Magleby Christensen was an American academic and business consultant who developed the theory of "disruptive innovation", which has been called the most influential business idea of the early 21st century."  Now we're getting somewhere.  Clayton offered: 

In most companies, however, individual managers don't have the luxury of surviving a string of trials and errors in pursuit of the strategy that works.  Rightly or wrongly, individual managers in most organizations believe that they cannot fail:  If they champion a project that fails because the initial marketing plan was wrong, it will constitute a blotch on their track record, blocking their rise through the organization.                        

True enough, but I don’t feel managers avoiding career-threatening mistakes is the point. 

Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of  Blink© and The Tipping Point©, thinks remote work is actually hurting society.  As told on the “Diary of a CEO” podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett, Malcolm believes people need to come into the office to regain a “sense of belonging": 

"If we don’t feel like we’re part of something important, what’s the point?” he said. “If it’s just a paycheck, then it’s like what have you reduced your life to?” 

Have you noticed the key, missing element in this discussion?  While employees and employers are playing tug-of-war, there's been a dearth of discussion about the customer.  Another thought leader offered this wisdom:           

The problem was that nobody stayed with the customer to make sure they knew how to use the product… Consequently, they built an eighty-percent market share of unhappy clients. 

                        Rick Page 

I don’t know, and frankly don’t care, whether an employee is working from home; in an office; dressed in a 3-piece suit; or wearing yoga pants.  I believe the main point is how do these work-place trends impact customer satisfaction. 

You tell me…  when you’re interacting with an employee at a company and hear their dog barking or their baby crying in the background, is it distracting to you?  How can it not be distracting to the employee too.  As the customer, do we actually believe a distracted employee delivers better customer service? 

Distractions occur at the office you say?  I agree.  So tell me, do more tenured, more experienced employees do a better or worse job of overcoming distractions at the office?  Again I ask, how can a less tenured employee, who moves from company to company during this period of the "great resignation" provide better customer support than a more experienced employee? 

To me, the point being overlooked is this; lose your customers; lose your job - wherever your job is located and however you’re dressed.           

                                                            GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.