Working from home. The grey haired C-suite conservatives see it as a stain on the workplace killing our cities. Gen Z and a chunk of millennials see it as a basic human right required to even consider a job. I think it is time to have a proper chat about it, and the damage it is doing to our junior creatives.

As someone who's not that far removed from being the wide-eyed newbie myself and who is now bringing in the fresher faces, I've been thinking about the impact it is having and will have in the future. I’m not going to get into the benefits of the office vs WFH, but the widening gap in talent because of it. Non-juniors, think back to when you were starting out. Yes the commute was shit, the pay was worse, and the hours were basically slave labour. But what did you get in return? Time to absorb.

You'd clock how the senior designers were kerning those tricky headlines, overhear the account team working their magic with a stressed client, or just catch the buzz of a killer idea being bounced around and built on by those around you. The stuff that isn’t in a text book. The stuff that is hard to capture over a video call.

Fast forward to being a junior now. They are often brilliant, no doubt. They smash out the designs and nail the briefs, but there's a whole other layer they're missing out on. How to present an idea with confidence, how to navigate workplace politics, how to just be a creative professional in a collaborative environment.

That stuff isn't as easy to pick up over teams is it? There are certainly juniors who are incredible at softer skilled things already, but that was something that every junior picked up on pre WFH era, it wasn’t a choice. Workplace osmosis just happened.

Something anyone in the industry can attest to is that inspiration isn't always going to strike you while staring at the same four walls of your bedroom. That spark you get from seeing what other teams are up to, the random chat in the kitchen that suddenly unlocks a problem, that's harder to replicate when your commute is the ten steps from your bed to your laptop.

The flexibility that WFH has provided is incredible and has provided so much to so many people and it works for loads of us, but we need to think about what are team members are losing out on. It's down to us, the mentors, the team leads, the bosses. We've got to be way more intentional about bridging this canyon.

Dedicated virtual catch-ups that aren't just about project updates. Let's chat about their process, their challenges, the stuff that doesn't always make it into the project notes. Share our process, the way we approach challenges, and in a very intentional way. We need to be giving really meaty feedback, not just a quick "looks good!" on a design.

We need to think about ways they can virtually shadow senior team members, even if it is just dialling into a client call to hear how it goes down. And maybe we need to be investing more in structured learning that fills those gaps.

Ultimately, it's about being proactive. We need to create a culture where our junior and midweight team feels totally comfortable asking questions, even the "silly" ones. We need to make it clear that we're invested in their growth, even if we're not all in the same room. We've got a responsibility to invite eyes into our process, no matter how weird it might feel or look to us.