WEBB Magazine Feature: Technology and the Temporal

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the new world of work

BY JOHN FERR ARI

How technology and globalization are shaping work culture

Technology and the Temporal

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Webb students using UV light during a DNA lab.

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Work used to be a place: you went to work. You went to a building and went to your office (or cubicle). You used the company’s resources, from office supplies to the break room microwave, and spent your workday alongside your colleagues.

Technology has changed that. With widespread high-speed internet access and Wi-Fi, and cloud data storage, for more and more professionals work isn’t a place; it’s a state of mind.

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“ BEING IN THE OFFICE

isn’t the definition of working anymore,” notes Alyssa Sittig ’07, a global business-to-business brand marketing manager with LinkedIn in the San Francisco Bay Area. “You no longer need to be at the office to be presumed working.”

Webb graduates across the professions are experiencing a transformation in how people conceptualize the nature of work and its place in their lives: more and more work remotely – from home, coffee shops, coworking spaces; wherever they can plug in a laptop and access the internet – and outside traditional business hours. They’re part of a paradigm shift that’s redefining work for millennials (often defined as the generation born between 1982 and 2000), a cohort ranging from established professionals now in their 30s to those just graduating from high school.

Sampling 8,000 college-educated and fully employed millennials in 30 countries, the 2017 Deloitte Millennial Survey found that 69 percent of respondents have some degree of flexibility in their work hours. As well, 64 percent are able to work from locations other than their employer’s primary site – an increase of 21 points over the 2016 survey. These and other ‘work-life and convenience’ benefits are especially popular with millennials, for whom the ability to set their own work-life balance is important. They’re also the first cohort to have grown up with constant, instant access to data and communications.

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“Technology is ubiquitous in everything I do,” says Sittig, giving her the flexibility to work where and when she wants.

For her, that means videoconferencing with her team in San Francisco while she works in LinkedIn’s Sunnyvale office, or from her home in Palo Alto. “I work in a more creative environment,” she says. “It’s applauded if I say I need to work from home today. No apologies are made if someone’s dialing in from their couch.”

There is a flip side to this flexibility: the expectation that because someone can work anywhere, anytime, they will be working anywhere, anytime. The ability to connect with people and information at any time “creates a culture of instant gratification… it can be hard to wait a day for an answer.”

When work was a place, boundaries between work and home were clear: in the office, out of the office.

The idea is captured in the ubiquitous “out-ofoffice” email setting, but with internet-accessible email, no one ever has to be out of the office and unreachable. The overall effect is to blur boundaries between work and non-work; negotiating those boundaries is an experience common to telecommuters and flextime employees.

“When I first started working from home, I had to set boundaries,” recalls Christine King ’96, vice president of operations with online video production company 90 Seconds in San Francisco. “The teams I worked with were all around the world; because of that I had to be more thoughtful of how I used my time… I started really setting parameters for myself.” Now, she says, she works in blocks of time, rather than straight through an eight-hour day. She may work mornings, take a break, and then work into the evening, calling and videoconferencing with colleagues and clients in different time zones.

While telecommuting and flextime have dimmed the lines between work and away, lines distinguishing colleagues from friends have brightened. Telecommuters don’t have interactions with their coworkers that were once taken for granted, from impromptu in-person collaboration to afterwork socializing.

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Alyssa Sittig ’07, a global business-to-business brand marketing manager with LinkedIn.

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ip Konwiser ’81: Producer/Creative Artist

Kip Konwiser ’81 is an independent producer who, with his brother Kern, owns Konwiser Brothers Entertainment, a film, television and music production company that has produced more than 60 projects in all media. The pair won the Primetime Best Picture Emmy in 1997 for producing Miss Evers’ Boys, and their 2000 TNT documentary On Hallowed Ground: Streetball Champions at Rucker Park won a Sports Emmy for their writing, directing and producing.

“When a person makes a commitment to the arts, you’re making a commitment to the gig economy,” explains Konwiser.

He described the three elements of leverage necessary for being successful in his industry: 1. Equity. Cash! Approximately 10-30% of your budget to structure the balance in debt.

2. D istribution. Marketing effectively to a specific consumer via the myriad of expanding worldwide distribution platforms.

3. T alent. A-List talent is a rare commodity. Relationships and access are critical to successfully packaging media that is authentic to audiences.

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APPLAUDED

if I say I need to work from home today. No apologies are made if someone’s dialing in from their couch.”

Konwiser was born to “gig”; at the ripe old age of nine he began working for his father’s construction company every summer for a decade. At the same time, he and his brother honed a professional tap dancing, juggling and comedy career that took them from street corners across the country to some of the finest stages in town.

Professional skiing led to the start of their film careers; while still in college they began working for Warren Miller Ski Films. Their formal collaboration began after they graduated from the University of Southern California Cinema-Television MFA graduate screenwriting and production programs.

“From 1988 to 1998, my graduation from USC to my first Primetime Emmy Award, I worked for other people, so when I entered the ‘gig’ economy, I did it with momentum; it is invaluable to spend time learning from other people as one’s own goals mature. My brother and I work hard—but enjoy every minute as a privilege to not only bring compelling stories to the world but also collaborate with some of the most exciting talents in the industry over the past 30 years,” he said.

At Webb, Konwiser was the campus’ only ballet dancer.

“Nobody (else) was wearing tights on campus, that I know of! I discovered my identity at Webb and that it’s better-than-okay to be different, to be independent and live without fear,” he said.

Konwiser recently launched a financing company called The Money Pool, with three features already completed starring actors such as John Travolta, Andy Garcia and Laurence Fishburne; another feature is lined-up for Kern to direct in 2018 in association with Sony Pictures.

“The gig mentality comes down to believing you have something special to share with the world and an unrelenting desire to get it done,” he said. “That kind of thing generally happens as a result of having a good education and support from your ‘village.’”

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Webb students co-working in Fawcett Memorial Library.

“ I DEFINITELY THINK

living with people, being around people constantly, helped my communication skills, especially interculturally.”

“I really do feel like I miss out on a lot of that,” says King.

Videoconferencing gives geographically separated coworkers a way to hold face-to-face meetings, “but it’s never going to take the place of happy hour on Thursday.”

Beyond that, the dispersion of workforces in smaller offices, nationally and globally, also tends toward a fragmentation of corporate culture. For example, while there is a 90 Seconds corporate culture across the company’s offices, “it’s harder to create a culture when there are people around the world who have their own way of thinking,” notes King.

Managing offices around the world takes cross-cultural communications skills and sensitivities in order to give different teams the incentives and conditions they need to work effectively. King’s time at Webb was invaluable in developing those skills. “I definitely think living with people, being around people constantly, helped my communication skills, especially interculturally.”

As technologies like videoconferencing become increasingly available (and increasingly high definition) and professionals become increasingly comfortable with remote interactions,

differences between real and virtual face-to-face interactions may themselves blur.

“It’s important to meet in person at times,” says Jarasa Kanok ’96, “but the majority can be done remotely.” Kanok helps manage Deloitte Consulting’s Monitor Institute, some 25 people spread across the United States. “We still feel like a pretty tightly knit team,” she says, but adds that in-person meetings do strengthen that sense of teamwork and shared commitment. At the same time, the ability to call colleagues in cities from Shanghai to Barcelona lets Kanok get different perspectives on the day’s project or topic—a benefit of instant cross-cultural communication.

The ability to draw on a national or global network of colleagues is valuable, but it also has altered the workplace dynamic that fostered friendships among colleagues.

The instant communication afforded by the internet has alleviated the sense of isolation felt by telecommuters in the 20th century, but telecommuting also has sharpened distinctions between coworkers and friends.

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“I want to spend time with people I haven’t seen all day,” notes Sittig, not necessarily the people with whom she has been working, albeit remotely. There are bonding opportunities that aren’t available to colleagues who aren’t working in a shared space, Sittig explains, “but I really don’t feel disconnected from the core team.” And, she adds, telecommuters do have spontaneous interactions: pop-up chats and messages take the place of impromptu meetings in the hallway or breakroom.

While millennials are comfortable connecting with their colleagues remotely, that’s not true of every executive.

Particularly at larger organizations, there has been some pushback against the idea that interacting via the internet can replace in-person interactions. Over the past few years, businesses including Aetna, Bank of America, Best Buy, IBM and Yahoo have scaled back their telecommuting programs. Driving this counter-trend is a desire to encourage innovation and collaboration between employees. As IBM’s Chief Marketing Officer Michelle Peluso put it, “Bringing people together creates its own X factor.” Aetna cited research findings that telecommuters collaborate less with their coworkers, in turn discouraging innovation.

This doesn’t presage a mass exodus of employees back to the office, though. According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s 2017 Employee Benefits Report, 62 percent of organizations offer some type of telecommuting, and 57 percent offer flextime for some portion of their workforce, numbers that have risen steadily. And as more millennials reach C-suites, businesses may be more likely to disassociate teamwork and collaboration from in-person interactions.

Some employers are already using remote communications technologies within, as well as between, work spaces. Emi Hayakawa ’99 recalls that in South Korea, most people attended meetings within their own workplace remotely— only a few key people actually went to a conference room. Far from emphasizing the distance between people, she says, technology creates a richer work environment. Hayakawa, who recently relocated from South Korea to Los Angeles,

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essica Anand Gupta ’05: Client Solutions Manager

In 2009 Jessica Anand Gupta ’05 graduated from Wellesley College ready to begin a career in law. Working as a paralegal changed her mind. Law firms tend to be traditional workplaces and demand long hours. “Lifestyle isn’t taken into account at a lot of law firms,” Gupta says. It’s one thing to understand that intellectually, and another to experience it.

She entered the burgeoning e-commerce sector, but even in 2010 her ability to set her own work hours and location was hampered by technological limitations. Now, she says, “I actually can work remotely as much as I like.”

The ability to telecommute isn’t just about her own preferences; it’s also about working efficiently. At Great Place to Work Institute, where Gupta is a client solutions manager, “a lot of people find it more valuable to be on the road with clients” than in the office. Work place and work time flexibility also fosters employee loyalty and longevity. As someone who assesses workplace culture, she says lifestyle flexibility is important to today’s professionals. Working with people to build flexibility into their positions encourages them to perform at their best. Her own situation is the perfect example: a new mother, she needs the kind of flexibility her company allows.

Colleagues may now work thousands of miles apart, rather than at the next desk, but workplace camaraderie is still important, Gupta says, and that’s a hallmark of the Webb experience. “Webb prepared me for camaraderie because there’s a lot of team-building and teamwork.” Webb also taught Gupta how to delegate and how to create and manage teams.

Working remotely requires a reciprocal level of trust and responsibility— the same dynamic Gupta appreciated at Webb. “The teachers place a lot of trust in their students to do their work,” she says, adding that the school’s learning environment was fluid, not rigid. “I really appreciated that.” That environment encouraged her to have faith in her own intellectual abilities.

Have faith in the work that you do, Gupta advises new graduates, but keep your ego in check. “Be picky but not too picky. Look for what an opportunity or position can give you by way of experience; don’t just focus on perks.”

Webb does a really good job of teaching girls that they can be just as strong as boys in the classroom, Gupta says. “Hold on to that confidence.”

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Webb students working in

advanced studies in biotechnology.

works for the Seoul-based Buddhist Television Network and its U.S.-based nonprofit, BTN World. Even if she worked alongside her colleagues, she’d rely on the internet: online collaboration, she says, is more dynamic than in-person interaction. Not only can you work with people near and far, she explains, you can work on your own time. “I believe that it’s much more efficient and increases productivity,” Hayakawa says. “It doesn’t limit my social boundaries; it’s a more dynamic way to interact with people … Face-to-face interaction doesn’t mean you’ll have a deeper connection.”

And, she adds, Webb gave her the time management skills to successfully navigate the boundaries between work time and personal time.

Those boundaries have always existed, and they’ve always been subject to negotiation. Sittig remembers staying at the office through the evening to finish a project—now when she has to work extra hours, she can do so at home. “Work goes on real time,” Hayakawa notes. “It doesn’t stop.”

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ichael Arias ’84: Director/Visual Effects Artist In 2008, Michael Arias ’84 won the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year with his directorial debut Tekkonkinkreet.

He is best known as the first nonJapanese director of a major anime film.

Arias lives and works in Japan, where his work as a filmmaker takes him from one project to the next.

“Because my jobs often last years, I’ve never thought of myself as being part of the gig economy. But I suppose I am, insofar as I lack a fixed employer and rove from one contract to the next,” he explains. “Many directors I know are, technically, freelance. In Japan, there are also some directors who are under a fixed contract with an agency, and then some others who work full-time for television networks or production companies.”

Arias said that he had reached “a point of diminishing returns with the artist rep [he] was under contract to,” and directing offers were coming in, so he decided to break out on his own. He has worked variously as a visual effects artist, animation software developer, and producer.

Asked if he misses some of the perks and security of a salaried job, Arias replied: “I never felt particularly secure when I had a permanent job; and to a certain extent, that was just the nature of the work I do. Japan has universal health coverage, but if I were living in the U.S., I expect health insurance for me and my family would indeed be an issue of concern.”

Through his website, michaelarias.net, Arias advertises his projects and maintains his network. He measures success through box office numbers, reviews (“by the press, not by my manager”), and, ultimately, through his own level of satisfaction and accomplishment with the project in question.