Socialism, Social Media, Social Distancing, or Socially Lost
buy God Told Me To So half the citizens of the United States think that President Obama is leading them down a path to Socialism. Entrepreneurs think that the new and only way to make money is Social Media. And apparently Human Resource Leaders (and attorneys) think that the best way to keep people healthy this season and to avoid the dreaded Swine Flu / H1N1 Virus is to keep employees away from one another through a process called Social Distancing.
Social Distancing? Yep, Social Distancing. There was even a Human Resources Forum held in the City of Hartford recently to discuss this growing topic. In social distancing you do the following:
- You let people work remotely
- You redesign office workspaces to keep people further apart from each other
- You hold fewer meetings
Let’s take a look at these……….
Remote Workforce -
Letting people work remotely has become like a game of Simon Says. Work from home. Don’t work from home. Work from home. Don’t work from home. It’s been used for cutting costs – less office space needed helping increase the bottom line. It’s been used for work/life balance. It’s been used to get that arrogant salesperson who completely ruins employee morale out of the office; after all he or she brings in a boatload of cash and we can’t let them go. It’s been proven to be effective; it’s been proven to be ineffective; depends on who is tweaking the study. Some people can work from home. Others need a structured environment. Well kids, Simon is now saying work from home again. Pack up those laptops. Fill up those briefcases with office supplies. Drop off your surgical mask on the way out the door; you won’t be needing it at home.
Office Redesign - And the walls came a tumbling down. Cubicle walls went away. Open space floor plans became popular. We’ve moved people out of big cities into local communities. Offices are only given to Officers. Heck, even the C-Suite at McDonald’s Corporation is a version of cubicles and not offices. Well I guess that’s about to change. The walls are coming back to an office near you. Will they be reinforced with asbestos or lead? And for the lazy folks; you’ll now have reason to instant message a co-worker about what time to meet for lunch – as his or her workstation will be an additional five steps away.
Fewer Meetings – Now as for meetings, I’m sure this one will be the most popular. Maybe this Swine Flu /. H1N1 thing has a benefit after all. We can stop holding pointless meetings. We can stop holding meetings about which meetings to schedule. We can start getting back to work and producing results by being creative and not being swayed or coerced into the popular decision. Holding fewer meetings? I’m in favor of that. And when you do get together for meetings I’ll bet they’ll be productive, eye-opening, and fun!
To me the only thing that all this Social Stuff is doing is making people Socially Retarded; which clearly is a term that we should not be using any longer. Heck, states such as my own have begun to remove the word retarded from their vocabulary – the Department of Mental Retardation recently became the Department of Developmental Services – and it was long overdue!
Socialism, Social Media and now Social Distancing are clearly further removing human contact from our world. I don’t know about you, but I think we’re becoming a world that is Socially Lost.
See you soon. I’m off to update my Facebook status
