Tech shame and meeting crashers: four enduring hybrid headaches

From equip­ment fail­ing to the cat tak­ing a stroll across the key­board, hybrid work­ing can be try­ing at times. And while some hic­cups are inevitable, oth­ers can be sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduced by organ­i­sa­tions pri­ori­tis­ing remote work sup­port. 

Recent research from HP has uncov­ered some of the more per­sis­tent hybrid work headaches that get in the way of what is oth­er­wise a pos­i­tive step for­ward in the evo­lu­tion of the work­place. So, as employ­ees grow tired of hybrid work quirks, what can organ­i­sa­tions do to smooth over these issues and ensure bet­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion with­in teams?

1. Shame around technical difficulties

Almost every­one can relate to the frus­tra­tion of tech­nol­o­gy get­ting in the way of a pro­duc­tive day – meet­ings inter­rupt­ed by cries of ‘you’re on mute’ or the wifi decid­ing to play up on the busiest day of the week.

How­ev­er, HP’s research found that many work­ers aren’t just irri­tat­ed and held back by tech­ni­cal issues, but active­ly embar­rassed and ashamed. Younger work­ers, in par­tic­u­lar, report­ed feel­ing embar­rassed when fac­ing tech­ni­cal issues, skip­ping meet­ings as a solu­tion and even pur­chas­ing their own equip­ment to hide chal­lenges. A quar­ter of 18–29 year-olds said they would avoid par­tic­i­pat­ing in a meet­ing if their tech caused a dis­rup­tion, com­pared to just 6% of work­ers aged over 50.

“This appears to illus­trate that senior­i­ty is a fac­tor, but the find­ings could also indi­cate that tech equip­ment is let­ting down younger work­ers more fre­quent­ly,” says Dave Prez­zano, man­ag­ing direc­tor for HP UK & Ire­land. “Organ­i­sa­tions should do their best to ensure that employ­ees are set up for suc­cess in the hybrid office, with access to appro­pri­ate tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions. Equip­ping our work­forces with the right tech­nol­o­gy set-up can help dri­ve a greater qual­i­ty of expe­ri­ence, while also build­ing con­fi­dence and enhanc­ing the pro­duc­tiv­i­ty of younger work­ers.”

2. The persistence of presenteeism

One of the nuances of a hybrid set-up, as opposed to a ful­ly remote or ful­ly onsite set-up, is that the flex­i­bil­i­ty can end up caus­ing more wor­ry than free­dom if organ­i­sa­tions fail to get a hybrid cul­ture right. Employ­ees can feel pres­sured to choose their work­ing arrange­ments based on per­ceived expec­ta­tions of the organ­i­sa­tion or the opin­ions of their direct line man­ag­er. 

Many employ­ees feel they must be present in the office or risk miss­ing out on oppor­tu­ni­ties. HP’s glob­al study found that most work­ers believe com­ing into the office puts them at an advan­tage when it comes to being con­sid­ered for a pro­mo­tion. Mean­while, 18% of UK work­ers feel left out of the deci­sion-mak­ing process when they’re not in the room. This sug­gests that pre­sen­teeism is still very much alive and kick­ing in the hybrid work­place and that employ­ers aren’t going far enough to make remote work­ers feel includ­ed. 

The solu­tion? Employ­ers need to prac­tice what they preach. If com­pa­ny pol­i­cy allows employ­ees the flex­i­bil­i­ty to choose their work­ing arrange­ments, organ­i­sa­tions must fol­low through and pro­vide an envi­ron­ment that makes remote work­ers feel as includ­ed and val­ued as those in the office. 

How­ev­er they per­son­al­ly choose to work, man­agers should clear­ly out­line their expec­ta­tions around office work­ing to their sub­or­di­nates and pro­vide tech solu­tions to sup­port remote work­ers. For exam­ple, sim­ply hav­ing video con­fer­enc­ing set up and ready to go in meet­ing rooms, rather than dialling some­one in as an after­thought, can go a long way to bridg­ing the gap between remote and office work­ers.

3. Outdated workplace language

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion between team­mates is huge­ly impor­tant in any work­place, and hybrid work­ing can leave employ­ees in the dark about the avail­abil­i­ty or work­ing pat­terns of their col­leagues. When you can no longer just pop over to chat with some­one, sta­tus mes­sages indi­cat­ing whether a team­mate is online, on a call or tak­ing time off are cru­cial.

“Work­ing in a hybrid team means that we don’t always know where and how our teams are oper­at­ing. Instead of look­ing over at each other’s desks, we now rely more on sta­tus mes­sages to sig­nal to our team if we are avail­able,” says Prez­zano. “The chal­lenge with these mes­sages – now that hybrid is no longer a tem­po­rary arrange­ment – is that the options are too lim­it­ed to ful­ly express the real­i­ties of a day in the vir­tu­al office.”

HP’s sur­vey found that almost 70% of UK work­ers feel that the sta­tus mes­sages we use don’t rep­re­sent the way we work now. “We should encour­age our employ­ees to set cus­tom sta­tus mes­sages that bet­ter reflect their sit­u­a­tion,” says Prez­zano. “Instead of ‘away,’ try ‘walk­ing the dog for 15 mins;’ instead of ‘do not dis­turb,’ try ‘I’ll be ready to col­lab­o­rate at 2pm.’ These sub­tle shifts in tone will improve com­mu­ni­ca­tion col­lab­o­ra­tion and cul­ture across our hybrid teams.”

4. Meeting crashers and other disruptions

Chil­dren, house­mates, pets – the aver­age hybrid or remote work­er is rarely far from a dis­trac­tion, and oth­er house­hold mem­bers are prone to mak­ing guest appear­ances in the back­ground of remote meet­ings. While this may have been an amus­ing home-work­ing quirk to start with, the nov­el­ty is wear­ing off. Whether it’s noise dis­rup­tion forc­ing employ­ees to stay on mute for a call or dif­fi­cul­ties con­cen­trat­ing on impor­tant tasks, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and col­lab­o­ra­tion can eas­i­ly take a hit. Not every­one has the lux­u­ry of a peace­ful work­place or a sep­a­rate home office, so employ­ers should con­sid­er how they can sup­port a bet­ter work envi­ron­ment.

Prez­zano says: “Employ­ers need to sup­port their work­ers in nav­i­gat­ing the envi­ron­men­tal real­i­ties of hybrid work that could derail a pro­duc­tive meet­ing or pre­vent effec­tive con­tri­bu­tion.” He sug­gests that employ­ers should reg­u­lar­ly check in with their employ­ees and ask if they have the right tech­nol­o­gy sup­port that enables them to effec­tive­ly work remote­ly.

“UK respon­dents to our sur­vey ranked a head­set with an inte­grat­ed micro­phone as the most impor­tant piece of kit for the hybrid work envi­ron­ment, sec­ond only to inter­net con­nec­tion. Periph­er­als like head­sets are now start­ing to be seen as an impor­tant invest­ment by com­pa­nies to help boost the pro­duc­tiv­i­ty of their hybrid work­force.”

With hybrid work­ing now less of a trend and more of a per­ma­nent fea­ture in our work­ing lives, employ­ers need to ensure it real­ly works as a sus­tain­able prac­tice for their employ­ees. It’s time for organ­i­sa­tions to real­ly put the time and resources into get­ting it right.

Find out more about how HP can sup­port a hybrid work­ing set-up

From equipment failing to the cat taking a stroll across the keyboard, hybrid working can be trying at times. And while some hiccups are inevitable, others can be significantly reduced by organisations prioritising remote work support. 

Recent research from HP has uncovered some of the more persistent hybrid work headaches that get in the way of what is otherwise a positive step forward in the evolution of the workplace. So, as employees grow tired of hybrid work quirks, what can organisations do to smooth over these issues and ensure better collaboration and communication within teams?

1. Shame around technical difficulties