Starting a new job today: ‘Liberating and terrifying’
Hybrid work, work-from-home — Fisher College of Business is helping students learn how to get the most from work no matter how near or far co-workers are.
Marketing major Claudia Hollander Tineo (left) and senior lecturer Stephanie Wapner are among many in Fisher College of Business — and organizations everywhere — who are figuring out new ways of working. (Photo by Jodi Miller)
While companies everywhere are still figuring out best practices post-pandemic, employees early in their professional careers or on the precipice of launching them also are learning how to work — at home, in the office or both.
“It’s an incredibly exciting time for them with so many more options, but that’s both liberating and terrifying,” says Stephanie Wapner ’08 MBA, ’09 PhD, senior lecturer in management and human resources with Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business.
“They’re facing an entirely new type of working environment, and the previous generations of workers don’t know how to advise them because we’re still figuring this out ourselves. We’re sort of building the car while we drive it.”
Many white-collar businesses are still grappling with when or how often to have staff at the office despite four years passing since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Various work models are being tried, including hybrid, but best practices remain in flux.
“It’s a challenge for everybody right now,” says Betsy Ziegler ’93, CEO of 1871, a global innovation hub for tech startups.
So Ohio State’s way of preparing the next business workforce is evolving.
With a focus on improving student outcomes, Fisher is using information from focus groups and insights from recruiters, employers, alumni and current students, including student leadership, to innovate and enhance curriculum for its full-time MBA program.
Fisher students, including undergraduates, also are being taught evolving skills for use in specific and varied work settings, including remote. Examples include how to constructively give and receive feedback, foster mentor relationships, develop interpersonal communication and give more effective presentations.
Wapner says everyone in the classroom learns from students who share their own work experiences. “They’re able to bring in real-life examples and real-life challenges.”
Senior Claudia Hollander Tineo learned more about herself when her first internship, two years ago at the J.M. Smucker Co., was a hybrid setup. She worked remotely three of the five days.
“I realized then I’m someone who needs to be in the office,” she says. “Being remote, it’s harder to ask questions. You’re hiding behind a screen. The learning process takes longer. In person, you learn by seeing, hearing conversations, just sitting at a meeting.”
Hollander Tineo liked that her second internship, at Procter & Gamble, had her in the office four days a week. She enjoyed being able to work from home on Fridays, which she’ll do again as a full-time P&G employee after graduating this spring.
“I’m super excited about that flexibility,” Hollander Tineo says. “That’s something I knew I wanted to consider with my full-time offer, to be able to have that choice.”
The choice of exactly where to do his job led Ben Taylor ’22 MBA to accept a position two years ago as an analytics manager with the American Heart Association, headquartered in Dallas. But he lives and works near family in Canton, Ohio, as he desired.
Still, Taylor says he’s glad he had two previous jobs before the pandemic that had him in the office full time.
“I would have had a really hard time with being remote then because of the isolation,” he says. “You go into the work world and don’t know what to expect, and then you’re kind of alone. I would have missed out on a lot of interaction.”
Taylor, 29, has since learned to enjoy working remotely full time, in part because he starts his morning with a consistent routine, as if he’s going into the office.
“It’s been interesting — weird,” he says. “My dad was like, ‘Wait, you’re working remote? You probably miss out on so much.’ I’m like, ‘It’s not that bad.’”
CEOs have adjusted, too. Ziegler typically works from home twice a week and goes into 1871’s downtown Chicago office the other three days.
While that has become her new normal, disruption of traditional in-person work has had a broader impact on her organization.
“Before the pandemic, our business model was very place-based, dependent on people working in person,” Ziegler says. “Like the companies we support, we’ve had to experiment and pivot to adjust to current market needs.”
