Newsmail #50, 2023-02-20

Dear all,

It’s now more than a year since the Covid-pandemic was declared as over in Sweden, with all restrictions affecting us removed. After that, all students and employees were expected to return to campus.

During the development dialogues we held 2020-2022, we discussed with every MMK member how to handle the work from home-situation. Now we are in the middle of the 2023 development dialogues, discussing with every individual at MMK, and it is clear to me that we have a work environment issue at MMK. I understand why people choose to work at other locations, other places at KTH, other workplaces, or from home, simply based on that the work environment at those places are better; more or less people, more energy, more focus, more beneficial interactions. That being said, I do believe everyone understands that this is a downward spiral, that we drain the attractiveness of our own environment. Our work environment is not primarily our offices, our new comfy meeting room chairs, our environment is ourselves, our colleagues.

We have a number of core values; that we respect each other, that we trust each other. That we encourage rather than control, to help rather than fail. That we want to keep our freedom to decide whether we come to the office or not. Strict rules and control are in conflict with our core values. But – we as management cannot hide from the fact that we now have failed regarding the responsibility for MMK as an organization.

MMK people are smart people. I see no other solution than a joint decision to recreate the work environment together, meaning, we must all jointly accept that it’s a joint decision. And, I see no other solution than that the joint decision is to come back to the office. We must accept that the default working place is in our building and agree to spend the majority of our time at MMK. Work from home is an exception. We can still work from home one or even two days per week if we spend the majority of our work time at MMK. But, if I need to spend a lot of time outside MMK; external meetings, teaching etc, then the only solution to the problem above is to cut down on the work-from home, otherwise I’m not able to spend the majority of my work-time at MMK.

With that said, I believe it is according to our core values to let every individual consider the above issues and find a solution to the overall issue (our joint work environment), and if you need help, guidelines, or even a formal strict rule to help you, I – and our MMK unit managers - are happy to support.

Best,

Martin