Remote Control — Thou Shall Return to the Office
As someone who has worked remote for many years, I was used to occasional jokes about working from home. It was sometimes said with a sarcasm or roll of the eyes. Oh yeah, “working from home, right…”
Then, almost overnight, a great deal of the workforce was essentially forced to adopt remote work. Now it became hip and happening. It became snazzy. Everyone was pumped about how it was (surprisingly) working.
But not everyone was so pumped up about this change. As we saw covid restrictions cooling off in many countries, the ‘work from home’ culture started to face scrutiny again. It seems that working from home has a stigma attached to it that cannot be so easily broken, especially for those of older generations.
Indeed, Elon Musk has made headlines again as he issued a stern warning to all his employees at Tesla to return the office “or else”. He stated employees who did not return to the office could face termination. Naturally, this demand of his has stirred up mixed reactions from the staff at Tesla, some threatening to leave, some public even going far as calling him ‘’boy king choad’’. And don’t worry, I also have no idea what that means.
Taking advantage of the situation, companies such as Microsoft have said they will take applications from Tesla workers who are unhappy about this move. Going further, in another of his Twitter rants, Musk replied staff ”should pretend to work somewhere else” when asked about people who feel that in-person work is “antiquated”.
Boris Johnson was also in recent headlines about his comments on remote work, stating “My experience of working from home is you spend an awful lot of time making another cup of coffee and then, you know, getting up, walking very slowly to the fridge, hacking off a small piece of cheese, then walking very slowly back to your laptop and then forgetting what it was you’re doing.”
Admittedly, working from home has its own challenges and hurdles, but to argue that a fridge is distracting seems more like a personal problem that Boris faces. I mean, come on. How much can a person eat in a day? The worry is that people will spend all day looking for snacks? That’s why we can’t work from home?
Although his comments may be considered somewhat tongue in cheek, it actually shows how flimsy these accusations are. If working remote was really such a productivity issue, surely there would be some statistics, some solid data out there showing a more concrete reason to back such claims? So, how does the actual data reflect in this respect?
It was estimated that about 26% of the workforce in the USA worked remotely through 2021. A report from Owl Labs found ‘’Several studies over the past few months show productivity while working remotely from home is better than working in an office setting. On average, those who work from home spend 10 minutes less a day being unproductive, work one more day a week, and are 47% more productive.’’
In another study from Standford of 16,000 workers, they concluded that remote work increased productivity by 13%. The performance increase was likely caused by quieter more convenient working environment, fewer breaks and sick days.
So, next time someone rolls their eyes at the idea of remote work, remind them that you are probably more productive than someone spending time commuting everyday to work in a busy office.
Many of us see working remote as a amazing privilege — and we should. When I started working remote I no longer had to spend time commuting which was the first great advantage I felt. Before remote work, I remember on some days I would end up spending over an hour going to the office using public transport. It often occurred to me that I would typically spend 8 hours+ simply getting to and from work. Also, this is time I am not paid for.
After years of working remote the idea of working daily in an office does indeed seem like an arbitrary requirement. It seems like something that would be counter-productive to my work and the studies back this claim up. Naturally, not all jobs CAN be done remotely as some are more customer-facing and people-orientated. Jobs that come to mind are sales people, customer service staff and general customer facing roles, in any industry. Can you be a remote chef? No. But does a coder, or writer or content designer need to be sat in the office all day if they can accomplish their work at home with less distractions? Bottom line — if you work is done on a computer and it involves tasks that can done virtually then there is no real reason to spend every day in the office.
When the internet started to spread, some people said ‘’I will always get my newspaper in physical form and the internet cannot replace that’’. Well, guess what. They were wrong. Internet all but killed physical newspaper sales.
Humans are resistant to change. When the automobile was first introduced, people said they would ‘never turn in their reliable old horse for an automobile’. Well, just look. The picture on the left shows the Easter Day Parade in New York in 1900. As you can see, the parade is almost entirely made up of horse-drawn vehicles. Fast forward to Easter Parade 1913 and look at the picture on the right. A mere 13 years later, horse-drawn carts have all but disappeared thanks to the rise of motor vehicles.
Perhaps the analogy is not perfect. But the point is that routines and habits we thought would never change, can in fact disappear altogether when a new method or technology is adopted. The lesson? Don’t doubt human innovation.
With all that being said, I would still argue it’s never a bad thing for colleagues to get some time together and form personal bonds. It’s helps to build trust and building a connection. You might even discover a great friend in a colleague! So, let’s not get rid of ALL our social interactions.
Do you work remote? What do you think? Please leave a comment about your view on the matter!
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Until next time.
