Search Captions & Ask AI

"The Future of the Office" w/ Prof. Peter Cappelli – Wharton School Press "Meet the Authors" Event

November 04, 2021 / 29:18

This episode features Pete Fader interviewing Peter Cappelli about the future of office work, remote work, and the challenges faced by companies post-COVID.

Peter Cappelli, a professor at Wharton, discusses how COVID-19 has transformed workplace dynamics and the implications for remote work. He highlights that the pandemic was an unprecedented experiment that forced many employees to work from home.

Cappelli shares insights from his book, emphasizing that the experience of working from home during the pandemic differs significantly from what remote work will look like in the future. He notes that many companies are hesitant to make definitive decisions about returning to the office.

He also addresses the current labor market, dispelling myths about the so-called "great resignation" and discussing the importance of social relationships in retaining employees. Cappelli suggests that companies need to be clear about their policies on remote work to avoid creating inequalities.

The episode concludes with Cappelli offering advice for young employees entering the workforce, recommending they seek in-office experiences to build connections and learn about their organizations.

TL;DR

Peter Cappelli discusses the future of office work and remote work challenges post-COVID, emphasizing the need for clear policies and social connections.

Episode

29:18
00:00:03
[Music]
00:00:09
this is pete fader here the francis and
00:00:11
paiwan cha professor of marketing at the
00:00:14
wharton school of the university of
00:00:16
pennsylvania
00:00:17
welcome to the fifth in an ongoing
00:00:20
series of meet the authors conversations
00:00:23
that i've been having with various
00:00:24
colleagues here from the wharton school
00:00:27
let's think uh number one we started off
00:00:30
in january with my marketing colleague
00:00:32
michael platt talking about the leader's
00:00:34
brain
00:00:35
in march we stayed with marketing then
00:00:37
it was jonah berger talking about the
00:00:38
catalyst in may katie milkman former
00:00:41
operations information decisions
00:00:43
department spoke about how to change
00:00:45
in june it was former colleague mauro
00:00:48
gian now the dean at the judge school
00:00:51
over at cambridge talking about the
00:00:52
platform paradox but today
00:00:55
we turn to the management department
00:00:57
where it is my pleasure my privilege to
00:01:00
be talking to another peter peter
00:01:01
capelli the george w taylor professor of
00:01:04
management uh here at wharton director
00:01:06
of wharton center for human resources
00:01:10
we're going to be talking about uh the
00:01:12
future of the office
00:01:14
work from home remote work and the hard
00:01:17
choices we all face
00:01:19
uh peter for years you've been studying
00:01:22
all the different uh forces shaping and
00:01:24
changing our workplace uh it's something
00:01:27
you've been
00:01:28
really deep into for a long time but
00:01:32
is it fair to say that nothing has
00:01:33
impacted quite like covet
00:01:37
yeah i think that's right you know
00:01:38
there's a flavor of the month feel to
00:01:41
workplace issues a lot of it is pushed
00:01:43
by people who've got some
00:01:45
financial interest they're selling a
00:01:46
problem and selling a solution so we've
00:01:49
seen a lot of you know we're running out
00:01:50
of people now we've got too many people
00:01:52
sort of stories but you know covet was
00:01:54
this enormous experiment that was pushed
00:01:57
on us
00:01:58
you know march last year
00:02:00
we had 60 million people out of work
00:02:03
it's just amazing and if you had told me
00:02:05
we wouldn't be back in our offices for
00:02:07
more than a year if you told me that
00:02:09
then honestly i would have said we'll be
00:02:11
living in caves and burning furniture
00:02:13
for heat you know it's amazing that we
00:02:15
survived i mean it's it's just an
00:02:17
astonishing story and so with that in
00:02:19
mind you
00:02:21
you're kind of going out on a limb i
00:02:22
mean you wrote this book back in let me
00:02:24
think 2021
00:02:27
when as as you said we thought this
00:02:29
would all be over by the time we reached
00:02:31
november um so it's so it's pretty bold
00:02:34
to go out there and kind of uh offer
00:02:36
observations and statements and
00:02:37
predictions so tell us a little bit
00:02:39
about your motivations for doing so what
00:02:41
the process was like and kind of how you
00:02:44
feel it's gone
00:02:46
well i guess the good news is it wasn't
00:02:48
a very long book so
00:02:50
it didn't take all that long to write it
00:02:52
i discovered
00:02:53
that i was basically being asked to talk
00:02:56
about this
00:02:57
all the time and of course the
00:02:59
event that was triggering this is that
00:03:01
40 of americans were working remotely
00:03:04
mainly from home and 70 percent of
00:03:06
people who could work from home because
00:03:09
of the nature of their work were in fact
00:03:11
working from home so we were running
00:03:13
this big experiment
00:03:15
and the results are going to matter for
00:03:17
a long time
00:03:19
it turned out that i figured that you
00:03:21
know we'd probably be starting back to
00:03:23
the office but you'll recall
00:03:24
you know the discussion that we'd be
00:03:26
back by labor day but they meant labor
00:03:28
day 2020 and then it was labor day 2021
00:03:31
and we're still not back right so
00:03:33
the pandemic is the gift that keeps on
00:03:35
giving for topics like this because
00:03:38
companies the very least now have and
00:03:41
and individuals have the opportunity to
00:03:42
think about this
00:03:44
uh a little more because it's not going
00:03:46
to be a surprise right that we're going
00:03:48
to have to decide
00:03:49
particularly whether to bring people
00:03:50
back or keep them home or do something
00:03:52
different
00:03:53
indeed and and so
00:03:54
what would be as as you look back at the
00:03:57
book now you know a few months after
00:03:58
writing it and of course it was
00:04:00
published fairly recently um what would
00:04:02
be i'm looking for and i told you so
00:04:05
that you can offer as well as a uh
00:04:07
something that that surprised you uh
00:04:09
that you might have you know said or
00:04:11
written differently
00:04:14
well i think the big aha in the from the
00:04:17
book which was just an observation
00:04:20
is that
00:04:22
working from home during a pandemic
00:04:25
doesn't tell you much about what it
00:04:27
would be like to work from home
00:04:30
after a pandemic and
00:04:31
you know i didn't really realize how
00:04:33
many studies had been done
00:04:36
about remote work before the pandemic
00:04:40
and so that was a that was sort of a bit
00:04:42
of an aha i guess the thing that
00:04:45
has surprised me in terms of
00:04:46
developments is
00:04:47
partly to see
00:04:49
employers so all over the place
00:04:52
i mean most are doing
00:04:53
frankly what employers typically do
00:04:55
which is perfectly sensible and that is
00:04:57
to wait and see what everybody else does
00:05:00
but the problem is you can't
00:05:02
keep doing that i mean to not decide is
00:05:05
deciding here right if you keep
00:05:07
everybody at home
00:05:08
you're sort of deciding
00:05:10
i think the
00:05:11
the one development which is the
00:05:13
weirdest i think is
00:05:15
this discovery that um
00:05:18
the silicon valley companies in
00:05:19
particular
00:05:21
are
00:05:22
trying to make people pay to work from
00:05:24
home right they're going to cut your pay
00:05:26
if you work remotely
00:05:29
that was a surprise and that wasn't the
00:05:31
initial announcement right that kind of
00:05:33
sneaked in on people a little later and
00:05:35
that's a quirky one and that's
00:05:37
what's kind of novel i didn't anticipate
00:05:38
that was going to happen absolutely yeah
00:05:41
and so there's just so much we can say i
00:05:43
have a whole ton of questions for you
00:05:44
but love to get some questions from the
00:05:46
the folks uh listening in on the
00:05:48
conversation i think so many people have
00:05:50
different perspectives on their own
00:05:52
experience and getting back to work and
00:05:54
their experience about getting others to
00:05:56
come on back so so please enter your
00:05:58
questions through whatever platform
00:06:00
you're on uh but i i got a bunch more
00:06:03
for peter over here so superior as we as
00:06:06
we go from from the book itself they
00:06:08
said that some of the surprises that
00:06:10
you're just referring to you know as
00:06:12
we're now
00:06:14
moving forward um so like what what are
00:06:16
you what's top of mind for you these
00:06:18
days
00:06:21
i think uh you know the issue that
00:06:24
everyone is talking about now
00:06:26
is
00:06:26
this issue of uh
00:06:29
what's the current state of the labor
00:06:30
market
00:06:31
which is kind of related to work from
00:06:33
home
00:06:34
but kind of not and this is another one
00:06:37
of these stories which turns out not to
00:06:40
be quite true this is the great
00:06:41
resignation story right
00:06:44
and if you actually look at the data
00:06:46
the
00:06:47
average turnover in the u.s right now
00:06:49
the last month
00:06:51
uh which available i think it's i think
00:06:53
is actually still august data is 2.9
00:06:56
of the current employees have turned
00:06:59
over in that month over
00:07:01
you know across the economy
00:07:03
which they said you know the claim is
00:07:05
it's the biggest number ever that's not
00:07:07
true
00:07:08
uh it is the biggest number since they
00:07:10
collected that set of data which goes
00:07:11
back 20 years so it's the biggest number
00:07:14
in 20 years
00:07:15
but if you looked before the pandemic
00:07:18
the number was 2.6 percent so we've gone
00:07:20
from 2.6
00:07:22
to 2.9
00:07:24
is that a huge increase
00:07:26
i don't think so i mean what drives
00:07:28
quitting typically is people quit to
00:07:31
take jobs elsewhere so another kind of
00:07:33
myth is that
00:07:34
the people who are quitting are going
00:07:36
home
00:07:36
to practice yoga there's no evidence for
00:07:39
that i mean the typical quitter
00:07:41
immediately moves to another job
00:07:43
and there's every reason to think that's
00:07:44
what's going on now
00:07:46
the surprising thing
00:07:48
is if you look at data and some of this
00:07:50
data comes from the folks that indeed
00:07:52
who did some surveys of these folks if
00:07:55
you look at unemployed people
00:07:57
unemployed people say who are not
00:07:59
looking actively say one reason is fear
00:08:02
of covid but the biggest reason is
00:08:04
actually that they think
00:08:05
better jobs are coming
00:08:07
and that's partly because of all the
00:08:09
noise and the press about oh my god
00:08:11
wages are going up it's people are dead
00:08:13
scrambling for jobs etc or workers and
00:08:16
it turns out our wages going up they're
00:08:18
not really so if you looked at the pay
00:08:20
increases or pay levels in september of
00:08:22
this year
00:08:23
they're down about
00:08:25
a tenth of a percent from last year at
00:08:28
this time right so wages at least real
00:08:31
wages i should say so relative to
00:08:33
inflation they're not going up they're
00:08:35
actually falling behind
00:08:37
so that's probably not true either
00:08:40
really surprising thing to me though is
00:08:41
if you look at people who sort of have
00:08:43
jobs already which account for most of
00:08:45
the people who take new jobs
00:08:47
they're not searching very much so a lot
00:08:49
of people are sitting on their hands
00:08:51
waiting
00:08:52
maybe they're waiting for covid to tail
00:08:54
off maybe they're waiting to see what
00:08:56
employers are going to offer
00:08:58
particularly on work from home which a
00:09:00
lot of people care about because most
00:09:02
employers are not saying yet so we might
00:09:04
be stuck in a little
00:09:06
you know equilibrium here where
00:09:08
everybody's waiting to see what
00:09:09
everybody else is going to do and
00:09:10
nobody's doing anything and what's your
00:09:13
sense that
00:09:14
really all of this is speculative and
00:09:16
you're bringing about as much data
00:09:18
experience inside as anyone but what's
00:09:20
your sense until we reach either a new
00:09:22
equilibrium or perhaps the old
00:09:24
equilibrium in terms of of people going
00:09:27
in and out of the drop market
00:09:29
well i think um i think the employers
00:09:32
are kind of losing patience with a lot
00:09:35
of a work from home
00:09:36
enthusiasm
00:09:38
so if you look at survey data now on
00:09:40
what employers or rather what executives
00:09:42
say
00:09:43
versus what
00:09:44
regular employees say regular employees
00:09:47
are still really interested in some
00:09:48
opportunities to work more remotely
00:09:52
executives are less interested in that
00:09:55
and are more interested in getting
00:09:57
people back into the office and and
00:09:59
getting going so you know my sense is on
00:10:02
the labor market thing
00:10:04
this is going to write itself i think
00:10:06
reasonably
00:10:07
quickly what happened the whole problem
00:10:09
was caused by the fact that most
00:10:11
employers waited until the last minute
00:10:14
to try to backfill all the positions
00:10:18
that they had emptied out because of the
00:10:20
downturn associated with kovitt but you
00:10:22
could see
00:10:23
the need coming right because you could
00:10:25
tell when the restrictions were going to
00:10:27
be lifted it wasn't a surprise and yet
00:10:29
for the most part most employers waited
00:10:32
until the restrictions were lifted so
00:10:34
they're all trying to hire at once and
00:10:36
they're all trying to hire the same
00:10:38
people particularly low-wage
00:10:40
hourly sorts of relatively unskilled
00:10:42
folks that's the big thing and it's the
00:10:45
reason why the vacancy level is so high
00:10:48
people are coming back into the job
00:10:50
market
00:10:51
it's just they're not coming back at the
00:10:53
pace at which all these new jobs flooded
00:10:56
in all at once
00:10:57
very interesting what about the
00:10:59
differential impact on different kinds
00:11:02
of subgroups whether it's male versus
00:11:04
female young versus old blue versus
00:11:06
white collar do you see any interesting
00:11:08
patterns there
00:11:09
well there's some issues if you're an
00:11:11
employer you should think about and you
00:11:12
know the big one is disparate impact as
00:11:14
we say in employment law so you know if
00:11:17
you think about okay we're going to
00:11:18
offer remote for remote work
00:11:20
opportunities for people but you got to
00:11:22
raise your hand and do it
00:11:24
and the first thing that does is it
00:11:26
creates
00:11:27
two tiers right you got one group of
00:11:29
people in the office hanging out with
00:11:30
the bosses you got another one who's
00:11:32
working remotely
00:11:34
one of the things we know from prior
00:11:35
research the people working remotely
00:11:37
don't do as well they don't get promoted
00:11:39
as often as quickly their careers suffer
00:11:42
it's not a big surprise right
00:11:45
if you're closer to the power you're
00:11:47
probably going to do better
00:11:48
the people who are probably going to
00:11:50
raise their hand more often
00:11:53
to work remotely are people with
00:11:54
caregiving responsibilities and they
00:11:57
tend to be
00:11:58
disproportionately women so you're going
00:12:00
to set up this program for a group
00:12:02
that's going to be disproportionately
00:12:04
women
00:12:05
they're going to have worse labor market
00:12:06
outcomes
00:12:08
this really looks like disparate impact
00:12:10
if you're a plaintiff lawyer if you're
00:12:12
an employer you better think about
00:12:15
you know how you're going to deal with
00:12:17
these challenges because they're
00:12:18
probably going to come
00:12:19
and we're seeing uh just
00:12:21
again as you've said now a couple of
00:12:23
times
00:12:24
uh companies are unwilling to or unable
00:12:28
to kind of nail down a specific in fact
00:12:30
i'm thinking of amazon
00:12:32
where you know in the book you actually
00:12:34
took a you know said amazon's taking
00:12:36
will take a fairly strong stand but then
00:12:38
just a couple of weeks ago andy jassy
00:12:40
said you know each group can figure out
00:12:42
on on its own
00:12:43
uh is that kind of exceptional rule
00:12:47
uh i think
00:12:48
i think if you're an employer there are
00:12:50
some real risks to telling every group
00:12:52
just do whatever you want we kind of had
00:12:54
that before
00:12:55
um you know there was a lot more work
00:12:57
from home than we might want to admit a
00:13:00
lot of it was under the table
00:13:02
you know people had deals with their
00:13:03
supervisors to cut out early on friday
00:13:05
it never showed up on any records and
00:13:07
things you know but the problem with
00:13:09
that was this real inequality you know
00:13:11
if i'm working for you
00:13:13
you'll let me do it i'm doing the same
00:13:15
job working for somebody else they won't
00:13:17
let me do it
00:13:18
so i think that's probably not the path
00:13:20
to go down one thing employers ought to
00:13:22
really do is be clear
00:13:24
these are our policies and procedures
00:13:27
i think for sure employers are all over
00:13:29
the place right the tech companies
00:13:31
particularly silicon valley companies
00:13:33
were saying go away you know
00:13:35
and it's amazing for a company like
00:13:37
google to say that which had turned
00:13:39
being into the office into kind of a
00:13:41
fetish right we want you here all the
00:13:43
time and here are all these goodies that
00:13:45
will pull you in and keep you here and
00:13:47
now it's you know kind of go away then
00:13:49
in new york you got the banks in new
00:13:51
york saying forget it you're all coming
00:13:53
back right
00:13:54
so most companies i think are trying to
00:13:56
figure out
00:13:57
frankly what everybody else is doing
00:13:59
nobody wants to be the one that's the
00:14:01
outlier in your industry
00:14:03
and some of that is because you may feel
00:14:05
in the job market you'll be out of luck
00:14:08
people want to work remotely you say no
00:14:10
but your competitors around you say sure
00:14:12
and then you start bleeding people right
00:14:15
right so it's not crazy
00:14:16
to wait the problem is the longer
00:14:19
everybody waits
00:14:21
the longer it takes this job market to
00:14:22
sort of sort itself out and get more
00:14:24
people into new jobs are changing their
00:14:26
existing jobs very interesting well we
00:14:28
got questions flooding in over here let
00:14:30
me uh fire away here it's the first one
00:14:32
coming from robert
00:14:33
on linkedin
00:14:35
how do you see the onboarding process in
00:14:37
working from home times how will
00:14:40
onboarding uh change
00:14:42
yeah well if you're hiring people
00:14:44
remotely and a lot of places are you may
00:14:46
have this
00:14:47
pete i do too we hired faculty i had not
00:14:50
met
00:14:51
you know i mean they're colleagues it's
00:14:53
been a year i still have not met some of
00:14:54
these folks right uh it's got to be
00:14:57
really difficult
00:14:58
to come into an organization and try to
00:15:00
find your way around when you're working
00:15:02
from home for those of us who've been in
00:15:04
our organizations for a long time this
00:15:07
is easy it's a piece of cake you know
00:15:08
everybody already you know how things
00:15:10
work but if you're coming in for the
00:15:12
first time you have nobody to ask what's
00:15:14
going on if you want information you got
00:15:16
to schedule a zoom call with people and
00:15:18
they're irritated by that
00:15:20
so
00:15:21
if we're going to continue to do it and
00:15:23
have people
00:15:24
come in remotely we really have to do a
00:15:27
much better job everything has to be
00:15:29
explained to people in the onboarding
00:15:32
process right we got to do a lot to get
00:15:34
them to make connections through some
00:15:36
sort of visual
00:15:37
you know virtual contact if we're not
00:15:39
going to bring him in
00:15:40
i think we ought to think also about
00:15:43
onboarding our current employees when
00:15:45
they come back to the office assuming we
00:15:47
bring them back they've been away for a
00:15:48
year and a half
00:15:49
and this is a good opportunity to change
00:15:51
the way things work because some of the
00:15:53
old habits
00:15:54
might actually be broken if you didn't
00:15:56
like the way things work before you know
00:15:58
this is a time to try to change them
00:15:59
people are already shaken up a little
00:16:00
bit and you actually touch on that in
00:16:02
the book about what happened right here
00:16:04
at the university of pennsylvania
00:16:06
and so i just without putting pen on the
00:16:09
spot
00:16:10
how do you think those programs have
00:16:12
gone
00:16:13
uh it sounds like they've gone pretty
00:16:15
well the those programs that he's
00:16:17
talking about were ones where parts of
00:16:19
the university
00:16:20
uh decided for the staff in particular
00:16:24
to make the return something more of a
00:16:26
welcoming event i think knowing in part
00:16:28
that some people are nervous coming back
00:16:30
for health reasons you know is it still
00:16:32
infectious in our workplace trying to
00:16:34
chill them out on that but some of them
00:16:37
you know have been away for a while and
00:16:39
you know they don't want to be back
00:16:41
maybe uh and most of us i think want to
00:16:44
reconnect with
00:16:46
other people so can we put that front
00:16:48
and center can we make this a good
00:16:51
experience coming back right
00:16:53
and also an opportunity for people to
00:16:56
learn
00:16:57
some different ways of interaction
00:16:59
while they're in this mode of boy this
00:17:01
seems new right so that's what some of
00:17:03
our colleagues here have been doing
00:17:05
across parts of the university and you
00:17:07
know it seems a really smart sensible
00:17:09
thing to do it doesn't take much time it
00:17:10
doesn't cost much money so why not
00:17:14
very interesting here's a great question
00:17:16
from elliot from linkedin is it
00:17:18
reasonable to assume that there'll be a
00:17:20
boomerang effect uh when a work from
00:17:22
home goes out of vogue in in the short
00:17:25
term think things will swing the other
00:17:27
way
00:17:28
well if we mean boomerang by
00:17:30
uh there's two ways that could boomerang
00:17:32
right one is that employees who are
00:17:34
working remotely will say hey you know i
00:17:36
really want to come back to the office
00:17:38
there might be some of that but what we
00:17:40
know from other work from home
00:17:43
events before this is that people get
00:17:46
people who go remote are self-selecting
00:17:49
to do it they kind of know what they're
00:17:51
getting into they kind of know after
00:17:52
this point what it's like they're not so
00:17:54
likely to say you know i really missed
00:17:57
as one of my colleagues who left here
00:18:00
said i really miss the chinese food
00:18:01
truck on 37th street you know they
00:18:04
probably not going to happen a lot
00:18:06
are there employers who will back up i
00:18:07
think absolutely and i think this is one
00:18:10
thing to worry about on the employer
00:18:12
side how are you making this decision
00:18:15
right are you deciding to bring people
00:18:17
back because you really think it's going
00:18:19
to be better or is it simply because you
00:18:21
don't trust that your employees will be
00:18:23
able to
00:18:24
continue to work productly unless you're
00:18:26
watching them right and that would be a
00:18:28
really bad
00:18:29
outcome having trusted them for a year
00:18:32
most employers report people really did
00:18:33
pitch in and get things done and to now
00:18:36
to tell them nah you know
00:18:38
we don't trust you come on back i think
00:18:40
the one thing that employees seem to
00:18:42
appreciate the most
00:18:44
during the work from home period is
00:18:47
having more control themselves over
00:18:49
their time and having more trust from
00:18:51
their
00:18:52
employer and if you try to roll that
00:18:54
back now
00:18:55
it's probably not going to get a good
00:18:56
reaction from more harm than good uh
00:18:59
let's keep the questions coming sammy on
00:19:01
linkedin as uh points out that uh that
00:19:04
they uh recently left go of of their
00:19:07
office in new york now renting spaces on
00:19:09
an unneeded basis for strategy sessions
00:19:12
and brainstorming so what do you feel
00:19:14
about the future of work spaces uh are
00:19:16
we already seeing some changes uh how do
00:19:18
you see that continuing to evolve
00:19:21
well you know this comes to the very
00:19:22
interesting question that not a lot of
00:19:24
employers have completely thought
00:19:26
through and that is what's in it for us
00:19:28
if we
00:19:29
change the way we work
00:19:30
permanent remote work is pretty
00:19:32
straightforward you know we're going to
00:19:33
take back your office and cut our real
00:19:35
estate footprint and we're going to save
00:19:37
money instantly and we're going to save
00:19:39
a lot of money
00:19:40
if you don't do that
00:19:42
and if you say we're going to have some
00:19:43
sort of in-between arrangement
00:19:45
could you cut your office space anyway
00:19:49
that's kind of the bet the problem is we
00:19:51
tried that that was the hoteling
00:19:53
movement
00:19:54
in the dot com period it started then
00:19:57
and it didn't work i mean frankly by
00:20:00
2005 or so there are a bunch of stories
00:20:03
in the media saying whatever happened to
00:20:04
hoteling because it had been pulled back
00:20:07
in most places the problem with hoteling
00:20:09
which means you don't get a permanent
00:20:11
office when you need to come in we just
00:20:13
get you a space you know the problem
00:20:15
with that is most people who come back
00:20:17
to the office
00:20:18
do it because they want to meet their
00:20:20
peers and colleagues
00:20:22
and with a rental room it's not clear
00:20:24
you're going to meet them you know you
00:20:26
get a office any place in the complex
00:20:28
where it might be vacant or a special
00:20:31
temp office area we've got we also know
00:20:34
that people like the idea of having
00:20:36
their own space and being able for some
00:20:38
people to decorate it or make it feel
00:20:40
more like them you know and so there was
00:20:43
a lot of pushback by the employees
00:20:46
in silicon valley particular and it kind
00:20:48
of folded right so
00:20:50
if you think it's going to work for you
00:20:51
the question to ask yourself is
00:20:54
why do you think you're different i mean
00:20:56
what is it about your approach where you
00:20:58
think it's going to work because we ran
00:20:59
this experiment before it didn't work
00:21:01
for most people
00:21:02
why do you think it's going to work for
00:21:03
you and i do want to say that that's
00:21:06
this just a really fascinating aspect of
00:21:08
the book and for for anyone listening uh
00:21:12
instead of just saying
00:21:14
it's all new it's all different we can't
00:21:16
learn from the past i think uh peter
00:21:18
you've done a really great job of
00:21:20
pulling together synthesizing a lot of
00:21:21
that that uh literature and just
00:21:24
experience to really
00:21:27
give us some foundations to to better
00:21:28
understand where we're going so i'm sure
00:21:30
as a scholar it just felt very rewarding
00:21:33
to see some of that uh all the research
00:21:35
just all of a sudden come to light in a
00:21:37
really dramatic way well and i think
00:21:40
also as
00:21:41
you would well know to be able to see
00:21:42
that there actually was research you
00:21:44
didn't have to make stuff up right
00:21:46
now we actually have answers to these
00:21:48
questions right so and we also have a
00:21:50
lot of questions about talent management
00:21:52
and so on gene is asking a question
00:21:54
about your recommendations for how
00:21:57
employers can maximize retention and
00:21:59
attract the right kind of talent you
00:22:00
know beyond all the logistics of time
00:22:03
and space and all that how do we bring
00:22:05
in and hold on to the right people
00:22:07
well retention is the harder thing
00:22:08
because you know the big aha around
00:22:11
retention is that social relationships
00:22:13
hold people in organizations
00:22:15
and with remote work we're breaking a
00:22:16
lot of those social relationships so
00:22:20
we're gonna have to deal with that
00:22:21
somehow figure out how to retain people
00:22:24
because the main way that we've done it
00:22:25
hasn't worked is unlikely to work very
00:22:28
well
00:22:28
one of the things we did learn during
00:22:30
the pandemic work from home period is a
00:22:33
quirky statistic from some surveys that
00:22:36
employees reported that their
00:22:37
relationship with their supervisor
00:22:39
actually got better
00:22:41
if you're really cynical you might say
00:22:42
well i don't see my supervisor i like
00:22:44
her much better now
00:22:46
but i think there was some purposeful
00:22:48
action on the part of some
00:22:50
employers to make the supervisors get in
00:22:53
touch with the remote subordinates every
00:22:56
week
00:22:57
and in the office we don't do that very
00:22:59
often partly i guess because we think
00:23:01
you see me all the time why should you
00:23:04
why should we have a sit down and talk
00:23:06
so we could probably do a much better
00:23:08
job of this if we get people back in the
00:23:10
office but even remotely
00:23:12
than we have probably done in the past
00:23:14
on the retention side it's a bit of a
00:23:16
trick
00:23:17
on the hiring side you know one of the
00:23:19
things you hear from the tech companies
00:23:21
in particular is that they think this is
00:23:23
going to be a boom for them
00:23:25
because they can now hire people
00:23:28
anywhere because they can say you don't
00:23:30
have to relocate you can work for us
00:23:32
wherever you are including by the way
00:23:34
outside the us we don't have to worry
00:23:35
about getting you a visa
00:23:37
because as long as you don't work in the
00:23:38
u.s you don't need a visa but you could
00:23:40
be our employee someplace else
00:23:42
which is probably true
00:23:45
i guess the question they maybe not
00:23:46
thought enough about is
00:23:48
other employers could do that to your
00:23:50
employees as well right so you know your
00:23:52
retention problem is going to be really
00:23:54
bigger if we go down that path
00:23:57
the other thing i guess if i'm the
00:23:58
employee is to say to worry a little bit
00:24:01
what
00:24:02
happens if they just want to turn me
00:24:04
into a contractor which is quite likely
00:24:06
to happen
00:24:07
somebody in the finance area will say
00:24:09
well why is peter an employee anyway
00:24:11
you're paying these payroll taxes and
00:24:12
stuff for him and you know he's not here
00:24:14
you don't see him you're managing him
00:24:15
remotely why don't you just make him a
00:24:17
contractor we like that
00:24:19
better for accounting reasons it shows
00:24:21
up
00:24:22
looking better on our books let's do
00:24:23
that right so we've already seen some
00:24:26
controversy and legislation arising uh
00:24:29
even pre-pandemic about you know uber
00:24:32
drivers and so on do you think we're
00:24:33
going to see more changes along those
00:24:35
lines
00:24:36
well my guess is that we will
00:24:39
may see more legislation and it varies
00:24:43
protecting contractors broadly defined
00:24:45
making it more difficult to turn people
00:24:47
into contractors broadly defined right
00:24:49
or at least enforcing the existing laws
00:24:53
more than we have democratic
00:24:54
administration that tends to happen
00:24:56
anyway so
00:24:57
we'll see
00:24:58
where they go in the future it depends
00:25:00
who's in the white house whether they
00:25:02
take that seriously or not
00:25:04
got one more question for you as we're
00:25:06
running short on time uh you know we're
00:25:08
talking before about the
00:25:10
the differential impact on different
00:25:13
groups of employees
00:25:15
diana's asking about gen z
00:25:18
so uh first i'd like to ask you do you
00:25:20
think that there are differential
00:25:22
impacts or for new employees and and
00:25:24
secondly what advice would you offer for
00:25:27
uh for young employees to be entering
00:25:29
the workforce and with all of this
00:25:31
uncertainty and change well you know the
00:25:33
first thing i feel compelled to say
00:25:35
because i just got out of a phd seminar
00:25:37
we're talking exactly about this is you
00:25:39
know the national academy of sciences
00:25:41
this last summer
00:25:43
summer 2020 published a report debunking
00:25:46
the whole idea of these generational
00:25:47
differences that they don't exist right
00:25:50
but you want to be really careful about
00:25:52
working remotely because you don't know
00:25:54
an awful lot about how things work maybe
00:25:57
generally but especially in the
00:25:59
organization you're going into and you'd
00:26:01
like to have the most opportunities
00:26:03
possible
00:26:04
to learn stuff so i would really make a
00:26:07
big push to be in the office if at all
00:26:10
possible
00:26:11
because this is a huge investment in
00:26:12
your career at that point
00:26:15
and if you miss it
00:26:16
first of all if you're not in the office
00:26:18
it's easy to be the last one hired the
00:26:21
first one let go
00:26:23
people don't know who you are they have
00:26:24
connections to you and secondly there's
00:26:26
all kinds of things you learn about how
00:26:27
the world works and business works or
00:26:29
your organization works that you just
00:26:31
can't pick up remotely so i would say if
00:26:34
you're a young person coming into the
00:26:35
labor market go to the office that's
00:26:38
great i'm going to try to squeeze one
00:26:39
more in for you a question from from
00:26:42
david uh real quick uh put you on the
00:26:45
spot a little bit can you point out an
00:26:47
organization that that's navigated this
00:26:49
whole thing particularly well
00:26:52
well i think there are different ones
00:26:54
that have navigated it differently by
00:26:56
different approaches so in the book i
00:26:58
talk a little about clorox as a company
00:27:00
that has thought about the on
00:27:02
re-onboarding
00:27:04
very purposefully and that
00:27:06
you know that's that's good uh i think
00:27:09
in terms of organizations that have
00:27:10
decided to come back bring people back i
00:27:13
think comcast has been good at the way
00:27:16
they've done it they've now given a date
00:27:17
they said you know we're going to bring
00:27:19
people back we're going to work through
00:27:20
the problems
00:27:22
i think any company that communicated
00:27:24
well along the way and communicated the
00:27:27
uncertainty as well to be able to say
00:27:29
look we don't know you know we got to
00:27:31
see what the state does what the city
00:27:34
does with its regulations how the virus
00:27:36
plays out what's happening with the
00:27:37
delta variant you know organizations
00:27:40
that are willing to be transparent
00:27:43
that goes an enormously long way i don't
00:27:45
think your employees will fault you for
00:27:47
not telling them what's going to happen
00:27:49
if you tell them why you don't know but
00:27:51
if you keep it a secret and don't talk
00:27:53
to them they're going to assume there's
00:27:55
a conspiracy going on and that
00:27:57
actually all your jobs are going to
00:27:59
china or something like that so you get
00:28:00
a bad outcome if you're not letting them
00:28:02
know even what you don't know good
00:28:05
advice good advice so we have so many
00:28:07
questions but we don't have time for
00:28:08
them so i do want to thank everyone for
00:28:11
uh not only tuning in but for for taking
00:28:12
the time for being so engaged and such
00:28:14
an important topic
00:28:16
and with that in mind if
00:28:18
participants haven't done so already
00:28:20
future of office right here available in
00:28:22
the wharton school press bookstore
00:28:24
wherever books are sold and actually if
00:28:26
you go to the wharton school press
00:28:28
bookstore
00:28:29
40
00:28:30
off discount on the future of office
00:28:33
ebook so the promo code is meet peter uh
00:28:37
yeah meet peter capelli all one word uh
00:28:40
but
00:28:40
love you all to stay updated um with our
00:28:43
meet the authors series peter it's so
00:28:45
wonderful to have you as part of it
00:28:47
again i can't think of a more timely
00:28:49
topic or a more suitable expert to talk
00:28:51
about it so thanks so much for taking
00:28:53
the time great thank you
00:28:55
and again thank all of you for taking
00:28:57
the time as well
00:28:59
this is pete fader signing off from the
00:29:01
wharton school at the university of
00:29:03
pennsylvania
00:29:05
[Music]
00:29:13
[Music]
00:29:17
you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Most shocking
  • 60
    Best concept / idea

Episode Highlights

  • The Future of the Office
    Peter Cappelli discusses the evolving workplace dynamics post-pandemic, emphasizing the challenges of remote work.
    “It's amazing that we survived.”
    @ 02m 15s
    November 04, 2021
  • The Great Resignation Myth
    Cappelli debunks the myth of the great resignation, revealing the actual turnover rates.
    “The average turnover in the U.S. right now is 2.9%.”
    @ 06m 49s
    November 04, 2021
  • Disparate Impact of Remote Work
    Cappelli warns about the potential negative effects of remote work policies on women and caregivers.
    “This really looks like disparate impact.”
    @ 12m 10s
    November 04, 2021
  • The Future of Workspaces
    Discussion on the evolution of workspaces and the challenges of remote work.
    “What’s in it for us if we change the way we work?”
    @ 19m 26s
    November 04, 2021
  • Retention Challenges
    Exploring the difficulties of retaining employees in a remote work environment.
    “Social relationships hold people in organizations.”
    @ 22m 11s
    November 04, 2021
  • Advice for Young Employees
    Encouragement for new entrants to prioritize in-office work for career growth.
    “Make a big push to be in the office if at all possible.”
    @ 26m 07s
    November 04, 2021
  • Importance of Transparency
    The value of clear communication during uncertain times in organizations.
    “Employees will assume there’s a conspiracy if you keep it a secret.”
    @ 27m 51s
    November 04, 2021

Episode Quotes

  • It's amazing that we survived.
    "The Future of the Office" w/ Prof. Peter Cappelli – Wharton School Press "Meet the Authors" Event
  • To not decide is deciding here.
    "The Future of the Office" w/ Prof. Peter Cappelli – Wharton School Press "Meet the Authors" Event
  • Employers are kind of losing patience with a lot of work from home enthusiasm.
    "The Future of the Office" w/ Prof. Peter Cappelli – Wharton School Press "Meet the Authors" Event
  • Why do you think you're different?
    "The Future of the Office" w/ Prof. Peter Cappelli – Wharton School Press "Meet the Authors" Event
  • Retention is the harder thing.
    "The Future of the Office" w/ Prof. Peter Cappelli – Wharton School Press "Meet the Authors" Event
  • If you're a young person coming into the labor market, go to the office.
    "The Future of the Office" w/ Prof. Peter Cappelli – Wharton School Press "Meet the Authors" Event

Key Moments

  • Meet the Authors00:17
  • Impact of COVID-1901:33
  • Work from Home Experiment03:04
  • Employer Decisions05:05
  • Disparate Impact12:10
  • Retention Issues22:08
  • Young Employees' Advice26:35
  • Transparency Matters27:40

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

Related Episodes

In Praise of the Office: Why Hybrid Work Has Its Limits
October 14, 2025
Captions not detected. You can watch the video, but not search it. If you think this is an error, contact support.
17:07
In Praise of the Office: Why Hybrid Work Has Its Limits
2025 Workplace Trends to Watch: How Work Is Changing
December 31, 2024
Captions not detected. You can watch the video, but not search it. If you think this is an error, contact support.
16:51
2025 Workplace Trends to Watch: How Work Is Changing
Forecasting 2024 Workplace Trends with Wharton Professor Matthew Bidwell
December 29, 2023
Captions not detected. You can watch the video, but not search it. If you think this is an error, contact support.
16:31
Forecasting 2024 Workplace Trends with Wharton Professor Matthew Bidwell
Understanding the Future of Work, Labor Trends, and Organizational Change
August 04, 2025
Captions not detected. You can watch the video, but not search it. If you think this is an error, contact support.
30:51
Understanding the Future of Work, Labor Trends, and Organizational Change
Time Management Hacks for Hybrid Workers | Wharton Professor Michael Parke — Ripple Effect Podcast
January 16, 2024
Captions not detected. You can watch the video, but not search it. If you think this is an error, contact support.
16:47
Time Management Hacks for Hybrid Workers | Wharton Professor Michael Parke — Ripple Effect Podcast
Remote Work: What Are the Pros and Cons? with Wharton's Martine Haas — Ripple Effect Podcast
September 12, 2023
Captions not detected. You can watch the video, but not search it. If you think this is an error, contact support.
20:34
Remote Work: What Are the Pros and Cons? with Wharton's Martine Haas — Ripple Effect Podcast
Hybrid, In-Person, and Remote: The Return to Office with Matthew Bidwell — Ripple Effect Podcast
September 05, 2023
Captions not detected. You can watch the video, but not search it. If you think this is an error, contact support.
18:17
Hybrid, In-Person, and Remote: The Return to Office with Matthew Bidwell — Ripple Effect Podcast
Improve Employee Engagement | Wharton Prof. Peter Cappelli — the Ripple Effect Podcast
July 25, 2023
Captions not detected. You can watch the video, but not search it. If you think this is an error, contact support.
26:22
Improve Employee Engagement | Wharton Prof. Peter Cappelli — the Ripple Effect Podcast
How AI and Rising Costs Are Reshaping Family Roles
May 06, 2026
Captions not detected. You can watch the video, but not search it. If you think this is an error, contact support.
11:57
How AI and Rising Costs Are Reshaping Family Roles
Challenges for Women in the Workplace | Wharton Professor Martine Haas — Ripple Effect Podcast
March 26, 2024
Captions not detected. You can watch the video, but not search it. If you think this is an error, contact support.
17:23
Challenges for Women in the Workplace | Wharton Professor Martine Haas — Ripple Effect Podcast
Why Supporting Employees Holistically Boosts Productivity
May 27, 2025
Captions not detected. You can watch the video, but not search it. If you think this is an error, contact support.
15:41
Why Supporting Employees Holistically Boosts Productivity