We have seen a shift from the pandemic era work from home mandates to a new back to normal mandate of return to the office. This has caused a lot of frustration from workers. Much of the frustration is valid. Workers feel as if they can do their job more effectively if they work from home and that it provides better flexibility for managing non-work related responsibilities. There have been studies that back this idea but they tend to have mixed results when comparing the overall data.
The corporate culture
Many of the companies mandating return to office cite productivity, lack of focus, a need for tighter collaboration and more creativity. These are valid reasons and through experience we know that it is much harder to encourage those things through remote teams. Anything from communication barriers that are created from text based collaboration, to time zone differences for meetings, to a lack of in person body language to make interpretation easier - they all provide unique challenges for fully remote teams. It is also difficult to build empathy, loyalty, and accountability.There is just something about not having to face a person in real life that allows us to hand off responsibility.
There is a simpler reason for the mandate
It will encourage the pursuit of excellence and some will say, profit. It takes a special kind of person that can be truly productive working from home. I have worked at home for well over 20 years and even now I get distracted. Get up to get some coffee, notice I need to water a plant, my dog is looking at me like I haven’t played with him in a thousand years, oh I need to pull out meat or dinner, wait what was I supposed to be doing? That’s right, grab a coffee and finish writing this article. That is all time that is lost and time in this context is two things: the ability to produce profit and/or something of excellence. When you work from an office, there is less opportunity for distraction from work.
Do U.S. people pursue excellence?
Yes, but not all and not the majority. This was the cusp of Ramaswamy’s quote, “That “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.” Excellence is something that is achieved over time. It is true that you can build or create something of excellence in 40 hours a week and it is also true that it takes 5x as long as someone who will push 60 or 80 hours a week. If you consider the most profound scientists and innovators, they are not working 32 or 40 hours a week. They are living the project that they are researching, creating, and building.
Culture has a lot to do with it
Math is the cornerstone of every highly coveted job in the nation. You cannot have excellence in any of the top fields without an aptitude or hard earned skill in math. With this consideration, we would be negligent if we didn’t note that Asians on average score 11 percent higher than Whites in math. [1] Why? Simply put, Asians value academics more than Whites [2]. There is also evidence that the way the U.S. has changed education leads to underperforming results in math [3]. I also believe we have over the last 3-4 generations moved toward a soft lifestyle. People just don’t want to have to work hard and the lack of desire to work hard was further exacerbated by the government policies during the pandemic.
When I was a kid
I am going to be 52 this year. I am squarely in Gen X. The stereotypes of Gen X kids riding their bikes in the streets, never seen or heard from from sun up to the street lights came on, drinking from hoses and seeing who could hold on the longest on the merry-go-round are all true. We had firecrackers, were allowed to bring (unloaded) rifles to school (in California even), have a pocket knife, climb trees, walk home alone, take a bus downtown, explore abandoned buildings and play football on pavement. Now people are arrested for allowing their children to walk home from school.[4]
As a child if I wanted something, I had to work for it. Before I hit my teens, I started a lawn mowing business. I didn’t have a lawnmower. I had to borrow one and the first payments I received all went to buying my own law mower. When I returned the borrowed mower, I was required to return it in better condition than when I received it. That was the beginning of my long road to trying to achieve excellence. I am still trying today.
Where is this all going
We need to require and support education. We need diversity of thought, and an understanding that while we all are all equal the moment of our first breath, equality of outcomes is a descent into mediocrity. We must celebrate and nurture the gifts we are given. We must appreciate and be grateful for the privileges we have. We must hone our skills and cultivate our talents. We must care for our people. Lastly, we must focus on the essentials.[5]
If we want America to continue to be a leader in the world beyond what we can consume, we have to have the culture to support it. We need to accept that a C is not good enough unless it is your best effort and that we should all be striving for the A. That doesn’t mean we all get there. It means we are all working for it. Otherwise, what is the point?
- https://nces.ed.gov/programs/raceindicators/indicator_rcb.asp#:~:text=Asian%20students%20scored%2011%20points,the%20corresponding%20gap%20in%202005.
- https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1406402111
- https://www.asianscientist.com/2016/05/academia/asian-students-good-maths-science/
- https://abcnews.go.com/US/georgia-moms-arrest-puts-free-range-parenting-back/story?id=116004039
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essentialism
- https://youtu.be/ikN3hsWBAyc?si=RcGMWmYPVaQn2Ngz