Hybrid Work Has An Image Problem

Storytelling relies on creating 3D stories in the mind - what do you see, what do you hear, what do you feel, taste or smell?

It’s easy to imagine the office, surrounded by coworkers wearing blazers and hard pants. It’s easy to imagine sitting in the sun, tropical breezes blowing in your hair while you peck away at your laptop from a beachside restaurant.

What about working from home?

We talk about the WFH mullet - dressy on the top, pj pants on the bottom, we showcase our pets - cats, dogs. Our kids pop in occassionally to say hi, our parents interrupt to ask if we want tea once we finish “working”.

The visuals we show are the distractions. The work we show is the zoom screen or our desk setup, how we curate our background to score well on Room Rater. The stories we tell are about how work life integration help us manage out careging, work and home responsibilities. You see these in the #worktok skits that get billions of views.

The images that we are creating show a life that is more realistic but its also these same images that fuel the narrative that working remotely is less productive.

How we tell the story matters.

Let’s figure out how to illustrate impact, remote collaboration and innovation. Let’s highlight the distractions that exist at the office too.