Mind your manners: the new office etiquette
World Changers: Exploring the future of work
An increasingly large number of people are back in the office, while others continue to collaborate virtually. So, what virtual-first lessons can we adopt for hybrid working? You might be surprised: it starts with etiquette.
Everyone knows not to heat up fish in the office microwave or take the last biscuit, right? Because when we’re all in one place, a code of etiquette arises. Yet in our virtual-first worlds of work, we’ve had to learn these unwritten rules – for example, taking turns to shoulder the unsociable meeting times across time zones to adopt asynchronous working.
In this episode, senior editorial consultant Elle Bradley-Cox talks with cultural anthropologist (and snappy office dresser) Dr Alex Gapud about proximity bias in the hybrid world and how managers can educate their people to get around it.
The scarlettabbott team gave us some of their workplace pet peeves – like an unannounced call or an ignored Teams message – and we asked the wider comms community for their opinion on the shift in etiquette.
We asked our team: what’s your number one workplace etiquette breach – 00:49
The connotations of etiquette – 04:16
We asked the comms community: how do you think workplace etiquette has shifted since the move to hybrid working – 05:16
The challenge of trust in hybrid working – 07:35
In conversation with Dr Alex Gapud – 08:22
Explore etiquette further – 21:19
Want to get involved in the conversation? Chat to us over on Twitter @scarlettabbott or drop us an email at [email protected]
Join us for this month’s webinar with our expert voices Read the World Changers article on The new office etiquette.
World Changes as a podcast by employee engagement consultancy scarlettabbott. Find out more at scarlettabbott.co.uk.