> The key phrase here is: managed and supported appropriately. Certainly managers need to reinvent themselves as mentors to this style of working and then – for

> The key phrase here is: managed and supported appropriately. Certainly managers need to reinvent themselves as mentors to this style of working and then – forgive me – get the hell out of the way. I think that this may be the key thing that the pandemic has accelerated: A re-evaluation of what kind of management is appropriate for modern work, and whether that management can be performed by the self, another person, another company, or perhaps even by a tool. Managing work, in an idealized sense, is wasteful because it’s not actually production. Of course, in the real world we need all sorts of management of our work, from well informed decisions by individuals all the way up to strategic alignment of whole organizations. But how we actually get that management done, and done effectively, feels like it’s taking center stage now that our old routines have been up-ended. Edit: Note that an individual’s preference work at home, for or against, is in a sense a vote for a certain kind of management. As the article points out, work at home can be interrupted with Zoom And Slack just like it was in the office with in-person meetings and office chatter, so the at home/at office debate kind of masks the real issue: We all want better management. Now we just need to invent it.