Lance Haun - Writer and Consultant on Work Tech

I think a lot about workplace culture in remote work. Before it was cool and before it became a pandemic-inspired norm, I thought about how I could better work with my team from a distance. It’s what happens when you’ve been working remotely for more than a decade.

Perks and benefits certainly play a role in an organization’s culture. But when you get beyond healthcare benefits, paid time off and a great 401(k), you start getting into perks that seem more about keeping people entertained rather than productive or well compensated. They also indicated a certain type of workplace culture. Stocked fridges full of LaCroix, beer kegs, soft furniture scattered across an open workspace and yes, ping-pong tables, became a norm in certain sectors.

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Predicting the future is tough in work technology. But a merger between on-demand mental health platform Ginger and meditation and mindfulness app Headspace doesn’t seem to come too far out of left field. The combined valuation of $3 billion to form the new Headspace Health? That might be more of a surprise.

As mental well-being has entered our collective zeitgeist, it’s clear people and organizations need practical answers to the associated challenges. The cracks in the foundation of our mental health system have been laid bare. While we still need comprehensive and equitable mental and behavioral health services in line with what we get for physical health, the combination of Ginger and Headspace offers an intriguing opportunity to do something innovative. 

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Apple Park, the eponymously named headquarters for Apple, is a marvel. Its futuristic design, known as the spaceship, sits on a park-like space near Cupertino, Calif. Opened in 2017, the $5 billion campus sprawls across 175 acres and offers a 100,000 square-foot wellness center and seven cafés. 

Why bring this up? In short, there are very few workplaces like Apple Park in the world. Not only that, it was built specifically for Apple’s culture where being in-person at an office was paramount. And even with all of this, Apple is adjusting on the fly and dealing with hybrid work challenges.

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Hiring is tough. Have you heard?

Just kidding. Of course you have heard. When you tell the people you’re seeing at the first networking meeting you’ve been to in a year and a half that you’re in the recruiting industry, they look at you like you’re an ICU nurse coming out of a Covid ward.

“Oh, that must be tough right now,” they say. “Nobody wants to work.”

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For all its faults, the Olympic Games remain one of my favorite events to watch. The time difference of this year’s games in Tokyo makes watching fencing along with my morning coffee a fun break from the routine. 

What wasn’t fun was hearing about legendary U.S. gymnast Simone Biles pulling out of the competition due to what she called her mind and body not being in sync. It’s a dangerous place for any extreme athlete to be, and I would count gymnastics as one of the most extreme sports at the Olympics. The consequence of a wrong move isn’t simply a failure to win. It can lead to disastrous results, even paralysis.

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When you think of hybrid work, you might think of offices full of white-collar workers where virtual work can substitute for in-person work on a day-to-day basis. There are probably in-office benefits and opportunities that people can take advantage of by coming in a couple days a week, but if some employees really don’t want to it’s not the end of the world.

In knowledge work, where in-person interaction can be replicated online, in-person customer visits aren’t necessary and the only thing you need is someone to pick up the mail and feed the goldfish, the move to hybrid work can seem like a relatively trivial decision. Sure, there’s some worry about culture or collaboration but nobody can also seriously make the argument that work can’t get done remotely.

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We talk a lot about digital transformation here at Reworked. In fact, it’s kind of our thing. 

So when I read Marc Andreessen’s latest piece on how technology saved the world, it seemed relevant for this audience. The setup is simple. “We are coming out of COVID years early, with many livelihoods and businesses preserved, compared to what we had any right to expect,” the venture capitalist told readers. “And overwhelming credit goes to our spectacular technology industry.”

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It’s good to be a job-seeker. 

I don’t mean that in a sort of “labor shortage” context. In fact, I’ve gone on record multiple times that there is no broad labor shortage and others seem to agree. Companies with good jobs and good pay are doing fine, or at least as good as they were doing pre-pandemic. People want to work and that they’re choosing not to immediately jump back to the companies that discarded them at the first sign of trouble is an indictment of the companies struggling now, not job-seekers.

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“We spent months just supporting people working from home for the first time.” That’s what one Portland-based learning leader told me about how their priorities shifted in the pandemic last November.

Ask any vendor who sells to learning and development and you’ll hear a similar theme. Organizations want tactical courses. Training on Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Upskilling and reskilling for industries undergoing major transformation. Onboarding training updates for industries hiring and rehiring thousands of employees.

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Everyone’s favorite podcast sponsor was actually in the news instead of interrupting it this time. Santa Monica-based ZipRecruiter went public in a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange last month under the ticker symbol ZIP. The initial offering valued the company at more than $2.3 billion, but that increased as trading pushed the price up above its $18 reference price. 

And that’s where I probably lost you. 

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