Forum Theatre Workshop about Hybrid Working

We really enjoyed delivering our hybrid working forum theatre workshop at the Essex & Ipswich CIPD event.

Massive thank you to everyone who attended and for all the brilliant questions and comments from the audience. As always the audience participation, which is a key element of forum theatre, created powerful learning as we worked through the issues presented.

We built various tensions into the script – problems which will prompt different opinions and provide the basis for a rich discussion.

“Jamal” our junior employee character, who was resistant to returning to the office 4 days a week, had good reasons for wanting to be able to work from home. The backstory seeded into the script had him and his girlfriend living in a 1-bed flat in South East London and enjoying a short commute and a full on social life – until March 2020. Suddenly he was forced to work from home – and make it work and perform well – which he did. But it was stressful and eventually he and his girlfriend decided to move out to Colchester in North Essex where they could afford to buy their first home.

Fast forward to May 2023 they are expecting their first child in a few weeks. Jamal has accepted the return to the office 2 days per week but moving to 4/1 will cause significant financial and work-life balance issues.

Of course there is another perspective……..the senior management in his firm are concerned about performance, about growing the business and want employees engaged, motivated and visible – and think that returning 4/1 will be an improvement.

Our audience honed in on the management style, the lack of notice about the change in hybrid working arrangements and the need for senior managers to make the business case for change rather than sending out directives.

What do you think? Should we be back in the office 4 days a week? Or is that just and outdated model of work?

#CIPD #forumtheatre #hybridworking

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