Start my presentation. Hi hi, everyone. I hope you are well wherever you're joining. If maybe you can indicate which country you're joining from.I am in Johannesburg in South Africa. So currently, it's 12:21 midday, meaning it's during the day for us. And I would like us to have this conversation that is close to my heart, and it has been part of my research study. And I have titled today's topic as hybrid work and practice, what works, what breaks, and how organization can fix it while protecting employee well-being. If I can check, are you following a hybrid working model in your organization or remote work or you are on-site? You can indicate on the chat so I can have a view of where you are in terms of your organization, and they use all the four following hybrid work.

K. That's interesting. Okay. This hybrid with, Magdalena. Thank you for joining. Alright. Let's start with the conversation. When hybrid work was introduced, we were promised quite a lot of things or a story that was sold to us. It was flexibility, promises of freedom of location. You can work anywhere, anytime, and there is the balanced conversation, which I grapple a lot with. Because in my worldview, there's nothing called a balance. Life calls you to what you you answer to what life calls you the most at that particular time. It might be your work. It might be your family at that particular time. And along the way of life, one gets to have two balls that they have to juggle. It will be a glass ball on one side, a plastic ball, and we consider plastic balls are the ones that can bounce back.

And when you look at glass balls, if it falls, it shatters. Sometimes a glass ball might be work, and at times, glass ball might be your family, your child, your partner, or whosoever is in your care. So in terms of the story that we were sold, and I believe that story is still relevant here and there, whereby we're spoke speaking about hybrid work, which is flexible, meaning you can start your day anytime or you can end it anytime. But, ideally, when you are working in an organization where there's team collaboration, there is that negotiation around what is the definition of flexibility. And when you look about, the freedom of location, it does enable that freedom of location whereby I can be in a holiday or holiday home and still be able to attend to the needs of my work and also be able to attend to my family. But at times, the lines get to be bled because we have this situation whereby you get to do the work and there's no knock off time.

And I believe it's a challenge that most women get to experience whereby you question your ability. If I don't show up or if they call me, if I miss a call, you're now having an anxiety, asking yourself that if I have not responded to that text when they text me, would that indicate that I'm not up to speed or I'm not at work? And, again, I've mentioned the conversation of balanced ideal whereby I lean towards work life harmony or work life integration whereby you are doing a school pickups. Maybe you are dropping your kids in the morning. You come back. You finish up your meetings, or you would have started at seven in the morning trying to catch up on administration. And what works in hybrid working? One, there is the access without limits.

If you look in today's world, we are having this conversation connecting from different side or different parts of the world, which is also a promise that we have with hybrid work or remote work. There are people that are based in South Africa working in The UK. There are people in The UK maybe connecting to Canada or connecting to any part of the world. So there is that opportunity where, especially in tech, we are able to tap into opportunities that were previously not available to us because of geo geography. However, at this point, one can tap into that space. And there's also the blend blended work experience where at times you come you combine in person, you also do hybrid work.

That is the model that I'm also following in my organization whereby when we need to collaborate or have a Teams meeting, meaning as a as a unit to just connect again, we do have the face to face meetings. But most of the time, we're working online. So there is that flexibility. Because at times, if you stay away from maybe your colleagues, there's that also opportunity of isolation. And if you have joined an organization, maybe as the first person there, you would not know who are your team members or connect with them. So I lean towards the the breed where there is the part of or working from home, and also they are part of or an opportunity to be in the office. And, also, I look at, enhancing performance, in terms of how we get to do our work as I've made the analogy of a parent who's able to maybe start their day at six. While the kids are getting ready, you can do some administrative work maybe from six until seven. And then you take your kids to school. You come back. You continue.

There again, during the day, you go and pick them up, and you're still able to continue to work. For me, I have seen it or experienced it as it actually increases my performance because I don't spend time in traffic. I don't spend time getting into the office, coffee, someone knocking at my door, and then we're having a conversation. Yes. There is a need for that human collaboration or human connection. However, I've seen that I do quite a lot more when I'm working from home than when I'm working in the office. And the question is, what actually break? Or what are the challenges that we normally observe when it comes to hybrid work? One of them is communication, gaps.

The situation whereby now you are missing out on certain conversation. Conversation are happening in fragment fragmented spaces. Maybe those that had, a one on one, they're able to communicate. And then when there is fragmentation in terms of our communication, that leads to misalignment, and it also leads to delays in decision making because there's reduced clarity across team. One has the old information. The other doesn't have the latest information. And, also, the issue of visibility inequality. The reality is when your work is not visible or you're not visible, there is that saying out of sight, out of mind. There is that potential of you becoming invisible in your organization when you are unavailable or you are you are not present physically. So there is that slight of a challenge whereby one now has to work that extra mile to ensure that you do not disappear into the system whereby you when you are now invisible, you are also invisible in terms of opportunity recognition as well as inclusion in key decision.

And one thing that I've also, shared with most of the women or colleagues who say, your work should present you and also make sure that you are visible. Let let make sure that someone knows you have an idea. If it's a meeting, have an input. It doesn't mean that just because the meeting is online, now you cannot have that engagement or have your voice heard, but make that extra effort unlike when we are in presence in offices. However, you can still be in the office and still be invisible if your work is not known. And there's also that, possibility of disconnected in culture. Without internal effort, organizational culture does weaken. And a person can ask, what is it? What is it in an organizational culture? And I believe as leaders, we shape the culture that we want to see in our teams, the the culture that we want to see in our organization.

In as much as I might be working in a hybrid setup or, I'm working most of the time at home, I still have the duty as a manager to bring the team together, and that is the culture that we can be able to, to build and sustain. And the reality of always on, I've started with this one where there are blurred boundaries, where when does work start, and when does it end? Does it end when we knock off in South African times? We knock off at half past four. We start at eight. But now there will be a text that comes at five, half past five, at seven, at eight. When do we switch off? And, also, the nature of our job, I can imagine people that are working in cybersecurity or they're working in network. If one of our systems are down, you are now having to get up and be on.

But there is that also that expanded expectation that somehow just because you are not caught in traffic, you have to be available endlessly. And that always come at the cost of our own boundaries. It might be your family time. It might be yourself. It might be other things that requires your presence. Now you have to go to your child's play, and you are watching them. And the next thing, there's a text that is coming in. Now you're thinking, should I ignore the phone? Your child is looking at you for recognition. They are performing. They are waiting for your note. You intentionally on your phone, you're trying to you now split it. You are present physically in your child's life at that moment, but you are emotionally taken away. And, also, the digital overload. And I'll bet a dollar for someone that says, I don't have a lot of meetings. My day is flowing.

I would really love to meet you and have coffee with you. We have back to back meetings whereby constantly you are on. You are doing something. There's constant notification. And at times, it end up creating cognitive fatigue and reduce the ability to focus deeply because you're jumping from one meeting to the other. And it doesn't mean that after the meeting, it's all done. You still have to go back and do your actual work. There are some mechanisms that I have deployed and used in my space where I have used, the, blocking time in my calendar just to ensure that the speed of some time for me to work. And, also, the extended workdays whereby you find yourself working long hours, and you also sometimes you fall into the weekend. So those are the challenges that are normally being experienced.

So when we're designing spaces, workspace, modern workspaces, we should keep that in mind because our wellness come at a priority. And if we are not investing in our wellness, that will lead into getting our self burnout. That is one thing that has been highlighted a lot in terms of burnout, in terms of digital fatigue. Well-being is a strategic enabler for you to perform. When you're not well, there's nothing that you can do. We can have all the tools. We can have all the processes. The technology will be there. If the human being is not there, it's it's pointless. So we really need to invest in ourselves and equally invest in our teams to ensure that we integrate well-being approaches.

How about we say we don't have a, we have a no meeting day like Friday. You don't we don't have any meetings so that people are able to catch up and are able to just take a breather and prepare for the next week. How about one of the Fridays, you let the team go maybe at twelve depending on the nature of your organization, but give a bit of some room for people to breathe because when they are not breathing, they end up choking on themselves because it's too much. Burnout is real. And if we are not having those initiatives that take care of the well-being, then we're going to lose our most valuable tools, which are people. And we also need to be empathetic leaders, something that is always mentioned and and and and I quote most of the time. However, in practice, we don't even do it. We have to try. It start with us being empathetic to our teams.

We understand the pressures that we all have, but let's find ways on how to bring them together, how do we communicate the expectation, and also let's give realistic turnaround time. Because at times, you ask yourself, how am I supposed to do all the five things when I'm the only person? And the reality with us women in tech is that the invisible labor, I've already mentioned it in terms of you are you are actually doing dual jobs whereby you are a caregiver, you are a mother, you are a wife, all those roles requires you. And some of us have taken that opportunity to even study. So meaning your attention is splitted. And, also, the reality about us is reduced visibility. You take time away for four months or six months on your maternity leave. When you come back, things have moved. And the unequal experience, we do not experience hybrid work the same way. Our responsibility is to make sure we try to equalize the playing field for everyone.

And how are we designing our hybrid work? We have to be intentional. Make sure that this digital first collaboration let's check. Do we really need to do this thing face to face? If not, it should be done online. Not everything should be say, bring people in the office for no reason because they end up spending time doing nothing the whole day, the day they are supposed to be in the office. By the time they get to home, they now have to catch up. How are we making sure that people are delivering and they're productive and there's still that social engagement? Let's have one wellness day where we come together, we close our laptops, and we just check-in with self.

There's a old song by the temptation that I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me. When do we get to be to ourself? When do we get to check-in with ourself? Am I okay? Is my team okay? Because before you can pour into someone else's cup, cliche as it might sound, your cup should already be full. We are expected as leaders to support our team, but if we have not supported ourself first. So before you can literally put a mask on someone else, you have to make sure that your mask is okay. And with leadership in hybrid, we should move away from presence to trust. Let's learn to trust our team. Yes.

Trust is earned, but let's extend the olive branch first to ensure that our teams trust us. Also, empathy and awareness. Let's also be empathetic to our teams. They are diverse, different ages, different socioeconomic challenges or socioeconomic standing, different upbringing, we have to find a way to work together. And clarity and communication. If we communicate with clarity, it will eliminate some of the challenges that get to be experienced. And what will be the next step for organization is to continuously have a learning culture where we are intentional about hybrid. How do we design it? And we treat well-being as a strategic priority, not as a tick box whereby we can say, oh, this team has done a a wellness day, but did that wellness yield any result? Was there anything positive that came out of it? So let us be, be intentional about ensuring that wellness is embedded in our plans.

When we are planning our strategy, there should be an item that speaks to people development. There should be an item that speak to people's well-being. And the quotes that I wanna summarize the conversation with is hybrid work is not just a policy. It is a promise. And the question is, are we keeping that promise? Are we honest to ourself? And it's take me to the end of our conversation. I'm only left with about two minutes. If there are any questions or points that you want to raise, you can do so. On the screen, I have on top my LinkedIn bio. You can connect to me with me via my LinkedIn. And below that is my website on the work that I also do on the side because I'm literally juggling quite a number of ball balls. I'm a PhD candidate.

I just submitted my research about two weeks ago. If at least that has been pushed away. Secondly, I have a day job. At night, I get to work at a university hostel, so I get to interact with student, and I also get to have my consulting company on the side. Thank you so much for being part of the session. It was great conversating with you, and I believe we'll be able to communicate and connect. It was just something that I love doing. I enjoy having such conversation because this speaks to the work that I do. So as you still continue enjoying other session, I hope and believe you're going to be uplifted. You'll be motivated. You will be inspired. In as much as we are living in challenging time, a lot of things that are happening in our lives, However, we're gonna find that sunshine.

We're gonna find that smile. We're going to go there and conquer the world. We are women. We are capable. We are powerful. We can do it all, but not at the same time. Thank you so much. Have a blessed or morning depending on where you are joining. I