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Hillarie Maddox's avatar

I'm a Black woman, mother of 2, and have an org development + learning background. I recently left my career in big tech, and all of this aligns with what I observed and experienced -- and why I left.

In my experience, the burnout was a result of the constant org churn and, as the most tenured person on the team, I was also tasked with onboarding people non-stop. Along with managing my normal job of running the highest visibility projects on the org. ( Not an unusual story for POCs)

I was part of a process-driven org that relied heavily on institutional knowledge to keep running. As the great resignation ran it's course, that knowledge left and the mechanisms for documenting / sharing the ways we work was severely lacking.

My question about the data is -- in orgs that are seeing improved connection, what mechanisms are being used to support that, formal and informal? What kind of efforts are being driven at the IC level and how is the impact different that leader-led efforts?

Before I left, I was hosting weekly 'lo-fi focus sessions" that resulted in a significant boost to morale and engagement. However, I got the feedback that these were not important to my main job, which reinforced for me how leadership is botching this moment to foster a different way of working.

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Angie G's avatar

I'm curious how the shift to remote/flexible work is impacting the implicit or explicit expectation of 40 hr work weeks. I think it's a difficult topic, because it introduces some immediate pearl-clutching - "the employees aren't working enough!!!" - but I think it's one of the foundational elements of trust- vs. power-based leadership. For example, in an org where the core hours are 9a-1:30p Pacific, as Sheela's company practices, are folks always, daily, working another 3.5 hrs, or does the culture support the idea of "it's your job to accomplish xyz objective or outcome, in whatever time that takes"? This idea seems more broadly acceptable if the "whatever time it takes" is over 40 hrs/week, but not necessarily if it's under. Many work management systems include time tracking aspects, so managers can clearly see how much time is going to various projects to help with forecasting. Are these orgs accepting of the fact that an employee's hours may not always add up to 40? What about a day that an employee works 5 hrs, then a few 9 hr days later in the week?

I think one of the joys of remote work is that you don't have to pretend to look busy from 3-5p while you wait out the clock. I can do a workout, then check my email for end of day messages, or do any number of household tasks during that time and arrive at 5p more refreshed and less stressed, ready to meet friends or relax because my professional and household tasks are done.

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