Organisations all over the world are wrestling with the issue of what the future of work looks like.
The points of difference between those who imagine a hybrid week, those who want to work from home five days a week and those who seek a total return to the office seem to grow with every passing month.
Earlier in the pandemic, many companies dipped their toes in the waters to encourage employees back to the office, only to be greeted by new waves of infection that made it impossible. Some of these same organisations are now trying once more to get employees into workplaces for more of the time, with mixed results.
These efforts reveal plenty about how contested this space has become.
Apple Inc, for instance, wants its employees back in the office three days a week from September 5, with Tuesdays and Thursdays being nominated as in-person days and with the third day being flexible. What has been described as a small group of staff are pushing back saying they want working arrangements that “are best for each of us” rather than an imposed arrangement.
Employers often still envisage one way of life, employees imagine another
Only time will tell if that group represents the feelings of a larger silent majority or if they are the outliers. Labour Day, the annual US holiday that this year falls on the eve of Apple’s grand return, will feel especially consequential for some.
In the UK, a government minister has been running a sustained campaign to get civil servants back into their workplaces after long periods of working from home, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister of state for Brexit opportunities and government efficiencies, made surprise visits to government offices earlier this year to call out absentee workers. Last month he mooted a plan to sell off a suite of “half-empty” government offices that were underused because of persistent WFH protocols. But if remote working represents the future, who will buy these prime office sites anyway?
Some other employers are reported to have installed monitoring software on the computers of remote workers to measure their productivity, which is the weaponised front line of the future of work. By comparison, punching the clock seems a twee artefact of a bygone era.
All over the world employees are pushing back on multiple fronts.
The great resignation of 2021 has turned into quiet quitting this year. Trend spotters also say some workers may be juggling multiple full-time jobs while working from home. This is not so much the “gig economy” as the entire festival line-up.
More generally, a significant chunk of the workforce is happier and self-identifies as more productive at home in their regular job. The Economist magazine estimates that one-third of paid working days in the US are undertaken at home. A Hays study in the UAE this year found that 40 per cent of companies had staff back in their workplaces for the entire working week.
This system has well-known cracks, of course.
The connectivity tools that have allowed for an easy mass transition to remote working are also the same platforms that can serve to create superficial connection and check-in rather than meaningful collaboration. Remote working also creates organisational culture challenges and companies that “do hybrid” may still be operating on an approximation of the emergency footing they began when the giant WFH experiment started in early 2020.
Remote workers will counter that they can deliver better work from home, free from the stress or hassle of long commutes to work or the burdens and expectations of sitting in an office with a bunch of co-workers.
But all of this is the argument and counter-argument of the discourse.
The reality is that hybrid work remains a coda for the idea that employees are open to coming back to the office but won’t and for employers to talk about flexibility while preferring to have more rigidity evident in the working week, which is where Apple finds itself. Employers often still envisage one way of life, employees imagine another.
So how does the stalemate end? There is no easy answer.
Like any generational negotiated settlement, it will require dialogue and compromise. The assumptions about where work takes place that were codified in old contracts will need to be fashioned into new agreements.
In the world of diplomacy, peace deals are often hard fought and require truth and reconciliation from all sides. Mandated solutions can generate short-term cessations of conflict rather than lasting agreements.
It may be that the process proves impossible or that the current conditions persist.
If they do, the pushback from the employer side will probably arrive in the form of more stringent performance-linked appraisals or via further efforts to define what a day’s work represents through data-driven answers that quantify output.
Soft skills, once regarded as the best way to navigate the difficult world of the workplace, may decline in importance in such a scenario, replaced by the hard currency of data and what output has been produced.
Mandated solutions may prompt a further pivot from employees towards remote working opportunities in the short-term, as workers chase flexibility and the freedom to set their own terms via new opportunities. But will that prove satisfactory in the longer term as the pandemic fades into the distance?
Apple’s deadline will whoosh by next week, but the broader issue of the future of work remains unresolved – for now.
Quick%20facts
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SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.4-litre%204-cylinder%20turbo%20hybrid%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20366hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E550Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESix-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh360%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EAvailable%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Poacher
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Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 290hp
Torque: 340Nm
Price: Dh155,800
On sale: now
About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
Honeymoonish
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
How to get there
Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
Types of fraud
Phishing: Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
Smishing: The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
Vishing: The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
SIM swap: Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
Identity theft: Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
Prize scams: Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
* Nada El Sawy
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Countries recognising Palestine
France, UK, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Malta, Luxembourg, San Marino and Andorra
The five stages of early child’s play
From Dubai-based clinical psychologist Daniella Salazar:
1. Solitary Play: This is where Infants and toddlers start to play on their own without seeming to notice the people around them. This is the beginning of play.
2. Onlooker play: This occurs where the toddler enjoys watching other people play. There doesn’t necessarily need to be any effort to begin play. They are learning how to imitate behaviours from others. This type of play may also appear in children who are more shy and introverted.
3. Parallel Play: This generally starts when children begin playing side-by-side without any interaction. Even though they aren’t physically interacting they are paying attention to each other. This is the beginning of the desire to be with other children.
4. Associative Play: At around age four or five, children become more interested in each other than in toys and begin to interact more. In this stage children start asking questions and talking about the different activities they are engaging in. They realise they have similar goals in play such as building a tower or playing with cars.
5. Social Play: In this stage children are starting to socialise more. They begin to share ideas and follow certain rules in a game. They slowly learn the definition of teamwork. They get to engage in basic social skills and interests begin to lead social interactions.
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
RIDE%20ON
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EShaffra%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDIFC%20Innovation%20Hub%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Emetaverse-as-a-Service%20(MaaS)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Ecurrently%20closing%20%241.5%20million%20seed%20round%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Epre-seed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%20Abu%20Dhabi%20and%20different%20PCs%20and%20angel%20investors%20from%20Saudi%20Arabia%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enine%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
