The unintended consequences of our decisions

1. Cameras off meetings

By allowing people to choose whether to join a meeting with camera on or camera off, we have eroded relationships and social connections. We have created disengagement and detachment. We have reduced participation and collaboration in meetings.

And for everyone now shouting at me saying ‘some people don’t like being on camera we have to protect/support them’, my response is: I would estimate that at least half of those you are protecting have no issue with being on camera outside of work (FaceTime, WhatsApp video, TikTok, Instagram etc.), so in reality their only problem is work video calls. For those who are genuinely nervous or uncomfortable about the camera and who would be equally nervous/uncomfortable in a face-to-face meeting, then encouraging full participation is the only way improve their confidence and if we don’t normalise having your face ‘seen’ at work we’re not helping anybody.

Age 24, I recall being in a work meeting. I was the most junior person there. It was humiliating how flushed my face got as it became my turn to speak. Had I been given an opt out then and in subsequent meetings I am pretty sure I would not have achieved half of what I have achieved in my life. Giving people an opt out is not necessarily a kind thing to do if we consider someone’s whole career.

2. Home working

By allowing, encouraging or even requiring home working without having first had sight of the home working ‘space’ available for each employee, we’re walking ourselves into a myriad of potential problems such as those that come from poor seating, poor lighting, poor ventilation, isolation and disengagement etc.

Shared workspaces require us to be moving around across the day, going up and down stairs, using company provided chairs, being in and around our colleagues who we both learn from and share with.  Home working is a 5-10 year problem in the making, with an epidemic of bad backs already filling chiropractors appointment books and a new norm for many of multi-tasking housework and child and/or doggy care whilst working. So much for the separation of work and home being good for our work-life balance.

Any employer being taken to the employment tribunal for failing in its “duty of care” and who thinks they will be able to rely on the argument of “well it was at their request we agreed to home working” piffle paffle to that!

Managers’ fears about breaching privacy, being accused of prying into homes, discrimination claims arising from asking about child care etc., will be the undoing of many businesses who end up with no insight into whether their own employees’ home work spaces are safe and/or suitable.

3. Opt out training

Optional training courses are also fast creating their own unintended consequences. Firstly, managers/directors seem to regularly opt out, either because they are overconfident of their own knowledge, or they want to show their teams that other things are far too important for them to down tools for a few hours. This sends so many wrong messages on so many levels. 

Secondly, in my experience those who are already engaged in a topic attend training that has been organised, while those we need to be engaged in a topic choose to absent themselves. This is especially true for diversity, inclusion type training. If it’s about organisational culture, which ED&I is, everyone needs to be there otherwise how can we all work together to create and sustain it? Or, if it’s about essential tools for life (e.g. tech skills, communication skills, adaptability skills) then everyone needs to be there otherwise we’re setting our employees up for future failure. It’s a rare employee with an aversion to tech who puts their hand up, jumping up and down in excitement, when you first offer some tech training. No, instead they keep their hand well down and hope you don’t notice them hiding.

As a result, too many are missing out on vital training and there’s money being wasted with empty seats on training being delivered.

Employers’ reluctance to make training compulsory, in my view, seems to stem from a couple of things:

• Fear of how others will look at you for making something obligatory – we all like to be liked and none of likes to be the team ‘nag’.
• Too much useless, lack lustre training in recent years means there’s a lot of push back against time spent learning, so while training may be organised some of those organising it aren’t bought into the value of development and they definitely don’t have the confidence/desire to tell others to attend.
• Employers haven’t got their heads around the long-term consequences of the impact on culture and skills when people opt out – they are still too focused on ‘we need to be nice and inclusive of everyone and that means giving people lots of choices about what they do.’ Will your shareholders be so relaxed when in a few years’ time you have to tell them you don’t have the skill sets or established behaviours to make the business profitable?
• We have all lost sight of what it takes to make a team and/or business successful – clear and decisive leadership with clear standards and expectations around behaviour plus active management of those who resist or refuse to follow the lead.

4. Social media

Social media reactivity also creates lots of problems for business if we look at long term unintended consequences. Who do you have in your business who is your ‘anti reactivity’ grounded person/advisor? You probably need several of them, or even a team of them, if you’re to take a balanced view on an issue that is trending on social media.

5. Digital nomad initiatives

It sounds fun and inclusive and what’s not to like with a reported 40 million of them across the world now, but they can alienate great staff in a business with factory, warehouse, facilities, retail staff etc. who have no choice but to turn up everyday. It’s a dangerous game pandering to the lucky few whilst alienating the majority.

Also, who is going to nurture and train up the younger workers when those who are 5 or 10 years into their careers have all fled for sunnier climes? That’s going to be a competency and confidence issue brewing for those young workers with no one to teach and guide them. I won’t even mention other issues arising out of digital nomad madness such as data protection, duty of care, local taxation bills that unexpectedly become due, the legal jurisdiction of the employment contract and social connectedness to work that is so important for loyalty/retention.

6. Hiked salaries

The great resignation resulted in a lot of hiked salaries, grabbing talent at whatever cost. Now we see fire and re-hire policies to bring salaries back down, swathes of redundancies of tech people as tech investors have tightened their belts, redundancies to reduce headcount in line with the economic downturn that began even whilst we were recruiting.

7. Diversity forums set up with a singular focus 

This is type of diversity forum or committee set up with a focus on one kind of minority group. While great for initial PR and internal engagement, have subsequently alienated some staff in other minority (or even majority) groups who now feel excluded.

8. 4-day weeks

Another TikTok draw and while it might work for a few, there is a fairly loud customer push back in some places. Is our reactivity, without proper consideration, resulting in some organisations doing more for staff than for customers? Another very dangerous game to play as last time I looked … no customers = no staff, or along the same vein, poor service = big fines.

And how many have done their research into what happens what companies pay above market rate salaries if they maintain full salary for a 4 day week? Yes, the result is that no one can ever afford to leave the job, even when they become fed up, fancy a change, want to try something new. I can tell you from past experience that it is miserable working alongside someone who doesn’t want to be at work but who can’t afford to move somewhere else plus the whole business or organisation gets stale as with no one leaving there is no new talent coming in.

Time to think and reflect and learn to say no?

If I could encourage anything in organisations it would be a reminder to carve out time to reflect, time to consider, time to investigate. Plus, we need to develop a bit more strength and resilience so we can push back and say ‘no’, or ‘not right now’, or ‘I hear you but that is not the right thing for this organisation right now’.  Allowing either social media, or one loud voice in the room, or one vocal group of employees who don’t understand what it takes to run a sustainable business, to dictate organisational strategy, terms, priorities is a very dangerous game that long term will result in businesses losing competitivity, market position and for some, the ability to survive.

If you think your business is invincible, in working through the Jaluch adaptability eLearning module earlier today, I came across an article setting out 50 incredible brands that went bust, or nearly went bust, because they failed to adapt. Some really good reminders around the importance of proper thinking and consideration in businesses. It’s time to say ‘no’ to modern day knee jerk reactions that may well come back to haunt us.

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