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Mayer v Branson: The Work From Home War

gyro

May it please the Court. We enjoin the case of Mayer v Branson, in which Defendant Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo stands accused of egregious anachronism (i.e., like, seriously living in the past) by Plaintiff Richard Branson, CEO, Virgin, for her having mandated that Yahoo employees no longer work from home. We testify on behalf of the Plaintiff.

Work has changed—and people at work have changed profoundly.

The connectedness of modern life sees no boundaries between work and home; it's all part of the work-life continuum. People can be as leaned forward and as actively engaged as they need to be --- wherever they happen to be.

Being at work is a state of mind; no longer a place or even a fixed period of the day.

The Internet, mobile telecom, social networking and a 24/7 global economy have eliminated the boundaries of time and space that once defined the workplace. Technology has caused work to expand to longer hours of the day and has attached work to people wherever they are.

As Exhibit A, we enter as evidence "The @ Work State of Mind: Engaging the Most Engaged", a collaboration between Forbes Insights and gyro.

Productivity-enhancing technology has not served to increase the amount of leisure time we enjoy—quite the contrary. It's caused work to spill over its banks, flooding more hours of the day and more days of the week—curiously, as a matter of people's own behavior and choices.

Work goes home. Home goes to work. People are constantly toggling between working and "home-ing," making decisions, personal and professional, at all hours of the day. They master time, rather than the other way around.

People in an at work state of mind today are exposed to a constant, multi-point flow of communications from not just customers, suppliers and co-workers, but also from family, friends, would-be friends and network members. They are not only engaged in considering brand messages while at work, but also championing them to their social networks.

People in the at work state of mind represent a powerful theater for brand communications; perhaps the most powerful. They exert double purchasing power on both their own needs and those of their companies.

Their eyes are on screens: small, medium and large.

They are already in engagement mode.

They are considering solutions carefully.

They are making decisions.

And this at work state of mind is a shared state of mind. People today are connected to and communicating with others in the same state of mind. This makes them a switching station of enthusiasm and endorsement channeled toward decision-makers and influencers, immediately.

Mining opportunity from the rich vein of the at work state of mind requires new methods and models. The model must be much more real time, agile and even uncontrolled.

It is an approach that must be anchored in anthropology and behavioral science, relying more heavily than ever on understanding human-scale motives and at striking responsive chords of emotion—particularly if people are to be compelled to act and advocate spontaneously on a brand's behalf.

Mastering the at work state of mind promises breakthrough success for marketers, exchanging the mediocre performance of conventional methods for the high performance of programs radically reset to the way people really live, work, dream and prosper.

Rick Segal is President Worldwide and Chief Practice Officer at gyro

Follow Rick @MrBtoB