Lyour feet in the sand and the computer on your knees, or on the bar table facing the beach. Can work, this torture inflicted on Adam and Eve by an angry God, accommodate freedom and leisure? Brian Chesky is convinced of this. The boss of Airbnb sent his 6,000 employees, Thursday evening April 28, an email that could well change their lives.
Convinced that the health crisis is opening a new era in terms of work organization, he proposes that all company employees can work from where they want. From now on, everyone will be able to choose to work at home or in the office, to settle in any place in their country without their salary changing, or anywhere in the world. To compensate for this absolute freedom, one-week meetings will be organized every quarter.
Airbnb is not the only company, especially in the digital sector, to organize itself in this way. She really doesn’t have much choice. The IT guy is a rare commodity, and if he has decided to hold his Zoom meetings from his bungalow in Phuket, Thailand, or on the Ramblas in Barcelona, it will be difficult to dissuade him. All companies in the sector have adapted to this new situation. The Californian firm is all the more sensitive to this since more than 20% of the rentals it organizes are now for more than a month and intended for teleworkers. This is what allowed it to get through the health crisis in much better conditions than traditional hotels.
Brain teaser
Few companies of this size have gone so far in the freedom granted to their employees. “Twenty years ago, companies in Silicon Valley popularized open and welcoming offices, which were then adopted by all companies, assures Brian Chesky. Today, start-ups are converting to remote working and flexibility. This will be the predominant way of working in the next ten years. »
But can we so easily marry the flexibility of remote work and the maintenance of a collective in the company, the cold efficiency of Zoom meetings and the conviviality of morning coffee between colleagues? Choosing your place of residence or stay without constraint can solve many puzzles to find work, save money and reconcile private and professional life.
This development carries the seeds of a profound redefinition of work, of life in society, and the destruction of collective structures, often linked to the company. Leisure is already largely at home, with television, music or sport; public services are dematerialized, even the doctor. And now the office. What will they be replaced by to recreate living together? Freedom is never far from loneliness. And loneliness, discomfort.