We, at CX Today, published a story from a recruitment boss this week that argued permanent remote working was damaging to the development of younger workers.
Robert Walters had said that “you cannot learn when you’re not next to someone, ideally your boss”.
His words nearly made me spit out my morning coffee and for a variety of reasons.
The first is the Today Digital has a mix of talented staff from all ages and all walks of life, and as a journalist in her early-thirties (one can only hope) I’d be classed as a younger worker. Neither myself or my younger colleagues have struggled to get to grips with our roles and throughout our time at the bustling publication have been offered nothing but world class support and training and development programmes.
It’s true that not all companies offer this and there have been many a brand and business who battled endlessly to get their staff – older and younger – set up working remotely when the pandemic hit. Many of these companies took on new staff during the pandemic (I was one of those people also).
But what I found most frustrating about the remark from Walters is that it reminded me of the age-old adage ‘a bad workman blames his tools’. There is a level of responsibility to workers to learn on the job but should there be a wave of younger staff unable to learn their roles while working from home then the companies they work for should provide more training and resources to help them on their way.
Walters also said “Zoom cannot do everything” and to an extent he is right. We as human beings do need that social interaction face-to-face now and then.
But if the pandemic has taught us anything it’s to trust in the new technologies being made, and workers to find their paths with the help of them.
