During the pandemic, the world became accustomed to remote work. And it seemed for some time that this was a good thing. After all, the ability to throw in a load of laundry while building a spreadsheet seemed like the apex of work/home efficiency.
But, like everything in life, remote work for all its appeal—no commute, no dress code (except above the waist for Zoom meetings), operational savings, etc.—has its costs. A new study in Science details the mental health costs of remote work, particularly when it’s solo. It’s a good study, and the authors provide comprehensive analysis and even detail the limitations of the study and its focus on the U.S. market.
Yet, for many of us who have been kicking around the toy industry for (eek) decades, as interesting as this study is, we know firsthand how important collaborative work and human interaction can by.
Richard Gottlieb always talked about how many of us in this business ended up here by accident, and we learned the industry on the job with mentors, trips to factories, and actually pouring the plastic pellets into a mold. That’s the way for generations the industry was learned. We were the beneficiaries of what TA president Greg Ahearn likes to call “casual collisions,” but in the context of a company where one can learn about the industry outside of one’s function. That, to me, is one of the problems of remote work. It reduces people to functions, which is all very good; functions need to be accomplished. Yet from an individual development standpoint, it’s limiting. How does one grow in the business and develop a career beyond just a job if one is isolated in a home office—or at a kitchen table?
I have been incredibly lucky in my career. With my BFA, I was not a prime candidate for this business. However when I was in my 20s at CBS Toys, I was taught the business by people who were eager to pass on their knowledge, or at least that’s how it seemed to me. I learned about manufacturing, labor relations, expanded my knowledge of child development, and marketing. I had senior executives pass my office and hand me a book to read on a topic I’d expressed an interest in. It was very human. I sat in the backseat on some long car rides while I got to listen to the C-Suiters talk about what was going on and how to address issues facing the company, which went through quite a few challenges while I was there.
And that’s the thing about the toy industry. It is very human. It’s also very collaborative and creative. Those are elements of the business that make it fun, true, but they also don’t happen as productively when people are in their separate worlds.
I’ve long praised my time at CBS Toys for many reasons, but one of the practices that was so important was that they spent time developing employees. What that meant was that a guy who could quote you Shakespeare ad nauseum, could be taught statistics, or financial analysis, or any other subject I would have assiduously avoided at school. Suddenly, though, it was fascinating because it had direct relevance not just to my current functions but to where I might go.
One of the challenges I see for remote work then, especially in our industry, is that people are reduced to functions, which is perhaps one of the reasons there is fear that AI may take over these functions. On a human level, however, being isolated in a remote function divorces one from the gestalt of a company, the intangible benefit of working with other people.
The study does seem to indicate that some hybrid structures (in-person/remote) may somewhat mitigate the mental health costs of exclusively remote work.
As Richard would have said, we’re people. We need to be around other people. We’re an industry that’s all about play, and it’s very hard to play alone for very long.
