Why the word 'metaverse' is a hindrance to virtual work

The term 'metaverse' has become a major workplace buzzword. But some leaders are worried that it's creating more harm than good — and slowing down the adoption of valuable workplace tech tools. 

Seventy-eight percent of business professionals said they would be eager to participate in more immersive experiences at work, as opposed to current tools such as videoconferencing, according to a survey by telecommunications company Ciena. Adam Riggs, CEO of software company Frameable, works with his team to enable that: they build virtual spaces for employers looking to better support their hybrid or remote employees. But they never use the word "metaverse."

"The word 'metaverse' is a bit polluted now," Riggs says. "The design aesthetic and the hardware requirements and all of the pieces in the current understanding is very rooted in entertainment and in novelty, and not around the current work problems." 

Read more: Metaverse of madness: Employers and employees at odds over virtual workplaces

It's not that using the word "metaverse" to discuss the future of work is wrong, according to Riggs — but it can be misleading. For example, employees may expect virtual reality headsets and simulated experiences with their coworkers' avatars. That's much more complicated than the reality of how virtual tools will impact the workplace, Riggs says, and notes that some employees may unnecessarily feel uneasy due to that misunderstanding. 

"[Employees] don't care about how shiny the solution is or how cool it is or what it's made of," he says. "They just care about solving their problems. And the problem to solve is: the way people have been working for the last three years has highlighted that distributed work is unnatural. It's not easy to get people's attention, or find yourself in a conversation with someone without doing a fair amount of work."

For many employees, long gone are the days of casually asking a coworker for their opinion in the breakroom, or gathering updates on tasks during the walk to lunch. Now, simply getting on an employee's calendar for a Zoom call requires multiple rounds of back-and-forth messages and coordination. Those inefficiencies, Riggs stresses, need to be resolved. And while virtual tools can play a role, they won't come in the form of a gamer-style VR headset. 

Thirty-eight percent of companies are anticipating having the metaverse be part of their everyday business model within the next year, according to PwC, but it may be simpler and look more familiar than they're anticipating. Frameable, for example, offers a program that companies can integrate with their existing software, such as Microsoft Teams or Google Suite. It creates a series of tabs that represent different "rooms" employees can step in and out of — just as they would the office kitchen or conference rooms — depending on what they're doing or who they're looking for. The platform embraces the company's own video capabilities to start conferencing if needed. 

Read more: Why 46% of employers are hiring for metaverse-specific roles

"If you're in an office together, you can see if someone's at their desk or if they have the door open or closed," Riggs says. "People now have green dots and red dots, but it barely means anything anymore. As a company you should be offering this information without doing nearly so much work."

To that point, Frameable's "rooms" can be locked or unlocked, depending on the availability of the people inside to allow for private meetings while staying within other employees' frame of view. Frameable's solution aims to solve both the issue of visibility and accessibility at once, without involving new equipment or tech employees aren't comfortable with, which is the kind of progress employers should be focusing on, according to Riggs, not impressing employees with metaverse-level changes.

"It is very important to establish the trust that an employee can rely on their team," he says. "Maybe they're not available all the time, but they can see them and feel like they're in the trenches together, doing the hard work together."