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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that if you are going to go into

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Speaker 1: the office, make it worth the commute. Use your in

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Speaker 1: office time for relationship building and collaboration. You don't want

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Speaker 1: to spend time and energy getting somewhere just to email

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Speaker 1: and call people in other places, because you can do

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Speaker 1: that from home. So a few years post pandemic, lots

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Speaker 1: more information workers are working from home at least occasionally.

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Speaker 1: I think this is great. It is often way more efficient.

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Speaker 1: Of course, some sorts of work are more efficient to

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Speaker 1: do in person, So as organizations are figuring out the

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Speaker 1: mix of in office and remote work, I hear from

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Speaker 1: a lot of people who have hybrid schedules. They want

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Speaker 1: guidance on how to make the most of their in

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Speaker 1: office days. On a recent episode of my other podcast,

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Speaker 1: Best of Both Worlds, my co host Sarah Hartunger and

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Speaker 1: I discussed getting a hybrid schedule. Rite Sarah's advice for

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Speaker 1: if you are in the office, make it worth the commute.

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Speaker 1: I love this framing because it's about matching the right

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Speaker 1: work to the right place, collaborating to come up with

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Speaker 1: ideas is definitely best on in person. I know Sarah

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Speaker 1: and I generate more and better podcast ideas when we

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Speaker 1: meet up. We've probably all been on awkward zoom calls

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Speaker 1: where no one is offering any ideas and the team

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Speaker 1: just can't seem to generate momentum. Then there are the

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Speaker 1: times when people inadvertently interrupt each other because it's hard

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Speaker 1: to tell when someone is starting to speak on calls

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Speaker 1: when there is some engagement, there's sometimes the parallel conversation issue,

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Speaker 1: when one conversation is taking place out loud and another

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Speaker 1: in the chat. Zoom calls are not the best forum

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Speaker 1: for developing plans and getting everybody invested in them, so

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Speaker 1: when possible, schedule collaboration for in office days. It is

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Speaker 1: much easier to connect with each other and develop excitement

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Speaker 1: about working together when you are in fact together. You

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Speaker 1: can also make in office days worth your commute by

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Speaker 1: prioritizing important one on one conversations. If you need to

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Speaker 1: have a difficult conversation with a colleague, do it in

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Speaker 1: person if possible. It is much easier to make sure

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Speaker 1: you are understanding each other when you are in the

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Speaker 1: same room. When you're just getting to know a new colleague,

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Speaker 1: or or working with someone on a technical or complicated topic.

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Speaker 1: In person conversations can be valuable too. Office days also

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Speaker 1: create opportunities for relationship building. Spending intentional time with your

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Speaker 1: coworkers is a great way to make the most of

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Speaker 1: your commute. Schedule lunch or coffee with a colleague on

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Speaker 1: in office days whenever you can. You could even create

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Speaker 1: a recurring calendar event for lunch with colleague on every

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Speaker 1: in office day. That way, you're less likely to have

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Speaker 1: meetings scheduled midday. Don't think of these coffees and longer

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Speaker 1: lunches as a waste of time. Honestly, your in office

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Speaker 1: days should be mostly social because you can do basic

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Speaker 1: status meetings by zoom. You can also do a lot

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Speaker 1: of the basic work of emailing and calling people and

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Speaker 1: in individual planning and much individual deliverable work. At home

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Speaker 1: offices can be very distracting places. When I need to

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Speaker 1: get something done, it is almost impossible if someone is

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Speaker 1: talking loudly next to me. That is unlikely to happen

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Speaker 1: in your home office. I think it's too bad that

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Speaker 1: some organizations are calling for five days a week in

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Speaker 1: the office. There is definitely some work that is best

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Speaker 1: done in person, but five days a week is overkill

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Speaker 1: for a lot of information jobs. I am sad that

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Speaker 1: people are wasting time and wasting gas commuting when they

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Speaker 1: are just on zooms with teams and other places. When

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Speaker 1: people are commuting, the work should be worth the commute.

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Speaker 1: If you have some say over how you do your

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Speaker 1: work and where you do your work, make sure that

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Speaker 1: is how you're setting it up. In the meantime, this

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Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the

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Speaker 1: most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

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Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.