Back in 2005, Microsoft published a white paper titled: Digital work style: the new way of working. Also writer Erik Veldhoen came in that year with a vision he called "the new way of working. Both parties saw even then that the advance of digitization and with it the acceleration of our society would have major consequences for the way we work together.
Both assumed the [tripartite](https://hetnieuwewerkenblog.nl/het-nieuwe-werken-waar-komt-de-term-vandaan/#:~:text=Het Nieuwe Werken heeft zijn,Digitale werkstijl%3A het nieuwe werken.) physical (read: office), virtual (read: ICT) and mental (read: human). Basically fine, but not complete. An important component is missing. The emphasis was particularly on becoming less and less location-dependent and how best to deal with that in terms of physical, virtual and mental.
Thanks in part to the lockdown, we have of necessity made great strides toward the new way of working. In most cases, we are still primarily concerned about these three components. What do we do with our offices? How do we organize them? What technology works best? Where do our people work? And more importantly, how do we manage them?
The latter proved to be perhaps the greatest challenge. From research to working from home for corona emerged primarily as a major lack of trust by the manager in her people. The expectation was that employees would cut corners and be less engaged. The opposite turned out to be true. Employees are more likely to work too hard, substitute travel time for extra hours behind the screen and string meeting after meeting just to be visible.
With dire consequences. The first quarter of 2022 showed a record number of disease reports see as much as 75 percent more than a year ago.
Many companies talk about focusing on the good talk (where the manager discusses with the employee how the other person is really doing) while 56 percent of employees feel there is [no interest](https://www.ad.nl/werk/willen-werkgevers-wel-echt-weten-hoe-het-met-ons-gaat-interesse-tonen-moet-geen-trucje-zijn~a8a0bfed/#:~:text=Want 56 percent of the,but not daring to do so). in them. And also among youth, even 25 percent turn out to be psychologically unhealthy to be.
The only rebuttal might be that it has improved productivity, but with all this new work, we aren't exactly more productive become. So the new work means mostly working harder, but not getting more done.
Still missing from the vision of the new way of working is the fourth component: social (read: how do we ensure that our people remain social beings and not non-stop running factories).
An old manager of mine once said the evocative words, "Society is like classical music. We make it more and more efficient, slowly taking all the silences out of the music to cram more music into the time. Only this way you rape the whole piece."
Humans are social creatures and thrive best in a social environment. Working hard is fine. Especially if you're doing something you enjoy. But if you just increase the workload, even the most enthusiastic employee burns out in no time.
The lockdown offered an organic brake on our lives, but by now we are back in a hurry in traffic jams or sitting in consecutive meetings.
If we want to make the new work successful, it might be an idea to first consider how to slow it down. It is time for the new relaxing. Life is moving faster and faster; if you don't slow down from time to time, life will slow you down.
