WLP305 What’s Going On: The 4-Day Week, Good Audio and Introvert Stereotypes
In this episode, Maya and Pilar discuss the recent developments around the 4-day week experiments in the UK and Spain, they reflect on whether audio quality might give rise to a new kind of unconscious bias and they have a go at introvert/extrovert stereotypes. Plus, bits and pieces around collaboration tech and news from our network.
The approach to the 4-Day Week has many parallels with remote work. Organisations need to have the appropriate culture, and it will look differently in different companies. A chip shop featured in The Guardian’s article Thousands of UK workers begin world’s biggest trial of four-day week is a prime example of this, where they’ve implemented a whole new set of shifts, to make sure that customers still get the same level of service.
Sometimes the business has to make an investment in what is essentially an initiative focused on employee’s wellbeing, with some companies hiring extra staff so that people can have shorter weeks while all the work that needs to be done, is done.
Is society ready for the 4-day week, when we are expecting fast service and in main cities, constant access to services? There’s also a danger that if the workload is not adapted to the new set up, the 5th weekday becomes a “working from home to catch up” day!
Essentially, as when you introduce remote work, the organisation needs to be ready for the change. A good example of this is Good Rebels, led by Fernando Polo, who was on our show in episode 154. And of course, just like with location-flexibility, it needs to be introduced with parity in mind.
If you have experience of the 4-Day Week, or indeed any thoughts on this, let us know!
18.05 MINS
Pilar, who pays unusual attention to audio, has noticed that her first impressions of people online, specially those featured in events, is affected by the quality of their audio. If remote workers want to show up as their best in meetings and presentations, it’s worth organisations, or individuals, investing in external microphones. (We recommend a YETI microphone.)
Could this become an unconscious bias? Judging people by the quality of their audio, without realising we’re doing so?
And audio is important to people’s environment, as the fact that some are paying for white noise podcasts shows! Check out this article on Bloomberg, on how podcasters are making money on Spotify with white-noise podcasts.
29:40 MINS
There are still many misconceptions of what introverts are, thinking that they are always shy. There are some introverts who are shy, but there are also shy extroverts. It’s all about how energy is managed, and what energises us.
In a recent interview on Adventures in Podcasting, J Thorn shared this with Pilar: ““The big one is that introverts are shy. They can be shy, but that's not a trade of Introversion. Introverts can be just as outgoing and gregarious and people friendly as anyone else. The difference is they need to recharge - that drains them where as an extrovert it recharges them.”
We need to bear this in mind when we’re designing hybrid spaces, and double check our assumptions of who might benefit from using the office space and who might prefer to work from home.
A short and fun one to end with: are we in danger of “slack-splaining”? We discuss this article which talks about how so many people are overthinking their written messages (on Slack, etc) and the stress it’s causing. It’s a question of getting used to the online medium, but it also can have the benefit of helping us to slow down when we communicate with others.
NETWORK AND COMMUNITY NEWS
47.36mins
Maya is on her way to the Bansko Nomad Festival! It’s n Bulgaria, which looks like it wants to attract digital nomads. Other countries are also planning on doing this through visas, but it’s taking a while to consolidate. (Thanks to listener Prisca for sending Pilar the note about approving a law proposal to create a Remote Work visa.)
Last week we released an episode featuring another listener, with his own case study about how his organisation is transitioning to remote!
Finally, look out for some new episodes from Management Café, with Tim Burgess as co-host!
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