IS THIS REALLY THAT IMPORTANT TO YOU?

IS THIS REALLY THAT IMPORTANT TO YOU?

I'm not a Career Coach. I'm also not a psychologist...not even close. But I really, really need some help understanding this.

COVID, which took over Earth threatening sickness and worse, created a situation for many cultures throughout the world to change everything. I was in a store the other day and saw that there was a worn image of an arrow that was used back then to show which direction people should use the aisle. They left it there.

Professionals were sent to work from home at that time. I remember a friend of mine sent me a picture of a company ZOOM meeting showing roughly 40 squares of attendees. Three of them had their video active and the rest were blanked out.

The result of all of this, especially after a year or two, was a deep psychological shift for many office folks who determined (1) their job was fully functional from a home office and (2) people convinced themselves they were more productive working from home due to the lack of office distractions.

However, when talking to executives and hiring managers, for many jobs and disciplines, they want them collaborating in the office again.

The push-back is quiet and this is becoming more and more a David versus Goliath scenario.

I recently got a return call from a candidate and this was around 2PM in the afternoon. I answered and the candidate said "What'cha got?". It was a bit of noisy call and I outlined an opportunity. The response was that the candidate wanted a REMOTE role (only) and he needed to get going because he was at the GYM.

I'm also not in the prediction business though I'm extremely confident the technology and automotive sectors are due for a hiring blitz soon.

I don't blame anyone, especially in sales, quietly window shopping for remote roles. Why not if that's important to you?

However, your paycheck lists the employer. The exchange is that they pay you to work for the COMPANY to accomplish COMPANY GOALS. Believe me, there are no big corporate meetings to determine if their sales team, engineers, accountants, CAD people, and others should be remote or in-office.

The bottom line is this: It's only a matter of time when the boss is going to determine if the company is getting 100% EFFORT from you. When you are invisible and home-based, your presence in the organization is diminished and the boss will determine your relevance when it comes to meeting COMPANY GOALS.

Imagine being the boss for a moment and consider self-evaluating your own performance and habits. Why? Because it's far more difficult than it was pre-COVID to find ANY new job these days.