It's true that most organisations have been either coaxing or pushing their employees to work from the offices, but if you have made it to a job interview and irrespective of the role advertised, if you want to check whether the company is open to remote roles, Stanford University lecturer and communication expert Matt Abrahams has a tip for you.
If you frame your question correctly, you can get your answer and not set off any alarms in your potential manager’s head, he told CNBC Make It.
Abrahams suggested using the following script or a variation during the interview with the recruiter: “I want to be able to connect with all my colleagues and managers, so I was wondering how often people are in the office? Do some people work virtually, or is there a hybrid model?”
This way, you’re not actually asking to work remotely, but you can still get your answers from the recruiters, he told the publication.
“It’s in the context of you wanting to be the best employee you can and connect with your fellow employees,” the Stanford University professor said, adding that this tip only works if you have some flexibility. If you know you want to work from home 100 percent of the time, Abrahams suggested being straightforward about that expectation.
How companies have been supporting employee needs for flexibility
San Francisco headquartered company Dropbox follows a “virtual first” approach that allows its employees a greater degree of flexibility, and its CEO says employees are happier working from home than enjoying cushy office perks.
Dropbox cofounder and CEO Drew Houston explained that this approach stems from his philosophy of treating employees like customers – which means giving them what they want.
Employees “value flexibility a lot more than snacks in the office,” Houston told The Verge. “At home, you can set up your environment exactly how you want it and not just have snacks but your dog and something that’s totally purpose-built for you,” he said.
The founder and CEO of software company Globant, Martin Migoya, also does not believe in holding a gun to the head of his employees to make them return to working from the office. In fact, he has adopted a flexible approach, allowing all of their almost 30,000 employees spread across 33 countries to continue working remote, if they wish to. This makes Globant one of the world’s largest tech companies by headcount to remain fully remote.
“We have been very flexible; we will continue being very flexible,” Migoya told Bloomberg in an interview. “The office must be an attraction point for the people to get together, rather than just the desk in which you do your job. It’s a connection engine for the company.”
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