Distance working has never made more sense
A good article in Backchannel, “How digital nomads went from niche to normal”, explores the changes underway in teleworking and how more and more companies are using it, leaving the corporate headquarters to be used sporadically by employees who, on a regular basis, work from wherever they want.
So-called telecommuting, or distance working, has been studied for decades. But we are now moving away from it as applied only in certain cases and to certain jobs to creating companies around it, with most meetings taking place online, with a minimum of physical presence. Contrary to ideas of the 1990s where it applied to low level positions, sometimes linked to exceptional circumstances, and which it was argued led people to feel detached from the company, growing number of companies are being designed with this type of environment in mind, and very clear advantages.
Several factors have influenced this change in perception:
- An evolution from email-based environments to cloud-centric approaches, shared documents, chats, project management tools, and video meetings. Many of these tools have existed for some time, but today are used much more extensively.
- An evolving workforce. The collaborative environments the internet offers make sense for the so-called millennial generation, accustomed to interacting…
