Remote Work Fallacies

I have been hearing the doom and gloom around the future of remote work and how it is impacting productivity.  I would suggest that the real problems lie with how the challenges presented by remote work have not been addressed by management and believing forcing workers back into the office will resolve the underlying issues is a fallacy.

First, in the pre-pandemic world, workers commuted often over one hour in each direction during which time they received zero compensation.  Remote workers often work longer hours due to the gaining of two or more hours of wasted time. Any economist who is not a shill finds economic benefit to the greater economy in that.

I worked remotely for IBM Global Services for 5 years. Remotely leading teams in different time zones and operating under different cultural norms requires disciplined management.  Just understanding time zones and their impact is significant, but spending the time to know your staff, work with them and build virtual relationships requires effort and discipline that frankly most mid-level managers lack and are receiving zero guidance for how to provide from their management.

Organizations lack the Human Resources tools needed to support remote workers.  Are the job descriptions current and accurate? What targets and goals are staff are expected to achieve? How is performance measured and what are the performance expectations?  How does one go about learning of internal opportunities or building relationships with co-workers or managers?  What does the organization do to foster these?

Working remotely can have an enormous impact on our environment, on the liveability of our cities and on the lives of millions of people, but nothing ever comes easy.  It takes time, commitment and effort to transform remote workers into effective teams. More than anything, it falls on managers of all types, including project managers, to create the circumstances required for success.