By Tony Samson
THE system that allows for working outside the office is able to keep everyone in the loop, even when they’re out of town. The chat groups are not turned off for vacations. They continue in their different clusters and work groups, which sometimes include clients.
So, is the one on vacation still in the loop? Not really.
Even with the “always on” digital environment which can be accessed while you’re out of the country, you are no longer in the decision-making loop or wield any influence over what is going on. (Informal coffee, meetings in the corridor, and canteen lunches are not accessible in real time.)
Urgent moves are made in your absence without your self-serving inputs, no matter how exalted your title is. (We didn’t think it was important enough for us to disturb your Alaska cruise when deciding on your successor.) Rounds of congratulations on pitches won and principals thanked are spectacles on stage with you in the audience, in the nose-bleed section. (They can’t hear you.) Refrain from joining the ticker-tape parade — where’s the victory party? Lurkers are not invited.
What do you do when you’re out of the loop?
Stay out. So, there is a takeover of your company? You cannot really avert disaster by abruptly rebooking your ticket to come home a week earlier, which is anyway costly and difficult to pull off. It only signals despair. It’s best to come back as scheduled.
Corporate reversals of fortune are like medical diagnoses. By the time they’re painful, they are already in stage four and impervious to cures. Anyway, they may have sorted themselves out by the time of your arrival as scheduled. Sticking to your schedule shows that you are not a panicky person. If indeed you have reason to panic, why rush? An anxiety attack is definitely a postponable luxury.
Distance provides perspective. There’s a new management? The previous head is out on an official trip in Paris and declares he is stepping down, and wants more family time… starting 15 minutes ago. Power shifts in the new team are still developing. Not being there while live bullets are zinging away offers you a glimpse of the action with the sound on mute. This allows some context and the proper perspective — it’s not always about you. Although sometimes it is.
Your name may not even figure in the word wars. You are presumed to be unavailable and like a teleserye that can go on with one character out for a few episodes (he is down with dengue) the plot moves on with the remaining actors. The absent role is put on hold, eventually popping back into the story, free from blame for the feud that exploded a few segments back.
Stay with the big picture. Messaging different people in the office for details reminds them that you are not where you are supposed to be, bothering them when they are trying to save their own jobs. Just wait for chats and posts, even if these carry the bias of the reporters and often offer stale news. This is preferable to playing detective by interviewing witnesses digitally, and getting a fragmented picture of what’s happening, turning into a long-distance pest.
Political and corporate changes happen when a leader is out of the country. Plotters like to do their nasty things when the target of regime change (or succession planning) is out and cannot defend himself or call on his loyal troops. It’s even convenient to justify any residue of betrayal — well, he was not here in the time of crisis. By the time he returns, everyone has become a turncoat anyway.
Still, a leader who shuns the head office for its suffocating accessibility can opt to occasionally move operations to distant parts outside the capital. There, he can be more himself and get away with unscripted silences or pronouncements, with a smaller coterie. He is then truly never out of the loop. He brings it along wherever he happens to be, requiring favor-seekers to follow where he is at the moment, with photo ops for the news.
It’s not clear in these cases when work and vacation overlap. So, the unavailable one is never really absent… or present.
Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda.
