I really enjoyed reading the article “Op-Ed: Work life will never be the same. We need some in-person days and some remote” (https://www.latimes.com/) by Nicholas Bloom (https://nbloom.people.stanford.edu/).
The author seems to do research on remote work for almost 20 years and he writes “before the pandemic, few people took remote work seriously” and “the pandemic is the biggest shock to American working life since the shift to military production during World War II”.
I am not in a position to judge on the overall impact on society and business but from a personal perspective, would agree that “work life will never be the same” for a lot of employees and managers. And I think it is a unique opportunity we should jointly use and actively shape the outcome.
Coming from a business environment which is dominated by IT and DevOps, often including distributed teams, I feel quite comfortable with the new way of work set-up. More important, I do see numerous benefits in a working environment which allows a major part being remote, e.g. from home office.
One example is the opportunity for people with certain disabilities to be an active and equal part of the team (which I think is often not given in a typical office environment), thus the new way of work supports inclusion. To my opinion, this applies in a similar fashion to older colleagues being more easily accepted when everybody is remote (of course assuming they fully adapt to the tools and processes and have the same appetite for collaboration and joint success). Implemented properly, this should be to the benefit of both, employees, and companies.
Less travel from home to work is to the benefit of the environment. On top, this eliminates unproductive time and frees thus up for either more productive work or to be spend with family, sports etc. Anyone interested in some examples of major cities in the US may look at https://www.makealivingwriting.com/:
The often-cited increase of flexibility, e.g., being with the kids in the afternoon and finishing one’s work in the late afternoon and evening might be true for several jobs. But in order to be fully integrated in a team, being available when there is a need to communicate with others and this on short notice, I am not sure how this will remain a realistic benefit on the long term. My guess is that employees who want to fully remain connected with their teammates and managers will try to ensure to be available during typical working hours.
I am of the same opinion as many others, that companies wanting to get the best qualified and motivated employees, will have to offer a major remote component. Depending on the skills sought, one might not find the best candidates nearby anyway. Further, local employees have now experienced some of the benefits of a partial remote work and will not accept future jobs without it. Nicholas Bloom writes “a December survey revealed that more than 40% of U.S. employees would start looking for another job or quit immediately if ordered to return to the office full time”. For those employees, a “hybrid model”, as suggested by the author, might be a good option. But this will not be an option for truly remote colleagues, e.g. working from a location far away.
Thus, I think a substantial part of work will in future be done by fully remote setups. Something like an evolution of an onsite – offshore or nearshore setup. If all of this is done with the right processes, tools and by colleagues with the right attitude and mindset, I think this will be to the benefit of everybody.
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