Connections At Work: What really Makes A Great Environment

COVID and 2020 changed a lot of things in the world we know, not the least of which is how we work. For many, especially in our retail space, it hasn’t changed. The need to be onsite and working in a specific location each day remains the same. Our team members serve the public in the retail sector, and they are brave, tireless, strong workers and leaders that make a critical part of our economy happen. Those roles have become more difficult, face greater challenges, and require more patience than ever, yet employees show up each day and get the job done.

In the past, most of us didn’t question the idea of working from an office. That was just the way things were. It was how we built friendships, how meetings got scheduled, how ideas got shared. No one stopped to ask whether it was actually the best way to work. There weren’t a lot of other options.

The Tools Caught Up

Before the pandemic, some teams were already using video tools like Skype or Zoom. FaceTime made it easier to stay in touch with family and friends. But it still felt awkward to work over video. That changed quickly.

By mid-2020, Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet had become second nature. People ran meetings, presented data, built relationships, and ran full organizations, without anyone being in the same room. And they did it well.

Now, more than five years later, the conversation has shifted again.

The Push to Return

Every few weeks, a new article appears about another CEO calling people back to the office. Some want employees in three days a week. Others want five. The message sounds familiar: being together improves productivity, drives innovation, and speeds up decision-making.

Sometimes, that’s true. In-person time can be valuable. Being in a room can help with nuance and speed. It’s easier to catch a glance or hear a side comment. You can read the room better when you’re actually in it.

But those benefits don’t apply equally to every role. Not all work requires constant collaboration. Not every team benefits from daily office time. And not everyone does their best work in that kind of setting.

It’s Not One Size Fits All

Executives often have jobs built around meetings. Their days involve back-to-back conversations that shape direction, resources, and results. Being in the room helps them move quickly. It gives them access to people, questions, and ideas on the spot.

But many others work differently. Some create reports. Some analyze data. Some manage systems or write code. For those people, quiet and focus matter more than being in a shared space. They need uninterrupted time to think. For them, working from home allows them to be more productive. It’s not that they don’t want some personal interaction, they just want to get their work done as efficiently as possible.

The Right Kind of Connection

Connecting at work is important. That doesn’t mean you cannot have people working remote most of the time. But the in-person times should be intentional and meaningful. There is value in serendipitous interactions. Those spur of the moment conversations at the proverbial water cooler. There is value in being able to walk down a hall to someone’s desk and ask a question or get information you need immediately. But that is not always.

I have also experienced the challenges of a fully remote, no office work environment. It is more difficult to create connections and ensure communication flows seamlessly. But I can also say that it comes from not acknowledging that there is a need for those types of connections in the first place. People will find ways to get things done, but they can be slower and more disconnected when people work fully siloed.

Know the Job. Know the People.

Companies work best when leaders understand how their teams work. They don’t need one blanket policy. They need options. Some jobs need in-person time. Others don’t. Some people excel in a crowd. Others need time to focus.

It’s also time to stop using fairness as an excuse. The idea that everyone must be in the office because some roles can’t be remote has always been weak. Retail workers and office workers have never had the same schedule, the same pace, or the same environment. That hasn’t changed. There are different requirements for different jobs. It is no different from debating having a fixed schedule or a variable schedule. Having weekends off, or working them. People want and need choices. There are trade-offs to each of them. A company’s values and the specific needs of particular jobs should define the work environment, not settling for what has been done in the past or what people are familiar with. I fear there is some call back ‘to the good ol’ days’ and the hope that coming back to an office will rebuild results or outcomes from when business was better.

Better Work Comes From Better Design

Connecting is important. As humans, we generally want to be around other people, just not all the time. We also tend to prefer having a choice instead of being given a mandate. How we work should reflect that. Leaders need to understand their specific situation and build environments that support their teams, rather than trying to apply an old way of working to a new reality. A modern work environment can be highly productive when it offers different ways to collaborate and uses in-person time with purpose. For some roles, that may still mean being on-site most of the time. But the difference in successful companies will not come from whether they choose hybrid, remote, or in-person policies. It will come from being intentional about how people do their best work and helping them stay connected to each other and to the goals they share.

What are your thoughts on the different ways of working in our current environment?

Get leadership tips and new articles you can use directly to your inbox. Join the thousands of other leaders continuing your leadership development journey with **Effective Retail Leader.com. **

DISCLAIMER: I participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Other links to third-party products and services may also be affiliate links.