Today is the third class of our current four class set. We will begin with a casual conversation. Our reading today is about company culture. Our listening is about remote work. Don’t worry about accuracy- please follow the transcript with the audio at the same time. Do not listen more than two times. Please check the google doc for your writing assignment.
Click HERE for the reading
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
More companies want their employees back in the workplace, but what happens to their careers if they want to stay home? NPR's Jacqueline GaNun reports.
JACQUELINE GANUN, BYLINE: When Nitin Budhiraja started working remotely at his last job, he realized he really liked it.
NITIN BUDHIRAJA: I think that the work got more enjoyable, and it felt a bit more relaxed.
GANUN: His mental health and relationship with his family got better, and his work as a senior designer was good. But he was conflicted. Not everybody at his company was working remotely, and one of his supervisors was coming into the office throughout the pandemic. Budhiraja felt the pressure to also show up.
BUDHIRAJA: That often made me wonder, like, should I be commuting to the office? Should I be going in?
GANUN: That anxiety is being felt across many workplaces. While millions of people started working from home during the pandemic, a recent survey of companies found that half of them are now trying to bring people back to the office. Companies like Goldman Sachs and Tesla would like their employees to come back in person, full time, five days a week. But Budhiraja is also not alone in pushing back. The same study found that around 50% of workers were considering moving to a remote or hybrid job.
ANITA BRUZZESE: There's always been that kind of tension in the workplace, and now I think it's more clearly drawn.
GANUN: That's Anita Bruzzese. She writes a column about career development. And she says there will be tension in a hybrid workplace - between remote and in-person workers and between what workers want in their career and how they want to work. Bruzzese says people who want the flexibility of working from home could be giving up chances to advance in their careers. And some are fine with that.
BRUZZESE: There are going to be some people who believe the tradeoff is worth it, who say, my career isn't the most important thing right now. I want to travel. I want a life. I want to train for a marathon. I want to raise my family.
GANUN: There are people, though, who do want to be back in the office. Jordan Shabani (ph) has missed meeting people at her last few internships, so she loves going into the Bloomberg office five days a week.
JORDAN SHABANI: I really, really like it. I think that I missed out on so much of, like, the networking or learning opportunities because I was working online.
GANUN: She says her work in the product management team is a lot easier because she's talking to people in the office. As an intern, she has to be there every day. Full-time Bloomberg employees are allowed two days of remote work per week. And even though Shabani is working in person now, she hopes to have the option of working remotely someday. And she doesn't think she should be penalized for making that choice.
SHABANI: The definition of work, the narrative of working from home, is clearly going to change.
GANUN: If employers do hold remote workers back from promotions, it could especially hurt women and people of color. They're the ones who most want to work from home, according to surveys. Meanwhile, the designer, Budhiraja, solved his remote work problem by finding a new job. When a startup approached him, a huge draw was that the role was 100% remote, and so is everybody else at the company, which eliminated any awkwardness about working from home. He still loves working remotely. In fact, he's turned into a big advocate for it.
BUDHIRAJA: It's given me the space to kind of not only heal personally but work at my own pace.
GANUN: Like Budhiraja, people are trying to figure out what works best for them as they navigate the new realities of the workplace. And more employers are finding that hybrid work comes with a lot of complications.