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Office Frustrations

Now that COVID-19 has demonstrated many offices are unnecessary, we must keep our eyes out. Another issue surfaces on the horizon, like a sleeping tiger just beginning to rouse.

It’s the blaring horn of the office. The company-wide email saying, “All employees will return to the office on X Date.”

Let me take a guess as to how this email will go. It will include phrases like, ‘how companies should run,’ and/or ‘where employees need to be.’

Beware! These are signs of managers trying to return to old thinking.

Prairie Dog Yelling

Not actually a boss yelling for you to get back to the office. I just thought a prairie dog yelling was hilarious.
Photo by Arnaud STECKLE on Unsplash.

 

We’re already seeing companies try to bring people back to the office. The managers and VPs woke up, and now want to force employees who’ve dealt with a severely stressful situation – and KEPT WORKING – back into their cubicles.

Why would they do this? The entire world has now seen through the lie of, “You have to be in the office to work!”

Nope, we sure don’t. And everyone knows it now.

The managers who demand employees come back are essentially saying two things:

  1. “I won’t change my thinking for anything.”
  2. “I don’t trust you.”

This is quite sad. It reflects badly on managers in general (and we’ve all known good ones).
We’re coming out of a global Black Swan event, and they want to pretend it’s the 1990s again?

What Managers Need to Know About Demanding Employees Return to the Office (and What Employees Should Do In Response)

Whatever the motivations, we still have to deal with the demand. Both as individual employees and as companies. Let me help you do so.

I’ve put together a detailed response to this old thinking below. It’s divided into two parts. One for managers who want to force employees back into the office. One for employees facing a manager who wants them back in the office.

First up, managers. Time for some hard truths, folks.

Hard Truths For Managers:

  • If you give people the option to remain home, many will take it. That’s not a mark of laziness; it’s a mark of efficiency. Most people want to do good work. If they’ve found they can do so remotely, why take that away from them?
  • If you’re worried about internal communications, then your communications plan has flaws. Ask several employees how they prefer to communicate day-to-day. You may find some using channels you didn’t provide them, like texting or personal Skype. That’s a weakness in your own communications, and it’s something you need to fix pronto.
  • If you do insist on people coming back, expect lower productivity, poorer quality of work, and higher turnover. Why? Because you just injected a huge amount of stress into an already-stressful workplace.

    Office Frustrations

    “I didn’t have to deal with this at home.”
    Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash.

  • Do you have some employees in the office and some remote? Maybe you’re thinking the remote employees aren’t working as hard as the on-site ones? Statistics say the opposite. Remote workers are MORE likely to work harder and put in more hours. You’re barking up the wrong tree.
  • Finally, let me say this. Thousands of businesses have decided to make remote work a permanent part of their infrastructure: Facebook, Twitter, Shopify. They’ve seen its benefits during the lockdown, and recognized that it helped the business to survive. If you take your team’s remote options away…well, those other companies look quite appealing now, don’t they? You will, in effect, drive your own team out the door.
Unproductive Work

Unproductive employees are, well, unproductive.
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash.

 

I mean no malice in saying all this. Directing people and processes is not an easy task under any circumstances. It’s simply necessary to understand these points. This change was coming either way…COVID just shoved it forward.

Next up, employees! You may wonder how to respond to a “Heading Back to the Office” email. Options do exist, though you should exercise caution in using them.

How Employees Should Respond:

  • If your manager announces a “Return to the Office” directive, ask for a discussion. Decisions like this usually take place in a vacuum. Asking to talk it over allows for feedback, which can prompt more thought and collaboration among the whole team.
  • Bring talking points to the discussion.
    • Has your productivity gone up while working remotely? Cite an instance of this. Perhaps you were able to respond to a customer request right away, because you’d already finished a project that would have otherwise blocked you.
    • Familiarize yourself with up-to-date remote work statistics. Hubspot has compiled several such statistics in this article, updated May 2020. I’ll give two examples below:
      • 74% of employees say that a remote work option would make them less likely to leave their company.
      • Businesses would save an average of $11,000 annually per half-time telecommuter.

        Remote Working Well

        Don’t mind me, just doing my work (with good posture no less!).
        Photo by Susanna Marsiglia on Unsplash.

  • If you have a story about continuing to work during the pandemic due to the remote option, bring it up. Nothing persuades like a story.
  • Prepare for success and for failure. Success is easy – just keep doing what you’re doing. Failure may take some mental adjustment (not to mention scheduling). Be aware of this going in.
  • If in the end, your manager insists everyone return, take a little time to consider whether this is the company for you. Other companies will keep Remote Work environments open…perhaps you’re better off at one of them?
  • I recommend against staging a protest, unless you’re part of a large team who all want to work remotely. Instead, keep talking with co-workers, and continue to bring the subject up with Management wherever appropriate.

Remote Work is the Future, Whether Management Likes It or Not

I did expect managers to push for a post-lockdown return to the office. You did too, right?

For some, it has nothing to do with productivity, and everything to do with their own control. That’s an emotional reason, not a rational one. As we’ve all seen lately, it’s nigh-impossible to reason with emotional people!

That said, the Remote Work genie is unquestionably out of the bottle. No amount of pushing & demand-issuing will put it back. Even the most die-hard anti-telecommuter has seen it.

The next 10 years will see dramatic shifts in what constitutes an ‘office’ and a ‘company.’ I trust that the COVID pandemic will pass, but the truths it’s shown the world about remote work will linger. As they should! They demonstrate that we can all do great work from any location.

What’s your situation with the office? Please share in the comments.

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Telecommuting and Traffic

It amazes me that we still need to make a case for remote work in Corporate America. Yet we do, even today.

Which is why I always like seeing good strong articles on it. Case in point: this excellent overview of the ‘state of telework’ at Ars Technica.

The future of work looks like staying out of the office (February 18, 2020)

Ars Technica Logo

Logo image courtesy of ArsTechnica.com.

The article calls up the major arguments for telecommuting – time recaptured, traffic reduced, flexibility leading to more productivity. It debunks a few common objections. Then it concludes with a discussion on telework among federal employees. (Which has gone down in the past few years…a little surprising, honestly.)

One point I did like seeing was the fact that telecommuting helps with a tight labor market. Right now we have less than 4% unemployment – which is extremely tight! Here in Silicon Valley, positions can stand empty for months. Not due to lack of demand, but due to lack of skilled people. Even if you find someone, another company will happily poach them from you in an instant.

This not only means companies must scramble to find people, but they have to keep them once hired. Telecommuting opens up more options in the talent pool, and provides a valuable benefit to staying on.

For example, a friend of a friend is a programmer in the Midwest. He is disabled due to a severe car accident in his teens. He must use a wheelchair. As such, he cannot drive. Even if he moved into a city where he could find work, how would he get there & back every day? Uber would add up fast.

Instead, he telecommutes. He works for a Silicon Valley company as one of their programmers. Does a great job, as I hear…with zero commute and no worries about getting around.

Remote Work advocates like me will read this article and simply nod along with it. If you’re curious, or want to understand why remote-friendly workers believe in it, this article is well worth the read.

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Communicating Remotely

A recent study recommends remote teams communicate in “bursts,” not constantly throughout the workday.

The website behavioralscientist.org, a site discussing human psychology, published the following article on May 29:

“Bursty” Communication Can Help Remote Teams Thrive – Behavioral Scientist

I find the fact that a psychology website brings up Remote Work very important. Adoption of Remote Work is more a question of psychology than anything else.

The tech IS available, and has been for years. Implementation only takes days. But before that you need the company to accept the notion of Remote Work (what many call ‘buy-in’). After implementation, you need work habits to change, adapting around the new Remote Work option.

These are both a matter of human beliefs, attitudes, and habits – all aspects of human psychology.

So let’s examine what the BehavioralScientist.org article has to say.

Study Done on Remote Team Productivity when Using 2 Communication Methods

The article discusses a study which tested remote teams’ communication strategies. Specifically, they measured two different communication methods:

  1. Standard communication: Communication occurred constantly, in small exchanges, all throughout the day. Lag time often occurred between initial requests and responses.
  2. “Burstiness”: Communication “bursts” – rapid exchange of messages within a short time period – occurred sporadically during the workday. Then people went back to their work until the next “burst.”

The result? The teams using “burstiness” were more productive, more coherent, and had higher-quality work at the end of the day. Findings included this statistical result: “A one standard deviation increase in burstiness lead to a 24 percent performance increase.”

24% improvement is pretty darn significant for a controlled trial!

What This Means: Nonstop Conversation Trickle Disrupts Work. Communication Bursts Allow Focused Work.

I’ve seen this reflected in my own telecommuting. As you’re working, you begin to run into snags. I need this file from Sharon…are we debuting the new trial version on Thursday or Monday…

You ask the co-worker about the snag. But co-workers, wrapped up in their own work, don’t answer right away. What do you do? You either a) keep bugging them, or b) wait (causing what I call ‘Question Buildup’).

Within a normal office environment, you could go ask them & get back to work. But that creates another type of disruption. You go to Sharon’s desk, ask her a question, and get an answer. Then someone else asks Sharon a question & gets an answer. Then someone else…

How much work can Sharon accomplish like this? None!

A constant trickle of quick conversations, facilitated by an easy-to-access office environment, just RUINS productivity. But without those questions answered, you get Question Buildup, and your work can’t progress. It creates a bad Catch 22.

“Bursty” communication periods can solve this problem, according to the study.

Here’s how I envision using “burstiness” during the workday. (Forgive the crudely-basic infographic; I am not a designer.)

Burstiness for Remote Teams

“Burstiness” and its role in the remote team’s workday.

  1. All team members proceed with their work.
  2. Questions begin to build up among them.
  3. One or more persons calls for a Burst session.
  4. Everyone stops their work & converses with the team.
  5. Questions are answered, issues resolved, direction obtained. Could take as little as 5 minutes.
  6. Team members go back to work.
  7. Repeat cycle if necessary.

Communicating in Bursts Lets Remote Workers Do Their Work, AND Stay Productive. Try It!

Take a minute and read the BehavioralScientist.org article. It’s an excellent study, and a short read.

We glean a strong two-part point about remote work from the study results:

  • Communication is key for ALL teams, but especially remote teams. Doing so productively translates to big productivity gains.
  • Remote Work is more a matter of psychology than procedure. If the psychological acceptance isn’t there, someone will sabotage the whole effort.

How do you handle communication when working remotely?

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Fire Extinguisher Emergency

Let’s finish off 2017 by continuing the “Suitable Work Type” post series. It’s time to talk about a few work types that don’t make sense to do remotely. At least not yet.

I know, it’s a bit strange to see a post on a remote-work blog talking about this. But when advancing a big change, such as a major shift in how many jobs are done, one must expect opposition. Especially when said shift threatens a lot of jobs (including that of the opposition).

I’ve already had people throw out counterarguments like:
“How will police do their jobs, huh?”
“You can’t do ER work remotely, so that means the whole thing’s wrong!”

To a large degree, these arguments are true. For now. They just don’t consider the future perspective.

I’m writing this post to illustrate how true they are, if there’s any progress toward making them remote-friendly, and why this doesn’t disprove the larger telecommuting shift.

Identifying Non-Suitable Work Categories

A reminder: I’m grouping the following into categories. These are segments of the workforce, with many specific jobs under their umbrella. Easier to envision them this way.

Most (but not all) of these jobs we cannot yet do remotely. Not without severely low efficiency, and/or serious risk to the larger populace.

I want to stress something before I continue: These jobs are important.

They help us build & sustain critical parts of our economy. In no way does my listing them here minimize their necessity.

That said, let’s take a look at the criteria.

The Criteria (Again) for Remote Work Suitability

I’ll use the same set of criteria as the last post.

  1. Primary Role – Where is this role most effective?
  2. Job Location vs. Customer Location
  3. Do the daily duties require physical interaction?
  4. Which communication methods are commonly used?
  5. What is the ideal communication method for this job?
  6. What output does the job generate, and where does it go?

Work Type 1: Blue-Collar/Trades

This is a blanket term for many constructive roles (literally) – plumbing, electrical, residential/commercial construction, etc.

  1. PRIMARY ROLE – Tradespeople are most effective at a worksite. This can be a new construction location, a home in need of repair, and so on.
  2. LOCATION – The customer may not necessarily be at the job location. For instance, commercial developers in one city paying workers to wire a building under construction the next city over.
  3. DUTIES REQUIRE PHYSICAL INTERACTION – Yes, definitely. Pipes can’t lay themselves (yet), buildings can’t build themselves (yet).
  4. COMMUNICATION METHODS – The trades can use any communication they want. My limited experience has told me that many workers like phone calls, texting, and conference calls. All methods they can use while on-site.
  5. IDEAL COMMUNICATION – At this point, I’d have to say texting is ideal. It doesn’t force a worker to stop what they’re doing, and they can keep in touch with whomever they need to.
  6. OUTPUT & WHERE – The trades produce some of the most tangible output possible. New homes, office buildings, city infrastructure, sewage & electrical systems, and much more.

Remote Work in such a field is not possible. At least not entirely. Instead, we have a lateral change occurring in the trades…automation! Automation is making a lot of headway in terms of construction. Witness robots building houses!

A Robot Can Print This $64,000 House in as Little as Eight Hours – Futurism

3D Printed House

Photo courtesy of Futurism.com.

 

(The technology is still a bit preliminary. That will change, fast.)

Work Type 2: Medical (in Part)

Another huge blanket term, covering everyone from orderlies to cardiac surgeons.

Ambulance

Photo by Benjamin Voros on Unsplash

 

  1. PRIMARY ROLE – The site of patient injury.
  2. LOCATION – There are three primary locations for medical professionals: the Hospital, the Injury Site, and the Patient Home.
  3. DUTIES REQUIRE PHYSICAL INTERACTION – Yes, for almost all instances.
  4. COMMUNICATION METHODS – Direct person-to-person, by phone, through electronic records, some email, texting.
  5. IDEAL COMMUNICATION – I’m going to say a combination of person-to-person and electronic records here. Phone is fastest, but it’s also the most subject to misunderstanding. How clear can you be on the phone if your family member/friend is bleeding?
  6. OUTPUT & WHERE – Medical professionals output better patient health.

Since the medical work type must work in so many capacities, Remote Work is largely impossible. However, some aspects of it CAN work remotely.

For example, HealthTap is developing technology capable of replacing a doctor visit/consultation. One very large aspect of the entire medical profession…done from anywhere.

Think of how this would benefit Doctors Without Borders. They could estimate where to send the most resources based on ground-level experience, all gathered before anyone begins travel. Mission successes would jump, resource allocation efficiency improves, and most importantly, more people stay healthy.

Work Type 3: Emergency Response

These are the people working in between things like the medical and legal industries. Firefighters, EMTs, Search & Rescue, and so on.

Fire Department

Photo by Mike Anderson on Unsplash

 

  1. PRIMARY ROLE – The site of emergency.
  2. LOCATION – Anywhere people are injured, lost, or in danger. Any place property is damaged.
  3. DUTIES REQUIRE PHYSICAL INTERACTION – In most cases, yes. Visual assessment and physical response are key.
  4. COMMUNICATION METHODS – Any & all available. These professions even have their own communication channels (e.g. specific radio bands, point-to-point calls).
  5. IDEAL COMMUNICATION – The profession’s own communication channels work best. That’s why they developed them!
  6. OUTPUT & WHERE – This work type outputs mitigated emergencies. Injured people treated, lost people found, property preserved, fires put out.

There’s too much travel for this work type to accomplish 100% remotely. However, we’re already replacing aspects of it with automation.

Self-driving vehicles help with the ambulance question. We don’t yet have machines which can do EMT work in the back of an ambulance…but we will automate the driver’s role very shortly. Search & Rescue? Launch drones! It’s not as good as an expert tracker’s eye, but it’s much more efficient than mobilizing dozens of people when seconds count.

Work Type 4: Law Enforcement

This work type primarily covers police and related bureaus (e.g. federal investigators). To a lesser degree it also covers judges.

Police Officer

For some reason I just like this photo. Maybe it’s because he isn’t rushed or angry or under threat. He’s just out there doing his job. Photo by Jordan Andrews on Unsplash

  1. PRIMARY ROLE – Law enforcement does their job best when they’re able to interact with colleagues and suspects.
  2. LOCATION – One important point here. Law enforcement’s “customer” is actually the citizen. Their job is to protect & serve citizens, by enforcing laws among them. Thus their job location is best characterized as “in the field.”
  3. DUTIES REQUIRE PHYSICAL INTERACTION – Yes. Some police departments insulate themselves from the populace; this is not only wrong, it’s inefficient. It breeds distrust among citizens and an authoritarian attitude among officers.
  4. COMMUNICATION METHODS – Police generally use radios, electronic records, phone calls, and email.
  5. IDEAL COMMUNICATION – I would lean more toward electronic records as best. I don’t know if you’ve ever listened to 911 call recordings or police dispatch calls, but the audio quality (not to mention vocal timbre) is terrible!
  6. OUTPUT & WHERE – Law Enforcement’s best output is a safe environment for citizens. When children can play outside without their parents fearing the worst.

What’s the Remote Work future for law enforcement? Robots! We already have robots which can monitor locations, provide a ‘presence’ to deter crime, and process criminals. They aren’t perfect. But nothing is in early stages.

For now though, we don’t have robots that can chase down a suspect or conduct questioning. Law enforcement is not Remote Work-suitable just yet.

The Future: Automation Can Replace At Least Some of These

As I pointed out above, automation looms large for many work types. Overall I believe this is a good thing; jobs such as firefighting and construction take a heavy toll on workers’ bodies. Any form of lightening that load should be employed.

Does that mean fewer jobs (even remote ones) for individuals in these work types? To a small degree, yes. But we will always need people to manage the drones, maintain the equipment, program them, fix mistakes…

Not everything will be remote work. But more of it will shift as automation grows. Which can actually help Remote-Enable more professions!

I’ll dedicate more posts to automation later. It’s a meaty topic; a bunch of professions deserve an address from its perspective.

For now, thanks for reading, and Happy Holidays!

What’s your perspective on these work types Remote-Enabling in the future?

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Working Remotely

You can do entire types of work remotely. More types than you might suspect.

This is the first of a post series, talking about which jobs/job types are best (and worst) suited for remote work. I’m writing it for two explicit audiences:

  1. Those who’d like ammo in case someone asks, “Well if telecommuting’s so great, how come only programmers do it?”
  2. Those who hear about Remote Work and think, “There’s no way you could do X Job remotely.”

If you think remote work is only good for contracted programmers, this post should prove enlightening. I’ve met many different people who work remotely, in a variety of roles…all the way up to CEO!

Maybe I’ll address the “remote CEO” question later. For now though, let’s dig into our definitions. In order to determine if a work type is indeed suitable for Remote Work, we’ll need criteria. Factors which, if they all add up, mean the job is not location-based. Here are those factors.

The Criteria for Remote Work Suitability

After some research and pondering, I devised these criteria for our use. They cover critical work functions, interactions, and goals. They are also broad enough that they apply to most work types without special circumstances (e.g., medical, rural industry).

  1. Primary Role—Where is it most effective?
  2. Job Location vs. Customer Location
  3. Do the daily duties require physical interaction?
  4. Which communication methods are commonly used?
  5. What is the ideal communication method for this job?
  6. What output does the job generate, and where does it go?

I’ve dissected 6 common work types using these criteria, and found all of them are suitable for remote work. In fact, none require a physical office at all!

I hope at least one of these surprises you. I’m using standard industry names for easy understanding.

Working Remotely from Anywhere

Work Type 1: Web Development

  1. PRIMARY ROLE — Wherever the developer is most productive.
  2. LOCATION — Customer location can be “anywhere.” Job location is therefore location-independent.
  3. DUTIES REQUIRE PHYSICAL INTERACTION — No. Email, calls, and chat work fine. Especially when dealing with code.
  4. COMMUNICATION METHODS — Email, GitHub, chat, etc.
  5. IDEAL COMMUNICATION — This depends on the client for whom the developer works. Any of the methods from #4 may then work.
  6. OUTPUT & WHERE — Code for apps & websites. This is posted to a server, tested, and released.

From what we can see. nothing about this role requires presence in an office. No surprise that this is one of the largest telecommuting-friendly work roles today.

Work Type 2: Management

  1. PRIMARY ROLE — Directing the workloads of others. You can do it in-office or through other methods, depending on scale & business standards.
  2. LOCATION — “Customers” are split between actual business customers & employees. Either or both can be local or remote.
  3. DUTIES REQUIRE PHYSICAL INTERACTION — Requires interaction, yes. Physical interaction? Again, depends on scale & business structure. But no, physical interaction is not required.
  4. COMMUNICATION METHODS — Phone, email, collaborative editing, yelling across the office, text…all sorts. In fact, some communications were arguably invented for Management to talk with you more!
  5. IDEAL COMMUNICATION — For management, ideal communication is trackable, fast/real-time, and clear. Email & phone win out.
  6. OUTPUT & WHERE — A manager’s output is measured in employee productivity & customer satisfaction.

Should Management stick to the office? They can. Do they have to? No.

Work Type 3: Creative Work

  1. PRIMARY ROLE — The same as a developer…wherever they are most productive.
  2. LOCATION — Customers are usually an employer or client. Job can be wherever they are, or wherever the creative is.
  3. DUTIES REQUIRE PHYSICAL INTERACTION — Daily duties involve focused work: writing copy, designing graphics, etc. They require focus…the opposite of interaction!
  4. COMMUNICATION METHODS — See Management’s #4.
  5. IDEAL COMMUNICATION — I asked a designer friend of mine how he prefers to communicate. He prefers two methods:
    • Email (for as much detail as needed), and
    • Video calls (for getting a good sense of what someone wants).
  6. OUTPUT & WHERE — Output is creative content. This normally goes into a website, ad, or marketing campaign.

Like web developers, nothing in creative work requires an office. In fact, many find offices stifling. Too much noise, not enough focus time.

Work Type 4: Sales

  1. PRIMARY ROLE — Salespeople sell. Thus they are most effective where the customer is most receptive. That could be in a store, on a website, or over a phone.
  2. LOCATION — See #1.
  3. DUTIES REQUIRE PHYSICAL INTERACTION — Some sales processes do require personal interaction…negotiating deals, for instance. But this is changing as more people shop online.
  4. COMMUNICATION METHODS — Salespeople rely on techniques & rapport. In the past they built both with speaking & learning about customer needs. Such skills are still useful…and even better, you can use many of the same techniques online.
  5. IDEAL COMMUNICATION — So much business occurs online that I’d say the ideal sales communication method is now the written word. That means email, webpages, chat, texting.
  6. OUTPUT & WHERE — You can measure sales output in customer purchases, reviews, repeat sales, & so on. Doing sales remotely actually makes all of these easier to track.

Sales is very audience-specific. Depending on yours, your salespeople could do very well telecommuting.

Work Type 5: Information Technology/IT

  1. PRIMARY ROLE — IT is a broad term, but I’ll go with a general goal of “maintaining IT systems within the business.” This is most effective from a place where the IT professional can access said systems efficiently.
  2. LOCATION — Customer is the employer or client (they’re the ones paying for the technology!). Location could be where the system is, if remote access is not possible. Bust that’s becoming a tiny minority. Remote access is commonplace.
  3. DUTIES REQUIRE PHYSICAL INTERACTION — Duties require interaction with the system more frequently than with people. Some IT pros prefer not interacting with people at all!
  4. COMMUNICATION METHODS — Like web developers, IT pros use almost every communication method out there.
  5. IDEAL COMMUNICATION — Based off my own IT friends, I’d say online chat has become the ideal method. Slack, Skype/Teams, etc. It’s real-time, easy to follow, and keeps logs.
  6. OUTPUT & WHERE — Output is a fully-functional IT system. Done right, you’re just doing regular checks & maintenance in between upgrades.

We’ve all breathed a sigh of relief when “the IT guys” show up to fix our problem. Nowadays though, they don’t have to physically go anywhere.

Work Type 6: Customer Service

  1. PRIMARY ROLE — Since Customer Service must address customer issues, they are most effective when dealing with the customers where THEY (the customers) want to be.
  2. LOCATION — Customers can be anywhere. Customer Service jobs must at least have the capability to help them anywhere.
  3. DUTIES REQUIRE PHYSICAL INTERACTION — A definite no. Case in point: Amazon’s Help Center. These CS reps are worldwide, and yet they do a pretty good job of addressing Amazon customers’ issues.
  4. COMMUNICATION METHODS – Customer Service is traditionally done through phone. However, I can’t recall the last time I called one. Instead, I go to a company’s website, and either send them an email, or fire up a chat window.
  5. IDEAL COMMUNICATION — Like IT, chat shines here. Chat works on any device, real-time, with no yelling or trying to figure out what the customer mumbled.
  6. OUTPUT & WHERE — Output is measured in number of satisfied issues & post-CS survey results. All made & recorded online.

Remote Work has given Customer Service a boost. A job search on Indeed showed me that the majority of CS jobs listed said the job was remote.

6 Major Work Types are all Remote Work-friendly. Is Yours?

These are just six types of work. You could also illustrate good Remote Work choices by industry (I’ll do that in a future post). Regardless, we can clearly see that major roles are easily “Remote-Enabled.”

Next time I’ll list some work types NOT suited for Remote Work. At least…not yet.

Is your job among the types listed above? If so, are you working remotely? Why/Why not? Please comment or email me your thoughts.

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“If I can’t see you working, how do I know you’re working?”

You’ve heard this mantra from business executives before. It always comes up when employees talk about telecommuting.

Seems kind of silly, doesn’t it? But some execs just won’t budge.

In this post we’ll explain why they don’t. It’s not the reason you might think…and it’s definitely not the reason they give!

What are Execs Really Afraid of With Telecommuting?

This statement, meant to sound like a reasonable rejection of a telecommuter’s working outside the office, actually illustrates a fear. A fear the exec has…a fear which is central to Remote Work objections. A fear that stands in the way of its adoption.

However, it’s not a fear of laziness. That’s what you might think when you hear it. But the exec isn’t worried telecommuters will just slack off and not do any work. (Few white-collar execs assume so little of their employees.)

No, no. This is a deeper fear. A personal one.

The Question of Control…and Losing It

The fear execs have when it comes to Remote Work is actually fear of loss of control.

The belief is that Remote Workers are outside of Management’s reach, and thus the exec cannot direct them. Cannot control their actions. The result? They (the exec) no longer controls that worker’s productivity.

Scared Executive

Of course that’s not true. Remote Workers still need direction for a bunch of job aspects:

  • Overarching business strategy
  • Project oversight
  • Inter-department communication
  • Customer service
  • R & D
  • Marketing objectives
  • Snags in the day-to-day processes

Et cetera.

I think we can safely say that fear of loss of control is unfounded. It has no rational basis (as if most fears ever do!).

But if there’s no rational basis, why does the fear of “I’m losing control” arise at all?

For the answer, think in terms of business models. A business executive is likely older (I’m generalizing)—in their 50s, 60s, etc. Throughout their career they knew only one business model:

  1. You Go To Work
  2. You Do Your Work
  3. You Go Home

They’ve lived within that model, that paradigm their entire professional life.

Enter Remote Work. A business model which moves emphasis away from physically going to a job site. Yet the work still gets done.

To the exec’s mind, this is unnerving. Incompatible. Their emotions activate and start yelling.

“New model! Uncertain! I can’t use the same mindset I always have. Am I obsolete? No! REJECT!”

…and that’s where the fear comes from. Loss of control, not just over their employees, but over their entire business mindset. Remote Work is perceived as a threat.

In a sense I understand the fear. We’re all only human. But even though I understand, I must still point out a major problem. It’s not just a problem for workers wanting to telecommute either…it’s also a problem for all the businesses whose execs are afraid of Remote Work.

This fear expresses itself as a rejection of Remote Work altogether. The exec can’t see themselves in the Remote Work paradigm, which jeopardizes their own position. So they try to stop it. Try to keep their time-worn mindset relevant (and keep their job).

Here’s the problem. Remote Work isn’t going away.

In fact, it’s still growing. According to the Flexjobs report, “2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. Employee Workforce,” telecommuting grew by 115% from 2005 to 2015.

If a business’ execs continue to reject it? It’s the business equivalent of paddling into a tidal wave. The BUSINESS is what’s going away, not Remote Work.

Feel the Fear…and Embrace Remote Work Anyway

The cold truth for all executives is: The market values productivity over brand names. It doesn’t care about your fears. It doesn’t care about your business model, no matter how long it’s been around. It only cares about the value you provide your customers.

Here’s a quick example. Let’s say your business and a competitor each have a similar product. Your business refuses to allow Remote Work. But your competitor embraces it.

You pass the traditional operating costs (salary, benefits, R&D, misc. Op-Ex) on to customers via the product’s price. Typical model. Like they used to.

The competitor, having lowered their Op-Ex by granting telecommuting to its workers, is able to lower its total expenses. Let’s say they reduced their office space, and moved most of their IT services to cloud platforms. This allowed them to reduce expenses by 10% – which they use to lower their prices.

Their product is now 10% cheaper than yours. The product is just as good, just as high-value…just more affordable.

Guess which product the market buys.
Guess what happens to your business.

Remote Work Fear

But…I don’t have a good reason not to enable Remote Work, but maybe I can come up with one…

Message to Business Executives: Remote Work is Here to Help. Don’t Be Scared.

Sorry, but your, “if I can’t see them, they’re not working” mindset is directly harmful to the bottom line. Time to change. The world is not waiting.

What can you, the worker, do to make this clear to Management? Show them this post. After you do, please leave a comment on the results. I always like hearing stories from fellow Remote Workers.

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Traffic Jam

Remote Work doesn’t just benefit you, the worker. Or you, the manager (from the greater productivity your workers gain). It also benefits something you both use every day.

Your environment.

How? By not contributing to environment-damaging conditions—when commuting.

Think about this. In any given major city or large metro area, what happens every workday? The Commute. Lots of people in cars, subway trains, and buses. Millions of bodies clogging up transportation routes at two (sometimes 3) times of the day.

Every vehicle filling the air with smog, heat, and soot.

Let’s see how Remote Work and commuting work together. You’ll see pretty quickly that even a small amount of Remote Work has a notable effect on the local environment…benefiting everyone who lives there.

Commuting Exposes You (and Everyone Else) to More Pollution Than Ever

According to StatisticsBrain, over 128 million people commute every day in the U.S. The majority (75%) drive their own car, going between 1-10 miles one-way. The average commute is about 25 minutes.

(Speaking as someone in the San Francisco Bay Area, I can confidently say…we commute on average FAR longer than 25 minutes. It’s taken me 45 minutes to go 3 miles, more than once!)

Commuter Train

That’s definitely not a BART train. There’s way too much space open.
Photo by Adelin Preda on Unsplash

Now, let’s broaden our perspective a little. What ELSE happens as a result of all those vehicles moving back and forth?

  • Air pollution.
  • Lots of fuel/energy use.
  • Each person loses time in traffic/delays.
  • Stress.

All serious problems. More so now than ever before.

In July 2017, just days before I wrote this, Duke University published a study on in-car pollution levels for commuters. They found that commuting drivers breathed in twice as many pollutants as sensors checking the air from the sides of the road. The kind of pollutants that not only make you cough, but can contribute to heart disease and cancer.

The study measured air in Atlanta traffic. But I’ll bet it’s just as bad, if not worse, over here on Silicon Valley’s clogged highways.

How Remote Work Saves the Planet! (Or at least improves your health.)

Just by commuting, you’re causing environmental damage, wasting time, and actually hurting yourself. 5 days a week, (nearly) 52 weeks a year, every year.

“Yeah, it’s not good for the planet. But what can we do?”

Simple. We can work remotely.

Imagine that same big city/metro area, with a large number of local businesses switching to Remote Work strategies. It wouldn’t affect ALL jobs (can’t telecommute to a construction site…yet). But even a 10% drop in people commuting could yield incredible improvements.

  • Better/lighter/faster traffic (I’m sure you’d appreciate that!)
  • Hours regained every week
  • Higher productivity from said regained time
  • Reduced air pollution
  • Lower stress levels
  • Happier workforce
  • Lower fuel/energy costs
  • More flexible business hours
  • Improved health for everyone!

Let’s gather some statistics to back these up. Here in the Bay Area we have a “Bike to Work” Day in May. They list the environmental benefits of such on this page:
Environmental Benefits – Bike to Work Day

According to their statistics, a mid-size car generates 1.3 tons of CO2 commuting 5 days a week for 1 year. Now, according to BayAreaCensus.gov, we had 2,674,000 people driving to work in 2010. I will round up to 3,000,000 for present day.

3 Million Cars x 1.3 Tons of CO2 = 3.9 million tons of CO2 dumped in the air. Every year. Just in one metro area. Multiply that by over 10 metro areas…yeah. That’s BAD for everybody.

If 10% of those workers telecommuted, it would stop 390,000 tons of CO2 from billowing up into the air.
Air you and I breathe each day.

Plus, you have time saved. Not just for telecommuters not driving to/from work, but for everyone else too. 10% of 3 million cars is 300,000 cars. What would happen to the people still commuting if we removed that many cars from daily traffic?

300,000 cars removed gives us 2,700,000 cars still commuting in the Bay Area. This Texas A&M study says that 148,000 person-hours are lost in traffic congestion for the San Francisco-Oakland area. A 10% reduction gives us 14,800 person-hours back. Divide that by 2,700,000 and you get…
32 seconds.

Okay, so a 32-second time savings on your commute isn’t much. But that’s with only 10% of commuters shifting to Remote Work. Imagine if we went to 20%. Or 50%.

You’re looking at huge pollution reductions, as well as more & more time saved for people who still commute.

Sounds like a good way to help prevent more heart disease and stress, doesn’t it? It sure does to me.

I have to say, that’s pretty smooth traffic for the Golden Gate!
Photo by Freddie Collins on Unsplash

Remote Work Helps Worker Productivity, Traffic, AND the Environment

The tremendous rush of commuting contributes to pollution and stress, every day. Helping keep the air clean and stress low is easily doable. All it takes is the decision to use a Remote Work approach.

If you use this “environmental benefit” argument to request Remote Work, please comment on the experience! I’d love to hear how well it works (and if not, what does!).

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Telecommuting from Coffee Shop

Right now businesses enjoy productivity like never before. We can choose all manner of methods & processes for efficiency and manpower: contracting, offshoring, gig work, full-timers, etc.

But there’s one productivity method still under-used. It can grant a business—almost ANY business—huge strides forward in productivity, time savings, even cost savings. Yet many businesses don’t trust it. Or dismiss its advantages.

It’s called Remote Work, or Telecommuting. It’s why I’ve created this blog. I want to see many more businesses realize the productivity advantages of Remote Work. And help them integrate Remote Work into their everyday operations.

On this site you’ll find explorations of Remote Work’s value in the real world. Guides on building Remote Work into a business. Directions on how jobs you may not think would work remotely, actually can (and should).

My name is Chris Williams. I’m working—remotely—toward a whole new era of business. Join me! You might just find the next “Big Thing” for your business, right here.

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