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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert

@erimbau.bsky.social

640 followers 550 following 500 posts

Associate professor at UOC. I love bridges and post about HRM; remote work; wellbeing at work; academia; EBMgt. Views my own.

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · Jul 24

Header photo: The Hohe Brücke (High Bridge), a bridge across the Tiefer Graben in the Innere Stadt, #Vienna, Austria. The current bridge was built in 1903.

#bridges
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohe_Br...

Hohe Brücke, Vienna - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 22h

Thank you, Jeppe!
And the real opportunity is what remote work reveals
about work design. Organizations that fix the underlying
design issues end up better off regardless of where people work.

Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 23h

Does this resonate with what you're seeing in your organizations?

Curious about your experiences—especially if you've seen examples of intentional work redesign vs. just negotiating office days.

#WorkDesign #RemoteWork #FutureOfWork

8/8 🧵

Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 23h

This leads us to the right question:

How do we design work so people can work well (with autonomy, clarity, and deliberate coordination) regardless of WHERE they do it?

THAT is flexible work design.

Everything else is managing symptoms.

7/8

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 23h

Remote work doesn't create these problems.

It makes them visible.

The office was masking poor work design with physical proximity.

6/8

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 23h

"Lack of self-management" = Work with unnecessary dependencies & unclear priorities

"Inadequate technology" = Processes never digitized because "we just talked it out"

5/8

Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 23h

"Poor communication" = Work designed for constant informal interactions (not deliberate coordination)

"Weak management" = Management by observing activity (not by clarity of objectives & autonomy)

4/8

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 23h

Here's the lightbulb moment:

NONE of these problems are created by remote work.

(At most, isolation increases with 100% remote—but even that's about design.)

These are WORK DESIGN problems that physical presence was hiding or compensating for.

3/8

Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 23h

Studies on "remote work barriers" consistently identify these problems:
- Poor communication & lost cohesion
- Inadequate technology
- Weak management & unclear expectations
- Lack of self-management skills
- Isolation & work-life imbalance

2/8

Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 23h

WE'RE ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION ABOUT REMOTE WORK

After years studying #remotework implementation, I've reached an uncomfortable conclusion:

The question is NOT "How do we make remote work work?"
The question is: "How is the work designed?"

🧵 1/8

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 6d

#Barcelona #streetart

A striking mural in Barcelona covers the entire side of a tall building, depicting a hyperrealistic close-up of a person’s face in soft beige and brown tones. The artwork shows one large eye looking sideways, a subtle smile, and finely detailed features that seem to observe the street below. In front of the mural, a man with a backpack walks on the sidewalk, while traffic lights, trees, and nearby apartment buildings frame the early morning urban scene under a cloudy sky.

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 6d

Report by @eurofound.europa.eu on the complex relationship between #jobquality and #climatechange, including the implication of green tasks in selected sectors.

www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/publicati...

Job quality side of climate change | Eurofound

Workers will experience the effects of climate change in many ways: job insecurity, changes to their work tasks and responsibilities, and changes in their workplaces that may involve different work pr...

www.eurofound.europa.eu

Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 6d

informe de la @iloactrav.bsky.social que explora las implicaciones para la salud y seguridad en el trabajo de nuevas tecnologías y procesos

www.ilo.org/es/publicati...

#Automatización
#robótica
#sst #prl
#GestiónAlgorítmica
#teletrabajo
#TrabajoDePlataforma

Revolución de la seguridad y salud: Papel de la IA y la digitalización en el trabajo

www.ilo.org

Reposted by Eva Rimbau-Gilabert

Jay Patel @infotainment.bsky.social · 14d

One reason I like to post reviews of research papers on @paperstarsorg.bsky.social instead of @pubpeer.com: they actually pass moderation.

The same neutral, substantive comment gets very different results.

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 14d

Además, si eres vecino de un edificio blanco, sabrás lo molesto que es el reflejo de la luz intensa que proyecta sobre tus ventanas. Aunque supongo que será peor cuando la fachada es de vidrio.

EL PAÍS @elpais.com · 14d

Proliferan desde hace años en ciudades de toda España. Edificios clónicos característicos por sus franjas blancas y negras. Son los bloques cebra, y reciben furibundas críticas entre algunos arquitectos, que los califican de ‘fast food’ inmobiliario

La invasión de los ‘bloques cebra’: ‘el fast food’ inmobiliario

Reconocibles por sus franjas negras y blancas, la proliferación de estos edificios clónicos en toda España genera debate entre arquitectos y promotores

social.elpais.com

Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 15d

Hoy hablamos de si el #teletrabajo llegó para quedarse o para marcharse, en la jornada sobre la Carta de Derechos Digitales y Negociación Colectiva organizada por @ugtcomunica.bsky.social

Eva Rimbau, José Varela y un moderador, sentados en un escenario. En la gran pantalla que tienen detrás se lee ¿El teletrabajo llegó para marcharse?

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 15d

IA y empleo: afecta mucho al empleo joven en actividades muy expuestas a #IA

Francisco Herrero Triguero en su exposición sobre la relación en IA y empleo

Reposted by Eva Rimbau-Gilabert

Fiona Tribe @fionatribe.bsky.social · 20d

Also: bsky.app/profile/sora...

Soraya Nadia McDonald @sorayanadiamcdonald.com · 22d

“Our results establish that people are more likely to request unethical behavior from machines than to engage in the same unethical behavior themselves,” the paper concludes

Using AI Increases Unethical Behavior, Study Finds

A new study in Nature reveals that people who use AI tend to be more dishonest compared to when they don't use AI for tasks.

futurism.com

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 21d

2/2 Kate Niederhoffer et al. on #workslop --content that appears polished but lacks real substance, offloading cognitive labor onto coworkers
hbr.org/2025/09/ai-g...

AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity

Despite a surge in generative AI use across workplaces, most companies are seeing little measurable ROI. One possible reason is because AI tools are being used to produce “workslop”—content that appea...

hbr.org

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 21d

Poor-quality #genAI content is damaging more than we realize.
See:

1/2 @toffeeman68.bsky.social et al. on #botshit --Chatbot generated content that is not grounded in truth and is then uncritically used by a human in communication and decision making
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Beware of botshit: How to manage the epistemic risks of generative chatbots

Advances in large language model (LLM) technology enable chatbots to generate and analyze content for our work. Generative chatbots do this work by pr…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 21d

Bonus: research references
Van Dijcke, D., Gunsilius, F., & Wright, A. (2024). Return to Office and the Tenure Distribution. doi.org/10.2139/ssrn....
Li, T. (2024). The Impact of Apple's RTO Policy on Employee Motivation. doi.org/10.54254/275....

Return to Office and the Tenure Distribution

With the official end of the COVID-19 pandemic, debates about the return to office have taken center stage among companies and employees. Despite their ubiquity

doi.org

Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 21d

Post 6/6
Senior leadership isn't stupid: if the end result has to be losing key #talent along with "non-key" talent anyway, it's reasonable to proceed via the cheaper route.

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 21d

5/6
Consequently, it makes more sense for the company to choose the less costly route: impose an RTO or any other measure that makes staying with the company less attractive.

Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 21d

4/6
For these professionals, flexibility is non-negotiable.
Now, after collective layoffs something similar happens: the most talented profiles also end up leaving because trust and commitment to the company are damaged.

Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 21d

3/6
The problem is that the people who tend to leave under these circumstances aren't exactly the "expendable" ones.
They're mostly experienced professionals with higher qualifications who have good external opportunities.

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Eva Rimbau-Gilabert @erimbau.bsky.social · 21d

2/6
They do, however, generate a drop in job satisfaction and an increase in #turnover.
So why implement them? One possible explanation: they aim to reduce headcount at the lowest cost, promoting voluntary resignations without resorting to mass #layoffs.