Remote Working — 4 Reasons it isn’t All Good
Why working from home isn’t the bliss you thought it would be
Lots of us are working from home now, for obvious reasons and many industries are learning a lot from this sudden shock-to-the-system.
For many, going from a soley office-based job, to working from home has been challenging — for others, not so much.
Many people, who were never offered the option of remote working, will now be doing that, full time. It’s been estimated that roughly 500M people are now working remote.
There is a plethora of advantages to working from home, Buffer and AngelList conducted this survey. Here is what people thought.
For a while now, working from home has leant itself to some roles better than others. Being proven to increase productivity for creative jobs and hinder repetitive ones.
Industry is going to learn a lot from this, and not all in a good way. Here are my thoughts on the effects and changes that are going to take place as a result of us all working remotely.
1. Your home doesn’t encourage productivity
This is an obvious one and probably the reason we all loved the idea of working remote in the first place. The dream of a 15 second commute.
However it’s not all it was cracked up to be right? Many of the things we took for granted at the office are not not there. The family can interupt, the desk setup probably isn’t very good, you’ve realised how bad your internet is.
This can bring more flexibility though, with the possibility of more flexible working hours and the ability to work when it’s best for you. You may even be able to sync this to your Ultradian Cycle.
2. How can your boss snoop on you if you’re miles away?
This is the point I feel most strongly about here.
Firstly, I understand why companies do this. I get it. Employing people for X many hours a day and not receiving that output sucks. But this is why we should find ways of trusting employees, or finding another way of measuring productivity.
The corporate world is very used to controlling employees through proximity.
- They know when you started working, because they saw you walk in the door.
- They know if you’re slacking and reading Reddit all day, because they can walk past your desk.
- They know if you’re good at taking customer calls, because they can hear you.
What if you take the proximity aspect away?
This is where a lot of companies are going to turn to online snooping. Most disappointingly, companies are turning to activity as their measure for this, dozens of videos can be found online with people finding inventive ways to keep that light green.
There has also been a surge in demand for programs that ‘spy’ on employees, keeping a track of active hours, websites visited, even the number of key presses!
I would propose a better solution. Hold more regular meetings, with updates from everyone and offer the oppurtunity to excel — rather than fail. People love showing off work, man. Let people be excited to show off the fruits of that week, rather than tracking them so that they have to.
It’s a shame, but I think we will see a lot of this in the coming months. Either computers provided, with software to track you — or worse. The requirement that you install this stuff on your own machine.
3. Separation of work and play
This goes without saying, the lack of a commute is a huge benefit. It’s a massive reduction in cost for people, both in cash and in their time.
The only negative I can foresee here is that we, as humans, subconsciously react to environment.
‘You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you towards your objective’ W. Clement Stone
Lots of people will be working from their bedrooms, with minimal spacial separation between work and play.
It’s a superpower to be able to train your brain to switch on ‘work-mode’ when you get to your desk, and switch it off when you leave. This can only happen if there is a change in environment.
You get this when commuting to an office, but lose it when you work remote.
We’re all guilty of it, but it’s a well known fact that having a ‘switch off time’ is important. I would say that having a ‘switch off space’ is equally important.
Keep that sofa sacred, keep the work laptop away.
4. If seeking a role, you’re the same fish in a larger pond
With corporations moving to remote work, if you’re job-seeking, you’re the same fish in a much larger pond.
If your role is one that can be completely remote, anyone could take your job.
‘What globalisation did to manufacturing jobs, remote work will do to service jobs’ Indi Samarajiva
By nature, proximity to the office puts you in a smaller pond. So getting that new role is easier, if they open that to be completely remote — anyone, anywhere could have the same shot at it as you do.
But it does go both ways, this could be the miracle you needed to go and get that Bay Area software job without the crippling house prices.
Let me know what you think about this, what did I miss? Or has working from home been a welcome change?
