Phygital workplaces

I have recently been thinking again about the nature of workplaces – this has been triggered, in part, by some staff survey results and related activity in the day job.

Discussing the topic with colleagues has brought me back to various previous activities over the last ~15 years whilst at the same time trying to be conscious that there are new(er) ways of tackling some of the issues too.

One of the more interesting reads I have found at the same time is a recent article (from Journal of Workplace Learning 36:9):

Digital environments as sites for informal workplace learning in knowledge work
the article is, at least for now, freely available via the above link.

This considers the workplace under study, in the research, as “phygital”. I probably have heard of phygital before without really acknowledging it, however, it seems to be primarily a marketing term so is perhaps not universally known? It also probably does not help that it’s not very easy to write/say until someone explains it is a portmanteau of physical and digital (as kindly demonstrated by this cricket team):

What I quite like in thinking about p/Phygital is that it represents that many knowledge/office workplaces are now hybrid daily. Gone are the days where my work from home days would be to plough through certain tasks – now its more the norm and you are expected to be available on Teams, email, etc. as needed. Therefore, as many orgs are now allowing people to spend more time at home how do we increase the digital workplace to create a more “joined up” experience with the physical office/workplace?

I would imagine the findings of the article will sound fairly familiar to many people:

Digital technology extended learning opportunities by providing flexible possibilities for interaction, collaboration and access to a wealth of information. On the contrary, digitally mediated presence could restrict learning if the attendance and learning remained superficial. The complexity and constant change in digital workplace environments presented challenges that could potentially restrict learning. Information overload, constant interruptions and changes were burdens that required employees’ skills to manage these challenges.

The “superficial” point is particularly interesting to me. I recently passed four years with my current organization and this time has flied by in many ways – covid, working from home a lot, a relatively pain-free commute when I do go to the office, relatively little travel for work (compared to some past roles) and other elements have perhaps all contributed to this. However, this has triggered me to consider if, even with all 4 years, this has led to a more superficial experience than previous roles. My conclusion on this is that whilst the work has not necessarily been as superficial the relationships perhaps are – however, I am also very conscious there is a risk of “rose tinted glasses” in reflecting on past experiences. For example, I can certainly say I was superficially involved in work in the past when, for example, I was forced into a regular commute by an office change that made me want to leave that job at the time.

Another key element, for me, from the article relates to the social:

social environments, where people interact, collaborate and relate to each other, are formed not only in physical but also in digital work environments

and I would say that this is an area that we hear a lot about. Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs) did not live up to the hype a while back, even the Wikipedia page focuses on lack of adoption. However, there remains the question of how to maintain social relationships virtually – the article identifies some important elements such as “informal meetings”. If we consider the success of, say, Twitch which has been compared to having people in your living room – does the Phygital workplace need a variety of social channels for different work, and non-work, related topics? Or, as the article puts it, “constantly open lines”. This trade-off between social engagement and not interrupting deep work seems to be the remained challenge for the Phygital environment.