Three Things Martha Stewart Gets Right About Return to Office (RTO)

The original influencer and the person who invented the "Home" retail category, Martha Stewart, became the latest CEO to tell employees to get back to the office five days a week and be available around the clock (even from their bathtubs on weekends.)

Here’s what Martha Stewart gets right.

1. Martha understands her business.

As she explained to Kara Swisher, “We are a creative company. We are a collaboration company. We have to see each other, see what we’re doing. It doesn’t work on three days a week.” She’s right. You can’t feel a textile or taste a sweet potato pie on Zoom. Martha’s world is to create and teach how to make “perfect things,” and yes, her employees need to be together to get work done.

2. Every company has a metabolism, and the CEO sets the rate.

Martha’s rate is high, about 18 hours a day, plus weekends. She cites her mom as a role model - she raised six children, taught school full time, cooked all the meals, helped her husband in the garden, and canned vegetables. If that’s the role model of your organization's CEO, you might understand why not answering her call on a weekend - because you’re in the bath - could be grounds for dismissal.

3. Martha understands that other businesses are different.

Flex work, she says, “is okay for accountants who have all their stuff on their computers. They can do it all at home.” And she insists that a work week is five days, not four, and certainly not three.

Learn more and join a community committed to "Work, better!" that I co-created with Libby Castro.

Article 1: Our Vision for Working Better

Article 2: The F-Word at Work, Flexibility

Article 3: https://rebeccaryan.com/assets...