DEEP DIVE: Managers need support, stat!

Seven writers, thinkers, podcasters who are focused on supporting managers, not just executives.

A few weeks ago I was listening to an episode of the NYT podcast, The Daily, provocatively entitled, The Hybrid Worker Malaise. The episode featured a lot of unsurprising information about what is awesome and not-so-awesome about working remotely, and about working in-office. I won’t belabor the points here. I didn’t feel I was learning much, but it was certainly a thorough review of the perspectives, and it felt accurate to me.

But oh my, did they ever bury the lede. About five minutes from the end, they were discussing how both remote work enthusiasts and return-to-office die-hards cited various surveys and studies to justify their positions on the subject of where to work. The reporter, Emma Goldberg, then shared this nugget about whether studies actually indicated that hybrid work increased or decreased productivity:

When it’s managed well, productivity increases. When it’s not managed well, productivity decreases.

I mean. Yes. Thank you. Hard agree. This statement didn’t feel especially surprising either, but it felt like it’s the part that hasn’t been said out loud often enough.

The reference to “it” (meaning a hybrid workforce) being “managed” is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and is leaving a lot unsaid about HOW to actually manage “it” well.

So, who’s consistently talking about how to lead through this sea change in the workplace…not at the highest leadership level, but a few steps down the hierarchy, where the teams being managed span a range of experience levels, maturity, and aside from that, working and learning styles?