Why Remote Work is Here to Stay — A Zillennial Perspective
Digital Natives prefer the familiar efficiency of online collaboration.
Would you be surprised if I told you that I was already attending my college lectures through Zoom before anyone had even heard of Covid-19? And no, I didn’t go to an online university — as a computer science student at UC Berkeley, many of our classes had thousands of students enrolled at once.
These large classes adopted a hybrid model long before “hybrid learning” was popularized in the pandemic. With more students enrolled than can physically fit in a lecture hall, in-person attendance was always optional, with the majority watching the webcast from home. This has been the case for popular majors at many other universities as well, particularly in STEM fields. Even in smaller classes where webcast lectures weren’t necessary, students have been able to expect to access course materials or resources easily online at Berkeley. From my experience, forming study groups and finding study buddies, too, were more commonly facilitated through online student forums than through in-person interactions during class, even before the pandemic.
Despite this digital familiarity, the switch to completely remote learning in 2020 was difficult for myself and my peers in many ways: social isolation, technologically challenged teachers, and school resources being stretched thin. However, adjusting to the digital aspects of going remote — logging in, learning off a screen — was never very difficult or unfamiliar. For myself and thousands of others in my generation, doing things remotely has always been woven into our lives, even before the pandemic forced schools and workplaces to go online fulltime en masse. The abrupt switch to remote work brought about by the pandemic was a harsh transition for many people, but as a generation of remote-accustomed digital natives leave college and enter the workforce, it’s looking like remote work is here to stay.
In many ways, remote work seems to be the preferred approach of many Zillennials. Working collaboratively using online tools feels completely natural to us — I can’t remember the last time I was part of a group project in which our team opted to meet up in person instead of just over Zoom. Of course, there are things lost with remote collaboration that we miss as much as anyone else, such as team bonding and the camaraderie that’s built by the ongoing proximity of an IRL office. But the conveniences of remote work that appeal to all are conveniences we’re accustomed to having. We’ve been able to use Zoom and Skype to skip the time investment of commuting for years before the pandemic. There seems to be a multi-generational appreciation for remote conveniences, like collaborations between traveling or far-flung team members, and the ability to connect immediately whenever necessary. Considering that we grew up using these tools, meeting with coworkers on Zoom or Around feels more natural for our generation than it might for folks who are used to working in person.
Another example that comes to mind is pair programming — a common practice in software engineering where two programmers will collaboratively write code together. For me, pair programming has always felt much easier to do remotely, with tools like screen sharing or VSCode Liveshare. Working remotely, both people can be looking at one shared screen, drawing on the screen, or editing code together at the same time, without the awkwardness of squinting over each other’s shoulders or working on two different screens.
I’m not sure if older generations of programmers would necessarily agree. There’s certainly drawbacks to remote work, and there is something about in-person collaboration that just can’t be replicated through digital means. But I’ve spent most of my college career and the entirety of my professional career so far in a remote environment — to put it simply, I never did things any other way. I’ll never possess any nostalgia for pair programming on a shared desk, or for sketching out ideas on a whiteboard instead of a shared screen on Zoom. The convenience of remote work methods stands to benefit people of all generations, but perhaps it’s our generation’s familiarity with these new methods, along with our lack of nostalgia for the traditional ones, that allow us to welcome this convenience with open arms.
As schools and offices slowly go back to in-person, many tech companies have chosen to stay primarily remote, and for good reason. While remote work may have started as a temporary, necessary solution to a dire situation, it’s clear that it’s more than just a fad. Now that we’re a few years in, the kinks have been worked out, and a new generation of digital natives are entering the workforce. These digital natives are not only used to working remotely, but actually prefer it in many ways — remote work is here to stay.
