The remote work debate is happening at the same time as a lot of other debates around social norms. Some of these include what books can be in classrooms and libraries, rights to medication for abortions, rights for LBGTQ individuals, affirmative action, right to have an abortion, right to have weapons like an AR 14, and of course where people should work. And while remote work isn’t legislated It’s not all that different. You have a higher power trying to implement through policy what people do. CEOs are expected to set policy and the direction for their company. But when it comes to returning to the office, there’s so much pushback it should be a red flag things are going in the wrong direction. This is just one of many current and past attempts to dictate social norms.
Looking at the Pattern
The world has endured several years of a pandemic. Religion has begun to influence politics and various rights are being stripped away. A recession is upon us and there is a rise in hate crimes. Fighting in Eastern Europe is also growing. We all know the story. But this is the 1920s, not the 2020s. By the 1930s, the stock market had crashed and things had gone from bad to worse in Europe. Hopefully, history won’t repeat itself.
Some changes were more subtle. Most people have never heard of the Hayes Code, but it set the moral tone for media for the next several decades beginning in 1934. It was the originator of the G, PG, NC-17, R, and X rating scales for movies. Before 1934 almost anything was fair game on the silver screen. In Tarzan and His Mate, Jane swam naked and they talked about making love the morning after. Interracial relationships were not uncommon, and even LGBTQ themes were explored. They also did drugs, had abortions, and said bad words. All that came to a screeching halt for the next 3o years or so. By 1952, Lucy couldn’t even say she was pregnant on TV. An interracial kiss would take until a Star Trek episode on November 22, 1968.
Turn Back the Clocks Again
Our view of what work-life looked like was cemented in 1957. This was when Ward Cleaver first came home from the office to a home-cooked meal by his pearl-wearing wife. It was an idyllic time when men went to the office, and women stayed home and took care of the house and kids. It was never real, but it was the image that was imprinted on our brains.
Most corporate leaders today didn’t even grow up with that, or if they did, it was in the early years of their life. We have evolved beyond that, but it seems that many CEOs want to go back there. Sadly, it seems to be less nostalgia and more centered around control and dictating a set of social norms that seem to have their roots in conservative politics and religion.
Politics and Religion
If you look at religion today in America, it seems to be going in one of two directions either a non-denominational non-churchy approach to also the opposite, which is a fundamental, hardline strict interpretation of take your pick of book whether it’s the Bible, Qur’an, etc. There was a time when people simply had beliefs. They could be shared and they could be different. For many, beliefs have turned to absolute certainty. And now one group is right and the other is wrong. Often it goes beyond that to legislate those views, or even people, out of existence.
Feeling Secure
People want security in their jobs, their country, their beliefs, and their future. These don’t exist, but leaders of all types (corporate, political, and religious) will make promises to the contrary. In the movie The American President, there is a speech about how you win elections. The President in the movie said this about his opponent, “He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, American values, and character, and you wave an old photo of the President’s girlfriend and you scream about patriotism. You tell them she’s to blame for their lot in life. And you go on television and you call her a whore.” Now the last part, it’s a matter of filling in the blanks for a particular topic. There are more than a few articles by prominent people saying that remote work will be the downfall of Western society.
Unfortunately, it seems like those who scream the loudest often get their way, even if it’s not the will of the majority. In the 1930s, the Nazi Party took over Germany with just under 10% of the population being in favor of it. Now the idea of the return of the office doesn’t on the surface look like an extremist view. But it has a lot of similarities in terms of how it’s being implemented, and who benefits. It’s about centralized power, and a return to “traditional values”. A narrative is being created that remote work is something to be afraid of and it is preventing us from returning to a simpler time when we felt secure.
The Only Constant is Change
Patterns will get repeated and people will try to accumulate power or hold onto the power they have. We take a few steps forward, and then a few steps back. Luckily a few things stick along the way. You can only dictate social norms for so long and then they find their own direction. It can happen through circumstance, or sometimes through violence and destruction. Prohibition was the law of the land for thirteen years from 1920-1933. Segregation was in effect until 1964. Now these things are behind us. We also don’t have 8-tracks, Red Dye #3, or leaded gas. It’s time to add the traditional office to that list. We have evolved.
There will always be groups that want to roll back the clocks for profit, political or religious reasons. It happens every day somewhere in the world. Some ideas just stick around no matter how much certain groups try to destroy them. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970. I was a speaker at the Earth Summit 20 years later. We had made some progress during that time, but groups were working against the idea as well as supporting it. Even today, Climate Change is a lightning rod topic. But it’s an idea that is inching forward and isn’t going away.
Remote work is a topic whose time has come even as some CEOs see it as a threat to their power. Many want things to go back to a simpler time when men were wearing power suits in their corner offices. Women were home taking care of the kids and preparing a delicious meal for their husband’s return from a hard day at the office. Some people forget that we wouldn’t have gotten to the moon if it hadn’t been for women like Katherine Johnson and Margaret Hamilton. It may not fit with the popular narrative, and this is ultimately our saving grace. Truth usually prevails.
Remote work creates opportunities for people. Unfortunately, some people want to keep all the opportunities for themselves, and they want to roll back the clocks to make it happen. Some CEOs will try to dictate the social norms for their company, but it’s likely to be a short-lived strategy. Others like the CEOs of Allstate, PwC, and Yelp are charting a new course riding the wave of remote work, instead of standing up to it. Grab a surfboard, the water is great!
