Why Introverts Excel at Global Mobility and Remote Work 

Matthew Pollard: Hello everyone, and welcome back. I have an exciting guest for anyone that’s really wish they could just work from anywhere in the world, or perhaps wishes they just didn’t have to work in their home, in their office, at work all the time, and actually was allowed to spend a little bit more time at home.

Actually, I will say maybe this is the episode that you want. Your boss to listen to, but I want to introduce you to Laura Tippett. She is a partner at KPMG Canada and she is a huge advocate of inclusion in the workplace. She’s a specialist in global mobility, which is going to be a hot topic and a hot topic.

I think over the next couple of years, as people kind of work out whether they’re going to still let people work at home, after the Covid environment. And then also, she was the founder of the Thrive Women’s Network. And because of that, I mean, she understands diversity. She understands inclusion in a very detailed way and how it affects people that are introverted women, people that have of color that happen to be introverted.

And because of that, I feel like she’s going to be able to provide a ton of really unique point of views on what remote work allows for and what it doesn’t. But I hope you don’t mind going an extra long intro, because I just felt like the people needed to understand what we’re going to be chatting about today. But I so appreciate you joining us today.

Laura Tippett: Well, thanks so much for having me, Matthew. I’m really excited to be here and just see where the chat takes us.

Matthew Pollard: Well, one of the things I want the chat to take is to. And I will say that, I think we were just we were just talking before the interview started. I have a best friend that works for an airline, and he had a job in Las Vegas, and now he has that same job he just happens to do.

And he’s a four day workweek person that happens to work from Thailand. And as long as he can have the meetings with his team, the team don’t mind where he lives. And he’s found that liberating. And it’s allowed him to spend a lot more time with his family as well. And so I think that this, this topic of living from anywhere, working from home, especially for those of us that probably don’t like working in the office as much or at all, is a really interesting topic.

What is Global Mobility, and Is It Different from Remote Work?

How do you define mobility firstly and do you feel that it’s a positive thing for organizations?

Laura Tippett: Yeah. Well, it’s an interesting question. Mobility is really it’s changed so much, especially since the pandemic. And just opening the ability to work remotely in many cases. So I’ve, I’ve spent most of my career working in global mobility, working with companies and, and a variety of organizations that have employees traveling cross-border and working on remote teams.

They may be going on assignment. They may be going on business trips into other countries relocating. But really over the past few years, we’ve seen so many more of these situations with employees wanting a remote job for personal reasons in, in other locations. And, you know, at first many organizations said, well, we don’t really want to allow this. This is going to open up a whole can of worms for us in terms of tax and legal and payroll issues and, and you name it.

But the longer it’s gone on, I think they’re seeing it really as a tool to attract and retain talent. And it’s a way to give flexibility to their employees. So we really work, work with them to, to figure out ways to be able to give this flexibility in work arrangements, but also to be compliant with it at the same time so that they’re not just getting themselves into trouble.

Matthew Pollard: You know, I remember when I first started working, I mean, really, I was a commission only sales rep, so I couldn’t really call it a job. But I remember the first time I got sent away to go and sell, you know, in a regional area. And I was, if you like, free of management, you know, I was out working for myself outside an office setting even though I still had commute time of course.

And I remember a manager pulling me aside to. So let me know that I had a team of people I was taking with me and how hard that was to manage them in a remote destination, even though I, their manager, was going to be there with them. And then I remember, you know, a few years ago with somebody.

So a few it’s about a decade ago now. Somebody talk to me about hiring people from overseas, and you know, how you would have to install software on their computer to to watch all the things that they were doing to make sure they were working. And now these days, there’s a lot more trust, but there’s also this big push to bring people back to the workplace.

For those people that are considering hiring people and may struggle, especially with the current employment unemployment rate, the way it is may be open to considering, you know, offshoring or just hiring someone that’s from a different state. What are some of the mental barriers that you feel that they face in empowering this staff, but also that that that push to wanting to monitor them and making sure that every single second of their minute, their day isn’t wasted.

Hybrid Work and Productivity: Avoiding Micromanagement

Laura Tippett: Yeah, it’s a great question. I do think there’s a lot more trust now. There has to be because whether you have someone who’s working from home in the same city or working in a country across the world, you don’t see your employees as often. You know, we do hear the odd horror story of companies that do want to really monitor their employees and don’t have a great sense of trust, and those are typically not the places where they have great retention, necessarily, of their employees.

But we also on the flip side here, and work with clients that are using that type of workforce intelligence for good rather than for evil. So monitoring the types of activities that are employee that employees are doing to try and help them be more productive, not just for the company’s benefit, but for the employees benefit as well.

Or, you know, do we have employees that are working too much? Because I think that’s often the bigger risk is that not that employees aren’t working enough. They’re at home. You know, it’s hard. There’s no boundary between home and work. And, they may end up working too much and burning themselves out. So, so there’s actually, tools that can be used to kind of see that.

So that you’re aware of the employees when they might, might be reaching a point of burnout.

Work Remotely, Get Burnt Out?

Matthew Pollard: I think that’s a really important point for a lot of people that, listening to this, that may be working from home, and maybe there are employers listening that have employees working at home, and they see them respond to emails at 9:00 at night and 7:00 in the morning, and they’re like, wow, that’s really, really efficient. That’s good for them.

Oh, wow. They really putting in the hours. What is the balance? Because I would imagine that that would have a drastic effect on retention and presenteeism during the workday. I mean, there are studies to highlight that if you get somebody to work for a four day workweek instead of a five, productivity actually goes up. I would imagine not having that that line between work and home life and making sure that people have hours separated where they can be mentally free and enjoy their home life, would actually lead to a lot of negative effects.

Have you seen any anything happen where that’s the employer or the leader within the organization has kind of crossed the line and made the the work life environment really tough to deal with.

Laura Tippett: I would say for the most part, the clients that we work with do really value flexibility and understand that their employees need to have those boundaries. So I’m not really familiar with any. Luckily, any situations where employers are just saying, well, you know, you need to be on all the time. From my experience, it’s more employees that that put that pressure on themselves and need to be able to define their own boundaries or don’t realize how much you know.

I’m speaking specifically from my experience at KPMG employees, not realizing how much leadership really wants them to have those boundaries and take those breaks because they’re going to be more productive, they’re going to get more done. Whereas if they just keep working and don’t set those boundaries, it’s just too much. They’re not they’re not going to be effective.

Watch that Work-Life Balance, Introverts!

Matthew Pollard: So I think that’s a really powerful answer, because I see a lot of introverts tell themselves these stories of, oh, I have to do this or this is expected of me, or oh, I got that email and it’s at 3:00 in the after, you know, it’s 3:00 in the afternoon. And I need to answer that before I go, but I’ve got this meeting, so I’m now going to have to stay back late.

And all of a sudden there’s this, this break of I now have no personal life or I’m constantly brought back into the office right throughout my life and where the employer didn’t ask for that. And I’m wondering, because introverts have a very reflective nature and tend to ruminate on things, whether we’re more prone to create these stories in our head and how we could potentially control that.

Laura Tippett: Yeah, I’m not aware if there’s been a study or anything done on that topic, but there should be. I would think you’re right that as an introvert, you probably are more prone to that type of rumination. And putting pressure on yourself than than an extrovert might be, I think, really the most important thing, for companies and for employees to keep in mind is there’s no one size fits all when it comes to flexibility.

Introverts, Extroverts, Remote, and Face-to-Face

It’s really about, you know, we are seeing more where companies want employees to come into the office more, which is understandable. But if you’re mandating 4 or 5 days a week, everyone has to be in. You know, maybe the extroverts may love that because they love being around. People get their energy from being around people as much as possible.

But you can bet the introverts on your team are likely, if you take that flexibility away and take away that ability to have quiet time and, quiet space to work will be looking for for another job. So it’s really about just giving the flexibility for each team and each individual to figure out what’s going to work best for them.

That’s where you’re going to get the best results, although there does have to be generally some guidelines provided.

Matthew Pollard: Yeah, so I’m really interested in that because I see a couple of things happening. So the first thing that I see is that for later, I can imagine it’s really tough because they’ve got certain people that want to work different hours. They have people in different time zones. So do they feel like they need to check in with them all the time?

Then you’ve got someone who feels because it hasn’t actively been spoken about, that they need to check in with their emails all the time because they’re not physically stuck in an office between 9 to 5. So I can imagine all of that being tough on them. And then there’s the constant fear. I would imagine, if I want to be at home and working from home and all the extroverts want to be working from the office, and they just happen to be sitting right next to their manager, I’m not going to get promoted.

I’m not going to get recognized. And I remember this TV show, or this episode of Friends where one of the characters they used to go to, they used to get into a really detailed topic and then they would say, you know what, let’s go outside and have a cigarette and then we’ll we’ll decide. We’ll decide down there.

And one of them didn’t smoke, so she just felt out of it. And the decisions were all made by the time she got back. And I feel like this situation of people working from home just magnifies this issue. Do you how do you how do you navigate that, that mess of no rulebook?

Relationship-Building and Social Interaction as Part of the Work Experience

Laura Tippett: Yeah, I think there are there are a number of issues. I guess I’m a big proponent from flexing for flexibility and being able to work, work remotely or work from home. But there is such a thing, I think, as doing it too much, so it’s important to keep that in mind. And it can feel like you’re saying it can actually impact from a developmental perspective as well.

So if you think about it, it’s the relationships that you’re building. It’s how you’re developing. And also employee, health and well-being. So relationships, clearly if you’re in person with someone, it’s just you’re going to have those informal chats. You have an opportunity to go for coffee or go for lunch and, and really get to know someone in a way that you’re not going to be able to do as well through a screen.

There’s only, you know, you can have a few minutes of chit chat, but you’re not going to have the same amount that you’re going to be able to do in person. It’s also the quantity of relationships, just the people that you’re going to bump into when you’re in person, in an office. And have that informal chit chat.

And there’s been so many studies that have been done on the importance of feeling like you belong in the workplace and if you’re always working from home, that’s not to say that you’re not going to feel like you belong, but spending some time in person with your colleagues is going to enhance that sense of belonging, typically, and the sense that you have friends at work.

It’s, you know, it’s been shown that having a best friend at the office makes you a less lonely person, not just at work, but in your life overall. It’s such an important thing to be able to find a friend at work. And so, you know, for those who are maybe more likely to work from home. And that’s not to say they want to do it all the time, but it’s just keeping that in mind that you need to have a balance of building those relationships.

What to Consider with Proximity Bias

I think also from a developmental perspective, like we we kind of touched on, if you’re not in the office as much, there is what’s called a proximity bias, where leadership is going to perhaps favor those people that they see more often and just naturally give them the the opportunities for interesting projects and that type of thing.

So that’s really on leaders to be aware of. There’s naturally going to be certain people like extroverts who maybe come in more often or, certain people who can’t come in as often. For example, working parents often responsibilities follow on the mother and, you know, I say that as a mother, a working mother that that, you know, is my personal situation.

And there’s been studies done on that, that oftentimes if your kids are home sick, someone has to stay home with them. And it’s often mom having gone through a global pandemic, you can’t send your kids sick to school or sick to daycare. You know, the same way that you could before if they had a cold or something.

And so there are those situations where you just can’t come in as often. Also, people with disabilities can’t make it into the office necessarily as much. There’s been also research that shows that, people of color often prefer to work remotely, if they’ve faced microaggressions from being in the office. So those are the little subtle unintentional comments, that they face slight, you know, bit by bit throughout their career that can create an, a hostile work environment for them.

And so they may, whether they consciously do it or not, prefer to, to work outside the office. So if we’re not careful, we could have a situation where, you know, it’s extroverts and white men who are spending more time in the office and getting those opportunities. And then unintentionally, we’re creating less equity for for the underrepresented groups that are already facing, facing issues.

And that’s the last thing that we want to happen.

Matthew Pollard: Laura, that’s really interesting. I remember watching a study recently that kind of talked about the fact that, you know, loneliness is kind of connected to, you know, it’s about the equivalent of having about 15 cigarettes a day. And so for a lot of employers that, you know, maybe their employer is asking to be at home all the time and not participate in anything.

And is that actually, you know, is that actually healthy? Because I imagine an introvert just wants to never leave. You know, I never leave the get go to the office. But yet I see, you know, in Japan at the moment, it’s a horrific issue with people that just never leave their house and never go out. And I mean, that’s also not a positive thing.

Like, what would you kind of recommend? Because I know that mental health is a real concern right now, especially with people, you know, in working from home environment.

Remote Settings and Mental Health

Laura Tippett: Yeah. So there was a study, done by an organization called international. SOS and KPMG partnered with them as well. And so on one side, the findings were that employees that are able to choose their work location have greater job satisfaction. So no surprise there. And it also found that where they have an even greater amount of flexibility to, to really choose their work location, for example, whether that may be in another country where they have family living and they can go and work remotely so they can spend time with family or that type of thing that really takes it to the next level in terms of increasing their their engagement, their productivity

and their, decreasing their likelihood to to leave the company. When it comes to looking at how much time in the office versus working from home and those people who are working from home almost exclusively 4 or 5 days a week, pretty much fully remote, it was found that, they were less likely to disclose when they had mental health related concerns.

And I think the reason behind that is really when you’re working mostly from home, you’re not building those trusted relationships as much. And the people that are working with you, you know, your counselors, your performance managers, it’s easier for them to see a red flag or a change of behavior when they see you in person, but when they’re not seeing that, it’s harder to identify.

So it was really the employees that had more of a 5050 split. Those were the ones that were more likely to use the mental health resources that were provided for them, and to receive psychological support. So, yeah, so definitely if you’re working exclusively from home, that’s not to say it’s always going to be the case, but there can be greater mental mental health challenges and less likelihood to do something about it when you do have, a mental health challenge.

Matthew Pollard: Yeah, I think that’s great advice, especially for people that are choosing to work from home, even if it’s just so that they become more reflective on their own personal mental health and whether they need to reach out for help. And it definitely important for employers to at least be cognizant of the fact that they may not notice it.

So I think that’s powerful. Powerful information. I’m hoping to come up with a little bit of a rule book to kind of help people guide themselves a little bit, because how much is too much time to do it? You know, I can imagine my wife, who love spending time and would prefer to be working from home all the time and if was given an option, would never go to the office unless there was a rule book that said go this many times.

Remote Work Means Freedom…But Is There A Cost?

Otherwise, everybody also get the opportunities and you won’t. But then on on the other side of the coin, I know for a fact that all of the best friends have come from school or from being at the office, so there’s a lot of her life she would have missed out on if if she never went and actually spent time, at the office and I’m, I’m remembering I think it was a it is a Gallup poll that said that person’s far more likely to leave an organization if they don’t have a best friend at the office.

It’s one of the clear indicators of somebody leaving. And because of that, I actually remember, it was a senior leader in an insurance company. And he got asked this question on, on the Gallup poll, and he got really angry about it, and he didn’t understand why he got so angry. It was probably the first time he actually thought about leaving.

And they said, well, it’s an indicator. And he went away and thought about it. Well, I’ve worked for this organization for 20 years. A lot of the people that I would have considered best friends have now left, and they’ve gone and worked in other places.

I tried to foster relationships, and now I haven’t. But whose fault is that? Is that my employer is or is that mine? And because of that, he then started to go to events again and started to invite people over to the house like he used to when he was first starting at the organization. And then all of a sudden he started to find he’d rekindle friendships and he was happy again.

And he didn’t even realize that he’d slipped into unhappiness. He it just happened so gradually because he spent less and less time talking to people on a personal level. He had less and less people that knew him from the way he started. And because of that, he got himself to a place of, not, I wouldn’t say unhappiness, but just less than happy.

As happy as he could be. Which got him to even think about considering leaving for those people that like, I don’t want to go into the office unless absolutely forced, like unless there’s a meeting that says you specifically need to come in, I want to try and provide them some form of rule book, like is there is there a perfect formula or is there no perfect formula?

What advice would you give them for those people that have been given that total freedom to actually interact with people in the office and not lose out on responsibilities, and that real connection that they need to to to feel part of something?

The Impact of Remote Work on Office Connections

Laura Tippett: Yeah, I wish there was a perfect formula. I don’t think there is. I think it really depends person to person. I would say it’s finding what are the what are the really the opportunities that are important to be there for, you know, when there’s things that the team is getting together for, you obviously want to be there for those moments.

Or create those moments if you find that they’re not happening. But I do think it’s really on leadership to be aware of these issues and to make sure that, yes, you’re going to encourage your employees to come in, you’re not going to ask them to come in for no reason and just sit and be on video calls all day if they’re not interacting with.

Some days are just like that. There’s no point in being in the office if you’re just on video calls all day and have no time. But it’s creating those, those moments for connection. I think the other thing to be aware of is don’t plan things last minute. If you’re doing an in-person event, there are some people who are in the office all the time or do not have commitments outside of work, or as many commitments outside of work, so they can drop things.

I’m sure if there’s an event in a few days, I can be there. But for people who do have, you know, working parents, for example, if they had not planned to be in the office that day, they’re not going to be able to participate. So it really is important to be planning in advance. It does take some thought and some work a lot more than it did pre-pandemic, when people were just more, more often in the office.

I think the other thing to be mindful of is, you know, if you have a, say, a hybrid event where you have some people who are in person and some people who are dialing in, there’s ways to make that more inclusive for everyone. You can ask people to bring their computer so that everyone turn on your video so everyone can see everyone.

Everyone can hear everyone versus, you know, sometimes you go into a meeting and it’s just these tiny heads in the distance. You can’t even tell who’s in the room when you’re dialing in. And it’s really hard to participate in a meeting like that. So it’s just these little things that really can, can level the playing field. Whether you’re in the office all the time or not as much.

Matthew Pollard: So I love that answer. And I think it I love it for two reasons. One is that when I learned how to sell, when the whole world told me that I couldn’t, I realized that I had to take responsibility for my own situation and work out a series of steps and a process for for succeeding. And because of that, you know, for the people that are listening, I would highly recommend, like if you don’t switch your camera on when you’re on those virtual meetings, switch your camera on and make sure that people can see you and make sure that you have a microphone, that you don’t sound tinny and annoying just because it’s

a microphone that doesn’t sound great. There are things that you can do that you can go and talk to your manager and say, I don’t want to miss out on opportunities like what would be a good calibration of, you know, times that I can be in the office. But I think, you know, Lori, you’re right. I mean, the employee needs to bear a lot of this responsibility as well.

And I feel if the the introvert on the ground is participating and trying to make it work and trying to look at the things that they can do to be a more effective member of the team and feel more connected. But leadership also takes an active role in that. Then it’s going to be very positive for everyone. I think one thing I’m I’m cognizant of, though, if let’s assume that we make leadership bear all responsibility, I feel that there’s a disconnect between what leaders feel are ideal work environments and what staff members.

Employee Disconnect and the Future of Work

I mean, if there was ever an example of that is if the fact that leaders got deluded into thinking open workplaces were a great idea for everybody, but I’m what I’m wondering is what advice would you give to the leaders that are like, okay, I need to set this kind of hybrid ideal work environment. So how do I like how do I go about that if I just really have no idea what my staff preferences are?

I just guess too, is that literature? Is there somewhere I should go, or do I just kind of figure it out as I go along?

Laura Tippett: Well, yeah, it’s funny you mentioned that. So every year KPMG does a survey. It’s called the CEO Outlook Survey. So across the world surveys are interviewed for their opinions on a variety of matters. And the most recent one it came back that it was something like 55 to 65% of CEOs thought that employees should be back full time in the office within the next few years.

But then you look at surveys of employees and it’s, you know, somewhere in the range of 12 to maybe 25%. And I think that’s being generous of employees who say, yes, I want to be in the office full time. So there really we are seeing a big disconnect. So it’s important, important for leaders to be mindful of that.

In terms of setting, an approach, like I said, it’s I don’t think it’s one size fits all. It’s not going to be the same, especially if you’re a big organization, different teams operate in different ways. Some teams may have everyone who’s in one location working in an office or at home or both. Some teams may have more of, a regional team that are operating in multiple locations.

So it’s really hard to just say this is what’s going to be the best for everyone. What is a best practice is to, you know, survey employees not just once, but over time, see how how their tastes are changing, see what they’re looking for is is changing and use that to guide decisions. But nothing should be set in stone.

It’s really using that information so that teams can then figure out their best ways of working. You know, maybe within certain guidelines, but nothing that’s going to be, you know, you have to be in the office four days a week or that type of thing.

Matthew Pollard: Yeah, I like that. I think, you know, with all types of leadership, there’s no hard and fast rules, but it’s about being cognizant of it and knowing that this is something that you have to consider that that’s important. I, I’m interested in your own personal considerations. Well, firstly, I’d love to know, like, was there a time that you realized that you were introvert, or were there struggles that you had as an introvert?

And then, you know, I mean, you quite I mean, you’re obviously really high up in the KPMG infrastructure. I mean, obviously you work in a large organization like the struggles that you had and ways that you were able to lean into unique strengths. Or did you always feel like you had to be more extroverted? I’m really interested in hearing more about your kind of the trajectory of Laura, if you don’t mind sharing.

The Thrive Network

Laura Tippett: For me personally, I had to find something that felt authentic in order to, build relationships. I would say, yeah. Seven years ago I moved to KPMG from another firm. I had to kind of reestablish myself, and the way I did that was a lot through the work that I do with inclusion, diversity and equity. So that’s something that I’ve always been very passionate about in my career and the ability to, you know, lead a women’s network, bring people in and share my own experiences and talk with other people about their experiences, work with other leaders on how we can build it within KPMG.

And I do that externally as well. I’m part of a women’s network in, in Ottawa. And so that is how I was authentically able to grow my relationships. I’m also fortunate that the work that I do with global mobility and work environment also ties nicely with Thrive Network. So, I’m able to really grow my practice and work with clients in a similar area to the things that I just naturally enjoy.

Matthew Pollard: I think that’s really powerful, though, because what I’m hearing is in a lot of ways, I mean, when I move to America, I say I kind of gave up this network that I spent a lifetime awkwardly fostering, and then I moved to America and I, you know, my wife’s more introverted than I am. I really had to start again.

And what I’m hearing is you had to start again. And I did that by I founded Small Business Festival that allowed me to become very central to the small business economy in, in Austin. And what you did is you said, well, I’m really interested in these topics. I’m going to be more involved in, you know, in, in women empowerment and women diversity.

And that allowed you to foster a lot of relationships. And of course, it connected to what you do. You know, I’ve seen other people do it. So the American Heart Foundation, we have an episode, with one of the senior leaders there who started employee resource groups specifically for introverts inside the American Heart Foundation, which was an amazing initiative.

But she was one of the founders. It allowed her to become more part of a central dialog about something that was significant. And it matters. I think, for a lot of people listening, it’s not that you have to go to the party at Christmas. It’s not that you need to be the loudest person in the room, it’s that you need to figure out how to show up in an authentic way.

And I think that message is really powerful, and it doesn’t need to even be something that exists. You can say, oh, there’s no women’s group in my organization, or there’s no introvert group in my organization. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be, and it doesn’t mean you can’t be the person that has that meeting that gets it started, and then invite a few people that I’m sure would be grateful to, to be part of it.

It just means that you need to find an authentic way to show up. And while, you know, being shy and introverted can be tough, it is also advantages. I want to talk about that. But also, let’s be honest, being an extroverted shy is also really tough, right? You want to be, you need. You charge for being with people, but you’re shy.

I mean, we all have our burdens to bear. But I want to finish the episode on a positive. And, you know, Laura and everyone spends their entire life talking about why introverts don’t have gifted yet, how they struggle, why it’s tough. I like to finish the episode on talking about, you know what? Our edge, what our edge is.

What would you consider your introvert edge?

Laura’s Introvert’s Edge

Laura Tippett: I would say, when I’m interested in something, I love to go really deep on it. I love to, to learn, figure out how to connect ideas together. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Gretchen Rubin. She’s, you know, author and podcaster. She has a personality framework called The Four Tendencies. And so my tendency is a are I just ask a ton of questions, love to learn as much as I can, you know, much to my husband’s annoyance.

And I’m sure it’s not always an endearing quality for everyone that I work with. But I’m able to really find out a lot of information and connect ideas in a way that just gives a different perspective that, others may not have thought about. And I really love to do that, especially when it’s something that that helps people, especially when it relates to helping people in the work environment.

And so it took me a while to figure that out, but that’s what I’m truly passionate about is, you know, how can I collaborate with clients to help them and help their employees and, and then internally within KPMG, how can I collaborate with colleagues to do that, that same thing in our own work environment. And so I love that I get to do it, externally as well as internally.

Matthew Pollard: I think that’s really powerful. I’ll say a lot of people ask questions just to get to the next question and get to what they want to talk about. And I don’t get the sense with you. I get the sense that you ask questions to understand it. And more importantly, you know, those questions aren’t about you. They’re about helping and serving, which I think is, you know, a really positive thing that a lot of introverts are really, really great at.

And of course, listening to the answer as well. And actually, you know, really coming back with something, something solid. Are you are you the kind of person that continues to ask questions until the answer becomes clear to you, or you ask a lot of questions and then go away and reflect before coming back. And I’m just really interested in kind of your process for asking questions and then coming back with something that aids people and gives that fresh perspective.

Laura Tippett: Yeah, I’m definitely one. I do take time to process sometimes and to see how things will fit together. So I may have to come back, you know, 2 or 3 times with additional questions as a as it all unfolds, but sometimes that’s just what you need to do, I think to, to get the full, the full picture.

Matthew Pollard: Not. That’s perfect. Well, look, I so appreciate you joining today. If anyone listen to this and they what you said resonated with them and they just like I haven’t a question that I really wish was answered or, you know, is there any way that people you would recommend that they get in contact with you, or are there any resources that you would recommend that they go check out?

Laura Tippett: Yeah. Always happy to chat with anyone, you know about widening or mobility work environment. Always happy to have a conversation around any of that. There are some resources. Definitely happy to share on, you know, work from anywhere. There was an interesting study that was done by International Associates in partnership with KPMG on, employee health and well-being in a hybrid workforce.

That’s a really interesting report. So happy to share that as well.

Matthew Pollard: Well, that would be terrific. And for the people listening, we will put all of that in the show notes for today’s episode. So thank you to everyone for listening today. And we look forward to seeing you in the next episode of the Introverts Edge podcast. Cheers, everyone.

Laura Tippett: Thank you.