Microsoft is launching a new marketing campaign for Office 365 that celebrates working during your kid’s recitals, on vacation, and while enjoying the appetizer at a restaurant. All this under the guise of “balance” between work and life. Yes, it’s horrible.
Remote work is still stifled by managers who think that it’ll lead to employees goofing off, but we’re not making any progress if they switch to Microsoft’s pitch for getting to all those TPS reports from the bathroom. In fact, we’ll be worse off. Much worse.
Remote work is not about working more hours in more places. It’s not about invading every crevasse of your life and stuffing it full of work, work, work. Au contraire, mon ami. It’s about spending the hours of work more productively, and then having more time free from its tentacles.
Good ideas are co-opted and perverted all the time. Remote work is not just a good idea, but a great one. For shame on Microsoft for cheerleading its most dystopian corruption. (And no, I don’t fucking want to edit that Excel spreadsheet during happy hour.)
Don Schenck
on 15 Nov 13BINGO!
When I shut it down, I SHUT IT DOWN. I’m off to work on my slot cars or go surfing or lift weights or cook or … anything but work.
I do not have my work email on my phone; there’s a reason for that.
Russ
on 15 Nov 13And then one day your kid (or grandkid) comes from school and tells you about this interesting lesson they had today. The teacher told that it’s so amazing that people can work 24/7 nowadays, with all this technology we have. And that it’s exactly how a “good” person should live the life. This is not a piece of novel by Orwell or Huxley, this is the future written by Microsoft. Because the more of those “office zombies” are walking around, the bigger is Microsoft’s revenue.
Jonathan Sampson
on 15 Nov 13I think you missed the point of this publication.
The first line starts with “Survey finds that…” – this is descriptive of what feedback and independent researcher collected upon interacting with “1,000 employed adults age 18 and up.” This is not Microsoft celebrating, or prescribing anything.
Each cell in the infographic also communicated this with “44% have worked,” and “27% have worked,” and “20% have worked.” This is telling us what people have reported, not what Microsoft is demanding.
Yes, it’s sad that “20% of parents said they have worked at a child’s event or activity,” but I would much rather be empowered to do so remotely than to miss my child’s event altogether. As a father, and a busy individual, this is at times unavoidable.
Additionally, no discussion was made as to the quality of work, or quantity, in these various scenarios. “Work” may be nothing more than approving a few expenses, making a single change to an SOW, or monitoring the health of a remote server. I’d like to be able to do that from anywhere, at any time, personally.
Lastly, I’m not sure how you connected this report to Microsoft somehow wishing to stifle remote work. In fact, the whole campaign is demonstrating how Microsoft’s services help you to be more productive outside of the office.
I can see how this infographic could be confusing to somebody that didn’t read the surrounding findings, and skimmed over the informational copy in the cells themselves. Perhaps Microsoft should have considered that more carefully.
Respectfully,
Jonathan Sampson Remote Worker (not for Microsoft)
Eliot
on 15 Nov 13My favourite is the image of the worker passed out in bed with a tablet still in hand. Good God, what a terrible ad campaign.
WanderedIn
on 15 Nov 13To quote some /.er… “The first time a manager hands me some test documentation to read in the can, will be the second time I hand a manager a poop wrapped in a test document.”
It’s fairly common to point out “plenty of people already do X” as a tactic in convincing someone to do X, and I don’t think it’s out of line to read that intent into an ad that tells you to work through dinner.
Dampé
on 15 Nov 13I personally enjoy being able to do both. Working on ‘my time’ is very much more productive than working on a fixed time schedule. However, it’s also extremely productive for me to be able to work on-demand in any location. If I can accomplish a necessary task immediately in five to ten minutes while my kid is sitting on the bench then I’ve helped myself a great deal in many situations.
Hal Helms
on 15 Nov 13Not only is their vision an inhuman one, it’s an unproductive one. Working while… is another name for multi-tasking. Have we not learned yet that all the promises of multi-tasking improving productivity is one big lie?
Adam
on 15 Nov 13That X% of people report doing a thing isn’t a reason to do it. There are plenty of places/demographics where 20-40% of people smoke, drink to excess, or get in fights for fun.
I’m not interested in carting work around in my entire life. If that’s what remote working winds up meaning I’d prefer 9-5 in a cubicle.
I think the capabilities advertised here are fantastic. I would like to be able to do a small bit of work quickly and get back to what I was doing. That said, the message is terrible. Few managers are capable of resisting the temptation to force work on their employees at all hours this way.
sub-sinker
on 15 Nov 13Perhaps this is why kids are shooting each other at schools. Parents are busy working at home, the soccer game, dinner, etc… Nobodys paying attention to the stuff that really matters. Western society needs to have a wake up call.
John
on 15 Nov 13Well, on my side and as a workaholic by my own choice, I think this a good feature to have.
In fact I prefer to reply my emails at bed than in the office, but these are my tastes.
Sam Blake
on 15 Nov 13Ironically, when I worked at Microsoft as a salaried engineer I had excellent work/life balance; I worked 7:30–4:30 and was never expected to do otherwise. My team was even pretty accommodating about the occasional day working from home.
APC
on 15 Nov 13Every job position that can be done from home, should be done from home. It really is that simple.
When Yahoo made the decision to recall its home-based workers it made a big mistake and gave working from home a black-eye. Yahoo cited their reason was ‘lack of coordination and productivity’.
If work-from-home jobs are properly managed they can provide more productivity and greater job satisfaction. Not to mention is is better for those with families.
Anand Rajaram
on 15 Nov 13This, ironically, is the opposite of what Windows Phone ads preached when they came out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdpQir1sqiQ
PJsaurus
on 15 Nov 13Couldn’t agree more, David.
I live in France, and remote work is far from being well accepted and well seen here. It would be a shame if it begins to become popular in such a fashion.
We need to disconnect from work. I am already fighting against colleagues who take their laptop home for no good reason and continue to reply to less than important emails on week-ends or even on vacation. We don’t need someone to tell us “work anywhere you can, anytime you can”.
I don’t think this is good for the company too: who thinks we can produce good quality work by working overtime, sporadically, here and there, while having a nice evening at the restaurant?
I hope that the well-known french ability to rant and refuse certain things will help to keep us from the vision Microsoft promotes through this campaign.
@sub-sinker: I just finished reading Animal Farm by the great George Orwell, and it has been kind of a wake up call to me (even if I consider I was already quite aware of this, relatively speaking). We usually don’t even notice it, but we have been promised a better life through work, work, and more work. But in the end, can we really say that we are better off in this kind of society?
@Arnand: This is also a major characteristic of our society. We have bad long-term memory. One day we are promised something, the next one the opposite, and it doesn’t seem to really bother anybody.
Jerry
on 15 Nov 13@37signals
Your blog post is blatant spamming.
Microsofts is not targeting “remote working” in their ads.
Their are educating an audience that their products are ‘easily accessible for multiple locations’. Huge difference.
I use to love you guys, and I’m certainly not a Microsoft advocate, but this is just a blatant attempt for you to pimp your book and new job boards web site.
EH
on 15 Nov 13“It’s fairly common to point out “plenty of people already do X” as a tactic in convincing someone to do X”
I wouldn’t call “20%” a good basis for an ad campaign to convince more people to do it. Based on my local current anti-smoking commercials, 20% of people still die from tobacco related causes, so why isn’t Microsoft saying, “Only 20% of people work while at their kid’s event…why do it at all?” Because that would involve Microsoft being confident that their tools are the best at getting the job done, that make it so you get so much done during your work time that you are able to focus on other things in your life. But they can’t do that, because they don’t make good enough tools.
Kurt
on 15 Nov 13If this ad were created by Apple, your blog would be “What a wonderful array of options and forward thinking from a creative company.”
That’s exactly what it says – you have OPTIONS. If you have to reply to an email but also have a conflict with your child’s football game, why not be able to do both? For those unable to cross-partition their lives between work and play, fine – don’t use it. For those of us who sometimes work from anywhere and sometimes goof off at the office, this fits our lifestyle just fine.
Maybe it’s a young vs. old thing…
James
on 15 Nov 13Hi David,
I think it’s all a good idea. Infact, 99% of Nigerians if given the privilege would accept this wholeheartedly.
In Nigeria, this sort of thing is rare, so if it comes up, it will be accepted. I wish this sort of working culture should be extended to Africa. As for me, it will give me ample time to continue enjoy my blogging consulting practice.
James
on 15 Nov 13@Jonathan: I think you’ve missed the point in this blog post.
Just because we can carry our work around with us 24/7 doesn’t mean we should be expected to. As David writes “remote work is not about working more hours in more places.”
You shouldn’t have to choose the between getting your work done and spending time with your family – what is so urgent that it needs to be done on a Saturday morning, or whenever your kid’s soccer game is?
@Adam: GREAT point.
I’d go so far as to argue that when these figures are in the minority, they might not even point towards a significant trend.
If 20% of parents are answering work emails at their kid’s recital, it means that 80% of them aren’t. If we’re going to blindly follow the demographics, shouldn’t we be focusing on the 4/5 of parents who don’t allow their work into their home lives?
Matt Boyd
on 15 Nov 13Well said. Definitely a breath of fresh air here.
Des
on 16 Nov 13What a great attempt to create an argument where none exists, this is sure to sell more copies of rework.
Ain’t nobody got time for that!
Rob
on 16 Nov 13@Jonathan, you say “This is not Microsoft celebrating, or prescribing anything.”....and yet, look at what they say right next to the statistics they quote: “get work done while enjoying that happy hour appetizer” etc. Of course they are celebrating it. I can’t see how you can look at it and say otherwise.
Very disturbing to me. Even more disturbing is that if you do a search on “getitdone” you’ll see a zillion blogs reporting positively on it, because Microsoft paid them to.
Melanie Reed
on 16 Nov 13The issue is you have accepted long ago the change from the family being the central locus of decision making power in society to the Corporation being the central locus of decision making and morality which conveniently suits their goals and agenda…not the family’s. And if you think you can work at your kid’s recital and really pay attention, you must have missed the age old and rueful joke of the man buried behind the newspaper with his wife neglected. My friend, I don’t care how busy you think you have to be to think you are a “good and moral person” but our society has gone out of control with extramarital affairs and busted families and marriages because of this dystopian attitude about work. There isn’t enough room to post the articles and I certainly don’t have access to all the court documents of granted divorces. Wake up! And take back what belongs to you from the majority corporations who frankly have been sending a very loud and clear message: having employees with families is a pain unless they follow our model, our conditioned model of what a family looks like and acts like.
Vicki
on 17 Nov 13@Jonathan Sampson – at no point did DHH attempt to “connect this report to Microsoft somehow wishing to stifle remote work”. Microsoft (as an app developer) obviously appreciates that people use their tools to work remotely. The managers he cited are at companies such as Yahoo!, Best Buy, and HP.
@Jerry – blogs are not spam. You come here voluntarily to read. If you don’t agree with the philosophy, read something else. The remote work philosophy (of Jason, DHH, 37 Signals, and others) wasn’t created to sell books. The book was written to help spread the philosophy. There’s a huge difference.
@DHH – thanks for writing these.
Greg
on 17 Nov 13This is sick. This is everything that is wrong with American society rolled into 1 neat propaganda-graphic.
If this is what business will demand from us, I’m buying land and farming for sustenance.
Nagesh
on 18 Nov 13For some years now I have been advocating the need to work remotely and tell people that the OFFICE in its present form is OBSOLETE.. But no one listens. I hope your book clears the many cobwebs in many of our heads !!
Craig
on 18 Nov 13Funny.
Today was the day I work half day in the office then work 2 hours at my kids sport, it’s great. From my perspective, you’re mistaken.
Mark
on 18 Nov 13Who wants to do business with a guy who watches ghost kids play soccer? That’s just creepy.
Andrew
on 18 Nov 13You don’t like Microsoft. We get it. I’ll send some PreparationH to the office for that butt-hurt. And I have time to do that during the day, because I work from home.
TJ
on 18 Nov 13Microsoft’s add campaign is horrible! It’s sad that some people still think this way.
Tigran
on 19 Nov 13Completely wrong point. These are amazing tools that HELPS me work NOT FROM OFFICE, when I WANT IT. Don’t blame Microsoft, following modern trend, but blame MANAGERS that force you stay late night at offices. Microsoft is software production company and it PRODUCES SOFTWARE for making our (developers and not only) life easy. This is the same like blame knife manufacturer for murdering people. Knife can be used to cut a bread, make a surgery and mass killing. It’s YOUR choice how to use it. In addition just read absolutely clever post from Scott Hanselmann http://www.hanselman.com/blog/WorkingRemotelyConsideredDystopian.aspx .
DReed
on 19 Nov 13Just curious here… was the art work/etc for this ad campaign released with a CC license that allows 37Signals to reuse it to promote the book? I was just wondering given all the “creative license” that has been called out (rightfully so) by 37Signals in the past for landing page designs & A/B testing.
Mark Martin
on 19 Nov 13I am very happy to have a telecommute job as an IT/web project manager for a large corporation, very thankful that my department’s management was sufficient forward-thinking to see the value in retaining me after I moved cross-country.
That said, I would be a damned site less happy if I didn’t have the basic common sense to log out at the end of the day. Since I’m a PM, I do sometimes check my email again after dinner… and flag something for follow up first thing in the morning. You work to live, not the other way around—screw Microsoft anyway.
Chrystie
on 22 Nov 13oyevey…yes let’s perpetuate the idea that people who telecommute work around playing with their children and hanging out with friends rather than what we really do…WORK! This is why so many companies and managers don’t want to have people work remotely and it perpetuates a FALSE idea of what we really do that is my biggest pet peeve!
This discussion is closed.