21st Century Work Life

Today's episode has three parts (and a half…)
Plus, Eva Rimbau-Gilabert's endorsement of All the World's a Workplace.
The Autonomy Paradox Pilar comments on an article about how autonomy can stop some employees from recovering emotionally and cognitively during their non-work time. The article, shared by Eva Rimbau-Gilabert is "The autonomy paradox: how more freedom at work can leave you feeling powerless" September 8, 2026
https://theconversation.com/the-autonomy-paradox-how-more-freedom-at-work-can-leave-you-feeling-powerless-284398 Earlier research: https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.10.2.0027. Oscar Pérez-Zapata, Amparo Serrano Pascual, Gloria Álvarez-Hernández, and Cecilia Castaño Collado. "Knowledge Work Intensification and Self-Management: The Autonomy Paradox." Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation 10, no. 2 (2016): 27–49. BOOK RECOMMENDATION Under New Management: How Leading Organisations Are Upending Business as Usual by David Burkus

How Hybrid Workplaces can Lead to Structural Relational Deprivation Join Pilar as she extracts the learning points from this article on how hybrid places can lead to structural relational deprivation if not designed with (informal) equality in mind. Structural relational deprivation is when the way work is organised consistently leaves some people with less access to the relationships that provide advice, support, learning and recognition, with consequences for their work or career.
2.5 InterludeEva's endorsement of All the World's a Workplace, which summarises one of Pilar's messages in the book very well! 3. Pilar's Pilates Teaching Learnings Why Pilar opens all her Pilates classes with the same warm-up to stop unexpected events (like the one's that took place last Saturday) from derailing her at the beginning of her class.

In this episode, Pilar shares a different kind of remote-work related story, featuring an unusual (and dark) circumstance showing why it's important for organisations to know when they're employees are actually working, when working from home.
Plus, Jack Nilles' endorsement of All the World's a Workplace, some learning reflections and book recommendations.
Links
Article on remote work: Presunción de accidente de trabajo durante el teletrabajo: La prueba del «tiempo de trabajo» en régimen de flexibilidad cuando la empresa no aporta registro horario. https://adriantodoli.com/2026/09/17/presuncion-de-accidente-de-trabajo-durante-el-teletrabajo-la-prueba-del-tiempo-de-trabajo-en-regimen-de-flexibilidad-cuando-la-empresa-no-aporta-registro-horario-sts-23-4-2026/amp/ Jack Nille's article: https://jacknilles.substack.com/p/taming-the-new-kid-on-the-block Books:
Heaven, My Home: Book 2 (Highway 59 by Attica Locke) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Black Echo by Michael Connelly Lost Boys by James Bloodworth

This episode is part of the All the World's a Workplace Expanded season. Pilar looks at a recently published metastudy, looking at the recent evidence about how working remotely affects job performance in organisations. Plus, personal updates at the end of the episode.
Links: Toward a Better Understanding of Job Performance When Working Remotely: Evidence, Boundaries, and Trade-OffsTammy D. Allen1, Kristen M. Shockley2 and Ryan S. Grant3 Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior Vol. 14 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031325-094513
How Coworking Spaces Impact Employee Well-Being Constance Noonan Hadley, et al. Harvard Business Review February 9, 2023 https://hbr.org/2023/02/research-how-coworking-spaces-impact-employee-well-being
WLP239 Match Your Visible Teamwork to Your Team Task Workflow 18 June 2020 https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/task-interdependence-remote-teams Applications of Visible Teamwork in Remote Teams 16 September 2020 https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/blog/applications-visible-teamwork
Pilates class plan bundle https://payhip.com/b/Ogk2E

When we're looking at hybrid workspaces, the emphasis should not just be on where people are working from, but also on how their communication ecosystem is organised. In this episode, Pilar discusses a recent pre-print on communication repertoires in hybrid office work, exploring how face-to-face and mediated channels relate to formal and informal exchanges between colleagues.
Paper discussed:
Klärner, Kai-David, Sophie-Charlotte Meyer and Anita Tisch (2026). "Communication Repertoires in Hybrid Office Work: Mediated Channels, Face-to-Face Interaction, and Formal and Informal Exchange." SocArXiv preprint. https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/skupm_v1
A communication repertoire is the patterned combination of media people use in their work. The study captures this through employees' reported communication frequency across five modes: email, chat, telephone, video conferencing and face-to-face interaction. The concept shifts attention away from individual channels and towards how the modes are combined, including both overall communication frequency and its distribution across those modes.

A little August episode to celebrate the fact that I (Pilar) have finished the manuscript for All the World's a Workplace!
I realise half-way through the recording that while the work is location agnostic, the people are not. (It took me over a decade to articulate this!)
[0:00] Welcome, and bringing back the show's original tagline [0:39] The book's done, to be published soon: All the World's a Workplace https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/coming-soon [3:30] Why context is everything (and why the book got so long) [5:39] How the book is structured [6:27] "The work is location agnostic. The people are not." [7:57] Office mandates made by people who like the office [9:23] The "reset button" [11:24] Getting clear on what "hybrid" actually means [13:05] Netflix, Reed Hastings and the reversals we never hear about [15:59] Shakespeare, Fakespeare and the dilemmas [18:12] Wrapping up, and what's coming next You can read an article on Netflix's current take on remote here: https://wfa.team/blog/netflix-remote-work-from-anywhere-policy/ (And note that I made a mistake when I quoted the CEO saying that remote work is a pure negative. I said something else!)