Let’s not forget about Human Interaction
How remote work will change the work landscape as we know it
In the span of a couple months, COVID-19 changed our world. Suddenly shaking hands is appalling. Our bedrooms are our offices. Meetings are rectangles on the screen.
Out of necessity, the world has become virtual. As the weeks go by and the world’s landscape changes, it’s looking like “virtual” is going to become the new normal.
After three months of quarantine, companies including tech giants Twitter and Shopify have announced that work environments will be permanently remote. In recent years, tech companies have been among the most supportive of flexible work requirements. Regardless, any change that trades buildings of 1000+ workers with offices at 20% capacity where employees only come in on a rare occasion, is a massive.
I have much respect of Jack Dorsey, Tobias Lütke, and every other CEO planning on taking their company remote. It takes ambition, innovation, and a hell of a lot of faith to throw away the 9–5 office workday that has been practiced in most modern countries since… forever.
It takes guts to risk a tried-and-true company culture to spearhead the revolution of digital-by-default or remote work environments.
I respect the willingness to take a risk. But I am skeptical of the fact that remote work is a good idea.
With ML and AI being no longer a farfetched dream but instead an applicable reality, it is valid to question what role humans may have in the future. After all, no human, no matter how smart, has the computing power of a robot or model.
However, what separates us from a well-oiled machine is our ability to think, to collaborate, to interact. I worry that remote work will diminish our greatest assets.
When our interactions are limited to tiles on a screen at scheduled times in the day, when we can no longer make a joke with a coworker or have a candid chat with the colleague, what will happen to creativity? To teamwork? To mental health? To motivation?
For many, work is more than fulfilling that role on our job description. It’s coworkers, and colleagues, and friends. With in-person interactions gone, casual encounters and networking become all the more difficult, and work communication may become nothing more than project-specific messages to your team.
With hard work comes stress. Companies spend millions on building offices to support their employees. From ping pong tables to video game stations and everything in between, offices are set up so that employees can take a quick break from their work when needed.
When taking a break from our desk means walking into the living room, when all the office amenities that are supposed to make every employee more productive no longer exist, will productivity and drive be the same?
The greatest companies are built on fostering creativity, innovation, and exploring the unknown. As forward thinking as remote work is, the tradeoff may be that any next step forward will be all the more difficult.
Today, workplaces are more flexible than ever, and I strongly believe companies should continue striving to be compassionate about other responsibilities their employees’ lives. However, in my opinion, flexible work and permanent remote work is incredibly different.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many benefits of remote work. I recognize that is it a necessity for some, and a huge convenience for others. It gives companies a larger pool of candidates, allows employees less restrictive opportunities, and reduces the strain on already overfilling metropolitan areas.
I support working from home. I believe any company that can should provide remote work options. But I also think it is important to remember how impactful a positive work environment is, and the role that human interaction plays in it.
As our world transitions to a new era, I urge us to remember the qualities that give humans an edge over any machine. We are moving forward to a world where virtual is the new reality, but I truly hope we do not forget the value of true human interaction.
