This is NOT remote work
Top hints on “Getting Remote Work Right” are just scratching the surface of what we need right now.
As a European (more concretely a Portuguese) citizen, I’m getting close to celebrate the 1st anniversary after our lives had been turned upside down.
February last year, we (Europeans) witnessed the SARS-COV-2 outbreak spreading across different countries. Italy was the first to be ‘devasted’ and the rest of Europe watched as mesmerized bystanders, hoping the crisis to be controlled under Italian borders. Quickly we realized it was not a matter of “if” but “when” it hits our countries…
Fast-forwarding 2 months (by April/2020) the infection was out of control, and all European countries implemented restrictive measures like forced isolation and “remote work” approaches. I’m not here to judge the measures themselves but the consequence of a new working setup.
So, starting with the basics:
Introducing Remote Work
“A remote worker is someone who works outside of a traditional office. An employee might work from home, from a coffee shop, or from anywhere that is not a regular office; although depending on the type of job they do, they might find themselves going into an office on occasion (if the company’s hub is geographically close to them).” (…)
“For the most part, distributed teams are indeed comprised of remote workers, and are not tethered to a specific location.” (…)
“A digital workplace is one that might host a company intranet as well as offering communication and collaboration tools to help its workforce get their jobs done.” - Remote.co
It was not easy to find a concise description of Remote Work that did not mix it up with other concepts like “Telework” or “Work from Home” — even Wikipedia puts everything under the same bag. I believe Remote.co description brings the needed clarity, focusing on work location, team setup, and digital workplace.
Meaning, you shall perform all work activities from a location that is not the organization’s central workplace. This implies the organization provides you with all the resources, infrastructure, information, and processes for you to conduct your work with zero dependencies from a physical place to attend.
Of course, you can still attend the office (if your organization has one) for a company event/occurrence but when it happens, it’s seen as an exception, not a standard.
Meet SARS-COV-2:
When restrictive measures took place, organizations had to re-invent themselves by bringing a different view on their business sustainability. The objective was to keep business alive while the majority (or full) workforce worked from their homes for an undefined time period.
Companies with a mature digital culture had a less rocky path since digital platforms accelerated employees’ buy-in and productivity. Others still focused on more ‘analogic’ businesses (and less digital literacy), had to shut down, or made a huge investment (money & time) to build a proper digital setup so the employees can work properly from their homes.
However, it’s key to bring to the discussion a ‘language abuse’ propagated over the years: to raise employee recruitment rates, companies often advertised ‘Remote Work’ as a benefit when they were effectively tackling ‘Work From Home’ principles.
Introducing Work From Home:
‘Work From Home’ (WFH) definition will vary depending on the source. For this example, let’s consider the benefit given by several European companies, which is the one I’m most familiar with: Although having a defined workplace, the employee is entitled to execute some activities at home, as a temporary undertaking.
Meaning, the company still expects you to be at the office and engage with others. You still have your own desk and other benefits you may find at the office. Your company culture still relies on your physical presence near other co-workers.
Working from home is good if, on a given day, you want a quiet place without others poking around or to avoid commuting if you don’t have face-to-face meetings. One way or the other, it’s a ‘scheduled’ absence in which your colleagues adapt their work when you aren’t at the office.
This was the scenario most employees were used before the virus outbreak.
In contrast to WFH, remote work is a way of working, a lifestyle built on a company’s culture and processes. Your business thrives on an ecosystem where your values, culture, frameworks, and processes establish a setup where people are not co-located but can still interact and collaborate. Such remote setups are leveraged by digital platforms where communication and information flows are the building stones. This does not mean such companies don’t have a physical office or invite their workers to attend it once in a while. However, such should be seen as an exception, which does not create any dependency for the work to be done.
If curious about a true remote setup, please check GitLab’s handbook.
As you can imagine, the organization’s maturity to achieve a successful remote setup is overwhelmingly high. It takes time to strategize, implement, and ensure employees’ buy-in. With the virus outbreak, most companies didn’t have the possibility to prepare for such a transition and secure their maturity. They just threw their employees home and waited for the best.
Fast-forwarding 12 months, companies still navigate uncharted waters (a vaccine is on the way but the infection rate is still off the charts), and they acquire new problems: employee disengagement, lack of communication, more relationship frictions, redundant and unclear processes — everything a proper remote work setup should have facilitated.
Now, put yourself in these employees’ shoes. Even worse, you are one of those people. You still:
- Struggle with the consequences of forced isolation and psychological degradation, keeping your loved ones at a distance;
- Juggle your day-to-day priorities to give your children attention while preparing for another meeting;
- Are unsure how to cope with the latest co-worker frictions, who made you suspicious about how your organization manages opinions, inclusion, and diversity;
Even if the media says we are now on remote work, this is NOT remote work. This a masquerade society has thrown at us without time to prepare ourselves. So the next time you hear the so-called specialists on “the 5 best tips to excel at remote work”, please question them about psychological safety, company de-centralized processes, information structure, and employee remote adoption. It’s not enough to consume the “install your home desk at a sunny place” tip…
