Asia Tech Podcast – Episode 122 – Rosalind Quek – GM Modern Work, Asia at Microsoft – Empowering People with Extreme Flexibility

The Asia Tech Podcast hosted Rosalind Quek, the GM of Modern Work, Asia at Microsoft.  Rosalind and I had an insightful and wide-ranging conversation.  We took a detailed look at Microsoft’s ‘Work Trend Index’ and a report entitled, “The Next Great Disruption is Hybrid Work – Are We Ready?“

Some of the topics we covered included:

• 2020 was a year like no other and had a profound impact on the way people work
• Hybrid Work – What it is, what it means, and why it is not going away
• How Hybrid Work has fundamentally changed the talent landscape and the idea of what an office should look like and provide
• What are some of the emotional and mental challenges faced by employees as a result of remote work?
• How employee expectations have evolved due to flexible work
• How, in many cases, employees feel much more productive in hybrid work environments
• Have different generations reacted and adapted differently to this new and developing environment?
• How remote work has changed the way employees interact?  What drives new, serendipitous meetings?
• Has remote work shrunk employees’ networks and what is the impact on collaboration?
• Has a new authenticity emerged between colleagues and is this important?
• What is the ‘Democratization of Opportunity”?
• What are the recommendations that can be given to business leaders as this new work environment continues to evolve?