{"id":2867,"date":"2018-04-27T07:02:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T06:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/?p=2867"},"modified":"2018-04-27T18:23:46","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T17:23:46","slug":"the-outdated-question-of-where-do-you-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/2018\/04\/27\/the-outdated-question-of-where-do-you-work\/","title":{"rendered":"The Outdated Question of \u2018Where Do You Work\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
commons.wikimedia.org\/Zonaspace-coworking-atmosphere.jpg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Where do you work? <\/em><\/p>\n

A simple and common question we all know, right?! When asking such a question we are naturally interested in the position and organization one is working for\u2026 at the same time, the question also implies some indication of location, doesn\u2019t it? In the past, this probably made perfect sense, and people could easily name their role, organization and street address they would go to every morning. Things have changed though\u2026<\/p>\n

A recent Mobile Workstyle<\/strong>s Survey by Citrix<\/a>\u00a0states that today \u2018work is what you do, not a place you go\u2019, implying the mobility\u00a0<\/strong>of workplaces and workstyle<\/strong>s. In other words, the world of work seems to be moving away from stationary desks in fixed office spaces of fixed buildings\u2026 Indeed, companies have started implementing more flexible practices for remote work\u00a0<\/strong>for quite some time now. Studies reveal that flexible working\u00a0<\/strong>options are already available for more than 17% of Europeans\u00a0<\/a>and around 30% of Americans. For example, Mastercard proposed to its 12,000 employees worldwide to work fully remotely, while insurer Zurich<\/a>\u00a0in Spain had implemented a two days out-off-office policy. According to Citrix\u2019s estimation, by 2020 89% of organizations worldwide will offer mobile workstyle<\/strong>s, with the United States leading the trend.<\/p>\n

Although our first impressions of remote work\u00a0<\/strong>might be about working at home or freelancing from Starbucks, the current trend goes far beyond that. Start-up businesses such as Daysk.com, Neo-Nomade and Nested strive to provide a network of workspace<\/strong>s \u2013 be it a desk, a meeting-room or a coworking space, for a very different range of clients. While freelancers, nomads and business travellers might be the most obvious audience, flexible and on-demand workspace<\/strong>s are increasingly promoted also to corporations, having their \u2018ordinary\u2019 employees in mind. The \u2018sales pitch\u2019 of remote work<\/strong>policies for organizations doesn\u2019t seem that difficult to deliver, as several surveys indicate decreased costs and increased employee engagement as outcomes. For example, a Gallup survey in the U.S. shows<\/a>\u00a0that employees, who spent 3 to 4 days a week off site, feel the most engaged, and academic research suggests\u00a0<\/a>that remote work<\/strong>ers are also more productive. Echoing these notions, Citrix Mobile Workstyle<\/strong>s Survey respondents reported huge operational and strategic advantages for organizations, as mobile workstyle<\/strong>s allow to better recruit and retain employees, reduce real estate and overhead costs, and increase personal employee productivity.<\/p>\n

Employee satisfaction with flexible work policies isn\u2019t difficult to assume either. Just imagine being able to instantly book and use a spot in a local workspace\u00a0<\/strong>instead of spending your last business trip hours in the hotel lobby; or checking-in at the nearest workspace\u00a0<\/strong>after your sales meeting and finishing your workday there, instead of commuting back to the office; or just spending your offsite working day in a vibrant coworking hub, instead of your isolated \u2018home office\u2019\u2026 There are clearly a range of benefits, from reduced commuting time and increased work-life balance, to networking within a community of different professionals with complementary profiles.<\/p>\n

Naturally, such a shift in work design is not without obstacles and drawbacks. For example, IBM, the pioneer of remote work<\/strong>, decided<\/a>\u00a0to call its employees back into the office to ensure their physical collaboration. There are also clear benefits of sharing office space and sitting around the same table with your colleagues, right? Moreover, how can we align remote work\u00a0<\/strong>policies with other HR policies regarding security, productivity, mobility\u00a0<\/strong>and control?<\/p>\n

Several questions are still up in the air, but what is fairly clear though is that the way we work is shifting: instead of asking \u2018where do you work\u2019, we better ask \u2018what do you do?\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where do you work? A simple and common question we all know, right?! When asking such a question we are naturally interested in the position and organization one is working for\u2026 at the same time, the question also implies some indication of location, doesn\u2019t it? In the past, this probably made perfect sense, and people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18330],"tags":[102645],"class_list":["post-2867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-views-and-news-about-expatriates","tag-remote-work-workspace-flexible-working-policies-mobility-summary-the-way-we-work-is-shifting-instead-of-asking-where-do-you-work","megacategoria-mc-leadership-and-people-management"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2867"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2870,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867\/revisions\/2870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}