Organizational Behaviour - Daniel's Blog Entry #6 - Family Commitments and Remote Work - Grand Summary

This sixth blog entry related to our Organizational Behaviour class basically intends to summarize the prior five posts, dealing with the issue at stake, which is Family Commitments and Remote Work. In chronological order of posting, the articles based on which the mentioned blogs were created were: (1) "The pandemic changed how we work. Now, mothers want it to stay that way", written by journalist Kiernan Green, and published by CBC News, on October 10, 2022, (2) "When Your Boss Doesn’t Respect Your Family Commitments", written by Ms. Rebecca Knight, and published by Harvard Business Review, on September 01, 2020, (3) "Is the work-from-home debate already over?", written by Mr. Gene Marks, and published by The Guardian, on August 28, 2022, (4) "The pros and cons of working remotely", written by Mr. Bill George, and published by Fortune, on April 17, 2021, and (5) "Early Remote Work Impacts on Family Formation", written by Mr. Lyman Stone and Mr. Adam Ozimek, and published by Economic Innovation Group, on March 07, 2023.

Regarding the similarities found among all five articles I consider important to highlight the fact that all five of them were published by duly accredited entities, backed up by their prestige and careful choice of studies on which they based their disclosures, such as CBC News, Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, Fortune, and Innovation Group.

Continuing within the similarities that were perceived among the referred articles, most, if not all of them, have in common, as the trigger for the rest of their arguments, the undeniable game-changing event, which was the Covid 19 pandemic. As it may have been noticed throughout the reading of my prior five posts and of the articles based on which they were inspired, all of them start their analysis with the mentioned pandemic as the common factor that jump starts the rest of the discussion, stating facts such as those which describe the pandemic having been the root cause of millions of workers being sent home to continue with their duties, overnight, when the whole health-related crisis unfolded. That very event, referred to by all five articles, generated several transversal consequences affecting the life and overall dynamics of individuals, families, companies, industries, countries, and therefore were inevitably pointed at as a key component of the “Family Commitments and Remote Work” mega subject. As I mentioned earlier, the pandemic was the game-changing element that triggered the rest of the discussions, because, had it not been the case that workers were sent home, and yet entire industries proved to be able to keep delivering positive results, the debate on whether remote work could stay for good as an ongoing labor mode would have never been brought up, or at least not to the extent that it has. And again, all five articles invariably get their fuel from said event.

And, with respect to differences found among these five articles, the authors of articles number 3 and number 4 happen to somewhat disagree on their opinions regarding hybrid mode. Indeed, while Mr. Gene Marks advocates for hybrid mode, stating that the best possible solution to reconcile the perspectives of those who are pro remote work versus those who are against it is to go hybrid (in her article titled "Is the work-from-home debate already over?”), Mr. Bill George, on the other hand, while trying to suggest said mode would be a wise way out of the controversy, he lets is slide that perhaps such mode (hybrid) may not be such a good idea after all, as given that such an approach could potentially trigger its own set of issues and disputes among employees, some of the employees may feel played against when comparing themselves with certain peers who may be getting more home-office days than them or what not (as per his article, titled “"The pros and cons of working remotely").

As far as my takeaway from the research based on the previously mentioned articles, being myself one of the casualties of the pandemic, from a professional career stand point, that is, I strongly believe that the disruption it caused generated a priceless opportunity for professionals to rethink and redesign our careers, in such a way that would have never crossed my mind before. Nowadays, looking back, I am nothing but grateful for the unprecedented windows and doors that got open because of this situation, which have enabled me to become sort of what they are now calling a digital nomad, who gets to work from anywhere in the world, hence enjoying the perks that such a fun level of mobility triggers, which, by the way, happens to boost a healthier family life, granted by the flexibility that this kind of work arrangement provides.