Work Has Left the Building

Once, work meant going somewhere. You packed your bag, travelled to the office, and that was where the magic carpet lifted off.

Now the carpet floats everywhere.

A kitchen table. A co-working café. A midnight video call. Work has slipped out of walls, time zones, and cubicles.

The “Return to Office” push shows how uneasy this shift makes leaders. Yet surveys show fewer than half of employees want to go back full-time. Most want flexibility. They want choice. And they don’t want traffic jams as proof of productivity.

Technology has made this shift possible. Video calls, Slack, AI tools — they stretched the edges of work. But tech isn’t a magic fix. If you slap new tools on old habits, the cracks only widen. A bad meeting on Zoom is still a bad meeting, only more tiring.

This is why leadership has to change. Managing today is not about watching hours. It is about clarifying outcomes. Not about control. About trust. Not about presence. About engagement.

Clay Shirky once said: “Man builds tools. Tools shape the man.” That’s the real challenge. If leaders don’t shift their mindset, technology will only magnify old flaws. If they do, it can open up new ways to work, connect, and thrive.

So where are we now? Somewhere between clouds and spreadsheets. Employees want meaning and freedom. Employers want results and resilience. Technology offers both opportunity and risk.

The winners won’t be the ones forcing a “return to normal.” They’ll be the ones building a better normal — led by managers who grow from taskmasters into trust-builders.

Work has left the building. The question is not how to drag it back. The question is how to fly with it.

The carpet can fly anywhere. It’s the pilot that matters.

#leadership #mindset #change #technology