By 2023, even the most carefully thought-out hybrid work plans could be undermined if bosses become “too rigid with flexibility.” Ajay Banga, vice chairman at growth equity investor Atlantic Common, thinks this is a clear problem in the new era of remote work.
Banga, who was the CEO of Mastercard for 11 years and later the chairman of the company, strongly believes in the power of personal collaboration, but said it cannot come at the expense of giving people the freedom they need.
“You burn a lot of social capital when you reduce everyone to a small box on the screen,” Banga Fortune’s Peter Vanham in an interview on Fortune Connect, Fortune’s exclusive leadership community. But if working in person with a team isn’t possible, he added, remote work is still “a pretty productive way to get things done, compared to flying to Timbuktu to meet people.”
But it won’t be Banga’s first choice, at least for new workers at the company. “It is difficult to understand people and [establish] networks that allow you to be more successful and productive,” he said. “Humans are social creatures. And what makes us richer is the ability to touch, feel, relate, hug, and cry together, and enjoy together and share successes and failures.
At that point, Banga is one of the executives who emphasized the importance of personal work. But he is one of the few who wholeheartedly admits otherwise. “Obviously people are crying out for flexibility in working life these days,” he said. “The ability to understand the need for that flexibility, but then not go back to, ‘so let’s do everything digitally,’ that to me is the balance.”
Banga says that failing to strike that balance will result in an unequal work environment for those who prefer to work remotely — caregivers, women, and people of color.
Distance bias cannot be neglected
Banga’s biggest concern is that his plans to return to office will reverse “the progress that has been made to reduce inequality of opportunity for women.” Mainly, this is due to proximity bias, which reflects a natural preference and familiarity with the people you find most often around you. Sixty percent of managers told Beautiful.AI that they are likely to lay off remote workers first during a recession.
Labor has noted. More than half (58%) of women are concerned that working remotely will limit their overall career advancement; 64% of men say the same, according to a November 2022 Care.com report.
“Distance bias is real,” says Katherine Goldstein, host of the Double Shift moms podcast fortune last year. “People have judged mothers as less committed to their jobs, so there’s a sense that hybrid or remote work can create a no-look, no-think mentality in terms of promotions and layoffs.”
Also, Goldstein added, without a personal relationship with workers who don’t see them every day, bosses may find it easier to make layoffs. Or, in a long-term setting, doling out promotions.
“When the four people next to you in the office every day are men, and two women don’t come in, when the time for promotion comes, you will naturally gravitate to one of them,” Banga said.
He advocates what the experts do in sustainable hybrid work: two predetermined office days, well organized so that the whole team is together. There’s nothing to be gained from ordering people back into the office just to log on to Zooms all day—especially because of the grief the employee will be forced to share.
While Banga encourages as much personal collaboration as possible, he cautions against “being rigid with flexibility.” A hybrid arrangement, with enough room to rearrange life’s events and complications, works for everyone because “not everything can be planned by the Roman calendar.”
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