Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office, the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the new world of work, where location and ours are more flexible than in the past. Today's episode is the last new episode of The New Corner Office. It has been fascinating to me to talk about the new world of work. Over the past nine months. I have learned a lot, and I hope you have to. When I started this podcast in April, we weren't sure how long the pandemic would last and how long big numbers of people would be working from home. The good news is that new vaccines are bringing hope things we'll go back to normal, which is one reason that it's time for me to wind this project down. That said, as a new year begins, many people have adapted to working from home long term. My guess is that vaccines are not The world of work has changed permanently. We have learned that much information work does not need to be done in an office at set times for forty hours a week. There are huge benefits to seeing each other in person. That is absolutely true, but this is not an either or situation. When people can work in person, sometimes and remotely. Sometimes they will have the best of both worlds. Over the next few years, I see a new normal developing. Companies will adapt to a set up where teams get together in person for a week or so every month. They'll concentrate their in person socializing in deep collaboration on those days. Then the other three weeks or so per month will feature remote work, with various calls and video conferences as necessary. Now, there are a few reasons that I see this new normal as a good idea. For one, if you're getting people together for a week a month, you could probably just rent temporary conference space. You don't need to own a headquarters. Money that isn't going into maintaining a gleaming office space can go to salaries and operations. This is likely a more efficient use of capital. Second, if you're getting together for a week a month, you can hire from just about anywhere. This lets you hire better people, because why on earth would all the best people live within an hour of your headquarters. Why would you imagine that the best people could easily pack up and move their families to you. By changing the in person requirement, you can separate the question of where people live from where they work, and when you don't require people to have the same answer for both, you massively open up the talent pool. I also think that the ability to work from home a substantial proportion of the time can be a strategic advantage for people who want to build long, sustainable careers. People who work from home tend to be happier and more productive because they can work how they work best. If you love loud music, well that's awesome. You can't play your loud bagpipe tunes at the office, but you probably can at home. If you work better in a colder environment or a warmer environment, that's great. Keep the thermostat at your happy place. Be there to greet the kids when they get off the bus, Go network with someone external in the middle of the day, and no one will wonder where you went. We've learned over the last few months that most of the day to day operations of white collar work can in fact be done virtually. We love to complain about zoom fatigue, but seeing people's faces on a screen is about as good for communication of seeing them in person. I have really good friends who I realize I've only seen in person half a dozen times or so. I just talked with them by FaceTime or zoom all the time. Before the pandemic, a huge number of people were battling traffic for an hour each way just to spend eight of their days emailing and calling people in other places. This was a huge waste of human time and environmental resources. In the New Corner Office, we do things differently. I'm ending this podcast as a standalone project. We've covered a lot of ground in two hundred episodes, and they'll continue to be here as a resource for people who are working flexibly and remotely. I'll also start folding more of my career content into Before Breakfast, which is my other every weekday morning podcast. If you don't already subscribe to that podcast, please check it out. I'll also be posting career related articles under the New Corner Office header at my blog, Laura Vanderkam dot com, so please come visit me there too. Over the past nine months, we've learned that when it comes to work, location and hours can be more flexible than in the past. As we enter year two, I think it's worth spending some time figuring out how even more things can be reimagined. I've been doing more virtual speeches lately, and I've been figuring out how professional development content can work when you're not up on stage in a big conference center. I am starting to see some really cool virtual conference concepts and people forming virtual mastermind groups that combines socializing and career growth. I see people starting to experiment with how they work, switching up hours and managing by task rather than time. Eventually we get the rhythm right, So thank you for joining me here over the last few months as we've figured out how to thrive in the new world of work. This journey continues even if this particular podcast does not. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to succeeding in the New Corner Office. The New Corner Office is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.

Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office, the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the new world of work, where location and ours are more flexible than in the past. Today's episode is the last new episode of The New Corner Office. It has been fascinating to me to talk about the new world of work. Over the past nine months. I have learned a lot, and I hope you have to. When I started this podcast in April, we weren't sure how long the pandemic would last and how long big numbers of people would be working from home. The good news is that new vaccines are bringing hope things we'll go back to normal, which is one reason that it's time for me to wind this project down. That said, as a new year begins, many people have adapted to working from home long term. My guess is that vaccines are not The world of work has changed permanently. We have learned that much information work does not need to be done in an office at set times for forty hours a week. There are huge benefits to seeing each other in person. That is absolutely true, but this is not an either or situation. When people can work in person, sometimes and remotely. Sometimes they will have the best of both worlds. Over the next few years, I see a new normal developing. Companies will adapt to a set up where teams get together in person for a week or so every month. They'll concentrate their in person socializing in deep collaboration on those days. Then the other three weeks or so per month will feature remote work, with various calls and video conferences as necessary. Now, there are a few reasons that I see this new normal as a good idea. For one, if you're getting people together for a week a month, you could probably just rent temporary conference space. You don't need to own a headquarters. Money that isn't going into maintaining a gleaming office space can go to salaries and operations. This is likely a more efficient use of capital. Second, if you're getting together for a week a month, you can hire from just about anywhere. This lets you hire better people, because why on earth would all the best people live within an hour of your headquarters. Why would you imagine that the best people could easily pack up and move their families to you. By changing the in person requirement, you can separate the question of where people live from where they work, and when you don't require people to have the same answer for both, you massively open up the talent pool. I also think that the ability to work from home a substantial proportion of the time can be a strategic advantage for people who want to build long, sustainable careers. People who work from home tend to be happier and more productive because they can work how they work best. If you love loud music, well that's awesome. You can't play your loud bagpipe tunes at the office, but you probably can at home. If you work better in a colder environment or a warmer environment, that's great. Keep the thermostat at your happy place. Be there to greet the kids when they get off the bus, Go network with someone external in the middle of the day, and no one will wonder where you went. We've learned over the last few months that most of the day to day operations of white collar work can in fact be done virtually. We love to complain about zoom fatigue, but seeing people's faces on a screen is about as good for communication of seeing them in person. I have really good friends who I realize I've only seen in person half a dozen times or so. I just talked with them by FaceTime or zoom all the time. Before the pandemic, a huge number of people were battling traffic for an hour each way just to spend eight of their days emailing and calling people in other places. This was a huge waste of human time and environmental resources. In the New Corner Office, we do things differently. I'm ending this podcast as a standalone project. We've covered a lot of ground in two hundred episodes, and they'll continue to be here as a resource for people who are working flexibly and remotely. I'll also start folding more of my career content into Before Breakfast, which is my other every weekday morning podcast. If you don't already subscribe to that podcast, please check it out. I'll also be posting career related articles under the New Corner Office header at my blog, Laura Vanderkam dot com, so please come visit me there too. Over the past nine months, we've learned that when it comes to work, location and hours can be more flexible than in the past. As we enter year two, I think it's worth spending some time figuring out how even more things can be reimagined. I've been doing more virtual speeches lately, and I've been figuring out how professional development content can work when you're not up on stage in a big conference center. I am starting to see some really cool virtual conference concepts and people forming virtual mastermind groups that combines socializing and career growth. I see people starting to experiment with how they work, switching up hours and managing by task rather than time. Eventually we get the rhythm right, So thank you for joining me here over the last few months as we've figured out how to thrive in the new world of work. This journey continues even if this particular podcast does not. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to succeeding in the New Corner Office. The New Corner Office is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.