The Problem with Denying Remote Work in the Name of Fairness

I get to spend much more time with my family. My work finishes at 6 p.m., and I can immediately go home to be with my children. I help them with their homework, and generally have gotten more involved in their education. I have a much clearer idea of where they are further along and where they may be lagging behind.

In the current situation, there is a growing societal consensus over the fact that it's better to conduct business from afar. Meeting online is the new norm. To me, that's already a sign of great progress. Remote work is awesome! (laugh)

Is that really the case though? I don't think it reflects the reality we live in. In my opinion, equality and happiness should be treated separately.

For example, imagine you have an entire cake that you want to split between three people. Equal treatment would mean cutting the cake into three equal parts and giving one part to each person, right?

However, what if when you actually communicate with those three people, you realize that each of their situations and desires are different? For example, person A isn't that hungry, person B is dieting, and person C is starving. In that case which distribution do you think would be the most appropriate?

Failing to respond to individual needs is how you end up watching your employees leave thinking, "Where are you going? We just raised your salary!"

Here at Cybozu, we have people who want to develop our software, people who want to sell it, people who want to promote it; then we also have people who want to run our media and disseminate our company's vision. All of these people are working in their own way, in their own direction, but I think that's a good thing.

For the sake of uniformity, it made sense for the management of those companies to want to bring together many of the same kind of employees.

The current era has spurred forth an unexpected kind of competition: where companies have to respond to ever-changing and diverse needs by developing a wide variety of products in limited quantities. For example, Apple now designs watches, but does that mean we should call them a watchmaker? Or are they a device manufacturer, or a music store, or something else entirely?

In the modern era, where it has become unclear who is competing with whom, the strongest organizations are ones that bring together diverse talents working in different directions, so that they can be flexible when they need to adapt.

For example, at Cybozu we have "clubs," where members who share common interests can come together, talk about their passions, and participate together in club activities. I myself am a member of the pro wrestling club.

Someone from our company shared information about that meeting in the pro wrestling club's conversation thread. I saw it, and the day of that meeting I wore their newest t-shirt and came out to greet them.

The sale was successful! Although I don't really know if my t-shirt had anything to do with that. (laugh)

Organizations are built upon the diversity of individuals. If something is dear to a person's heart, whether it's a hobby or something else, that thing is probably worth sharing.

However, I don't have quite that level of confidence in my own abilities. I've personally made business mistakes, and have done damage to our organizational structure. That's why now, I believe drawing upon the self-interest of our employees is the best path toward success.

In my opinion, it takes a high level of empathy to draw upon a person's self-interest and turn it into a reality.

To make a decision, we thought about whether this person's self-interest--being able to go work at a cafe when it helped them better serve clients--fit into Cybozu's broader vision: building a society brimming with teamwork.

Since their request wasn't out of pure selfishness but actually connected with the company's vision, we decided that the company should at least reimburse the cost of a coffee.

Whether or not the people in charge are effectively communicating the company's vision on a daily basis is bound to be the breaking point for many businesses. Employees will stay at companies that succeed in using their message as a unifying force, and will leave companies that fail.

As I said in that program, attracting top talent was never my intention. I believe an organization is at its strongest when it brings together diverse individuals. In fact, I would be afraid of only hiring people who meet a certain preconception of what it means to be "top talent," because then you end up with a lot of the same kind of employees!

However, in the real world, you don't compete by comparing overall grades. You look for a comparative advantage. A person who is great in sales is not someone to whom you necessarily want to give the tasks of a developer.

I think managers and executives need to be oriented toward the individual, allowing each person in their team to display the utmost of their ability. What's important isn't to treat everyone the same, but to treat everyone in the way that works best for them individually.

That's why I believe we should aim for a system in which everyone can choose the work environment that's right for them. By making remote work more accessible for everyone, it becomes just another option people can choose from when defining their own personal workstyle.