How technology has influenced the Remote Revolution
I had wanted to explore the world since I was a child. So it wasn’t a huge surprise to my parents when my first job out of high school was working in the group reservations department for an airline in Sydney, Australia. The computer terminal hummed as I sat there in a suit and tie hammering at the keyboard frequently. Long native language command entries would appear on the screen, dominated by green text on a black background. The dot matrix printer, coaxed into life by my crude code, would start spewing reams of paper to the table and gradually onto the floor. Travel documentation records would then be cut up, attached to another sheet of paper with a glue stick, and then faxed them to my customer for their reference. It was long, tedious, and there were many late nights in the office. Yes, this is how we did things in 1995.
Fast forward to August 2016, and I’m in Split, Croatia in my second week on the Business Development team at Remote Year. I’m traveling with a 15’ Macbook Air and iPhone 6s Plus which collectively weigh less than five pounds. Within minutes of arriving in the country yesterday, I procured a SIM card for the equivalent of USD$12 which gave me 3GB of data, and unlimited texts and calls for a month. Right now I’m sitting comfortably in a modern co-working space using complimentary wifi; with more than 70 of our ‘remotes’ (program participants) online at a time there’s enough bandwidth to comfortably host real time on demand video calls with my colleagues around the world. Earlier today I collaborated with my team on our goals using online project management software, shared the day’s top stories in our news channel, and reviewed our social media assets for feedback about how we’re influencing the Remote Revolution. Oh, and my corporate casual attire today is shorts and a t-shirt. The suit and tie are long gone.
Over the last twenty years, technology has significantly disrupted the way we interact in the workplace. As the costs with data usage continue to decline, organizations have moved further into secure, cloud based solutions hosting online everything that’s necessary for you to be productive. So why are so many employers still treating their employees with the same decades-old thinking that onsite, physical presence in a Monday — Friday 9–5 routine equals higher productivity? We debunked that myth during our first Remote Year program that set off in 2015, and it only adds to the many voices that suggest telecommuting and working outside the ‘bricks and mortar’ office increases productivity, improves longevity, and enhances the bottom line — for you and your remote worker.
As we redefine what the career experience should look like, think about this. How significantly would your team or business be disrupted over the next six months if you lost one employee. How about ten? One hundred? A thousand? Imagine how your day would look if you were focusing on replacing them: meetings with human resources, advertising, interviewing, all that lost productivity. Would you be able to do meet your deadlines? Achieve your goals? Would you still be able to do your job effectively?
Now think about what you could achieve as a team or business with maximum employee retention during that same period of time. Ship new products. Win new customers. Become faster and more efficient at doing the same tasks. Sounds much better, right?
Many employers continue to embrace decades-old thinking on physical presence and standardized workday routines because they consider the cost of change to be disruptive to their way of doing business. However quite often they fail to consider the impact of change as a positive notion, nor do they measure the financial potential of what could be achieved with a fully engaged, retained workforce. As we say here, your best work happens when you feel inspired.
Not only has technology influenced the Remote Revolution, it is a catalyst for the deconstruction of the traditional working environment. Location interdependence should not be a feature of the career experience any longer. This is a movement that is growing. This is Remote Year.
Ash is the Head of Business Development at Remote Year, a year-long program for digital nomads to travel the world while working remotely.
