From #MeToo and Lean In to open offices and remote work, the workplace has transformed many times over in the past two and half decades. Let’s take a look at how we got here. When Fast Company first appeared in 1995 declaring that “Work is Personal,” the workplace looked vastly different than it does today. Many of the changes mirror the tech advances of the past two and a half decades (Slack replaced email which replaced faxes, for example). But the real workplace evolution has been in making work more personal—for both better and worse. Read Full Story

The future of work for many companies isn’t in-office or remote, it’s a combination of both. Here are some questions we are asking to figure out how to make hybrid work successful. The past year of remote work has shown us very little about what the future looks like. That’s because our working model simply switched from one extreme to another. In the pre-pandemic world, many companies operated from one defined norm: Work happens primarily in an office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. During the pandemic, most companies replaced that with a new universal norm: We can’t go to the office, so work happens primarily at home. The future of work for many companies is at neither end of this spectrum. It’s in the middle. Read Full Story

When working virtually, it can be easy to make assumptions or jump to conclusions that damage relationships with your colleagues or supervisors. One of the drawbacks for teams working remotely is the lack of context around communication. Virtual communication often lacks those nonverbal clues we pick up when we have face-to-face conversations with others. As a result, it can be easy to make assumptions or jump to conclusions that are damaging to working relationships. Read Full Story

Working where you live is not as easy as it sounds, especially if you have other people in the space. Here’s how to avoid the darker side of remote work. For the past several years, remote work has been high on the list of coveted employee benefits. In fact, as Fast Company previously reported, 99% of respondents to a 2019 Buffer survey want to work remotely at least part of the time for the rest of their careers, and 67% of respondents to a survey by Staples would quit if their workplace became less flexible. Read Full Story

Research finds that extraverts who are instructed to “act introverted” experienced a rise in negative emotions and a dip in performance. In the current climate, these professors expect the negative effects to be even more pronounced and consequential. Remote working has transitioned from a trend to a norm during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is likely to be here to stay . With this shift, we recognize that managers face a new set of challenges around their employees’ personalities, particularly with those who are extraverted. Read Full Story

Experts weigh in on how classic Myers-Briggs personality traits translate to remote work and can be the key to successful collaboration. The shift to remote work has given many of us a new perspective on how we do our jobs. Without the context of a shared workspace or the rhythm of a typical office day, our own personalities are having far more of a say in our performance. Read Full Story

With the rise of remote work, written communication has become indispensable. As we head into 2021, work looks completely different than it did a year ago. Read Full Story

Determining how your employees work best can take your productivity to the next level. From an abundance of communication to uninterrupted blocks of alone time, we all have certain ways we like to get things done. When everyone is in the office, it can be easy to identify an employee’s style by observing their behavior. With remote working arrangements, however, it can be harder to discern. When you’re a leader, it’s important to identify and understand your team members’ styles, says Ed McQuiston, executive vice president at the content services provider Hyland. Read Full Story

A well-established group of connections provides a sense of community, while reminding you of your skills and value. During today’s stressful remote work period, many people are increasingly unsure how to build, maintain, and leverage their networks to lift their careers. When working from home, all of these difficulties are exacerbated, since how do we make new contacts and stay in touch with existing ones when we can’t engage with other people face-to-face? Read Full Story

Tiger Tyagarajan, CEO of Genpact and a member of the Impact Council, explains how his employees are helping clients respond to work disruptions. “Tiger” Tyagarajan, CEO of Genpact, says the coronavirus crisis has deepened his 95,000 employees’ sense of purpose. When clients moved to remote work and scrambled to virtually complete complex tasks, such as closing their first quarter books, New York-based Genpact, which provides professional services in the technology and digital space, had to find a way to offer support, while deploying its own remote work plans. Read Full Story