It seems that in many cases when companies offer “home office” they make it forced, and only do it because they know (or someone from HR passed them the data) that today in the IT field it is almost essential to retain the talents (as they like to tell us) or attract new ones.
Remind me to write a post about the euphemism of calling talent to job candidates. As an advance, “hunter” does not seem to be the ideal word to attract “talents” or whatever. At least I don’t want to be hunted.
When they consider having 100% remote employees, they start to sweat cold and the panic begins.
Despite everything and driven by modernity, there are all kinds of theories about remote work, one could almost say that it is fashionable.
Other recent fashions were the shared workspaces in contrast to the offices that apparently are now discovering that it was not as they thought. About this matter it would also be good to write a post.
But behind all fashion there is something real, or rather, for something to be transformed into fashion there must be something real that satisfies some type of need of one of those involved.
So, remote work YES or remote work NO?
I can’t say NO because I worked in that modality for the past 12 years and it is this experience that I think helps to give an opinion.
My approach is to think that there is no contrast between on site and remote work.
I think that currently technological advances, globalization and on another level, the complexity of everyday life in cities are the justification for what we usually call remote work.
I think that to accompany this change towards the incorporation of remote work, a cultural change is needed and the least traumatic way is to be able to reflect on the subject instead of automatically adopting a recipe that, due to the little experience, we have no guarantee that it will be suitable.
I mean basically not being carried away by prejudices, mainly the companies that are the ones that should take the initiative.
It is clear that a notebook, for the employee, is more expensive than a generic desktop PC (at least in Argentina). But how much does the square meter of office cost? Energy expenditure to cool and heat? And a long list of etc.
How will I control the employees?!?!?
If someone wants to steal your time, they will steal it at any distance. If you know your business, you’ll know who steals you or who doesn’t do the job as expected. A software that captures the screen every X minutes will not solve the problem, it will only create a link based on distrust. On some scale it can give you the feeling that you have things under control but it will be another problem to scale the team.
You will have to adapt the workflow, without a doubt, you will have to adapt it to the asynchronousity that is the most prominent aspect when working remotely.
Trying to manage things as usual in a on site team is a mistake.
Asynchronousness
Asynchronism is what should guide the reflections you make when establishing a workflow for the team and/or choosing work tools.
What does asynchronicity mean?
Asynchronous communication is that communication that is established between people in a deferred way over time, that is, when there is no temporary coincidence.
This can happen because they aren’t in the same time zone or simply because the person is busy with something else and can’t answer instantly.
When working in on-site mode, it is more common for a team member to agree to be interrupted if someone requests it.
In the case of a remote team it is important to establish and learn how interruptions should be made.
The general criterion, but much more in the case of someone of whom we don’t have visual feedback on what the other is doing, is to respect the times of the other and not underestimate the time of others.
Respecting each other’s time and asking instead of assuming I think they are two of the pillars of the culture necessary for remote work to be carried out in a sustainable way.
These last criteria, if one thinks a little, also apply to on site work and that is why I think there is no difference between the two work modalities. It becomes more relevant when there are members in the team who work remotely but both (permanent interruption and presupposition) are always bad practices.
The others necessary elements for asynchronism is knowing how to express ideas and/or needs in writing and have adequate tools, mainly an appropriate task manager.
It is thought that it is usual to make meetings or calls because it is simpler and faster.
I don’t think it’s like that in any way. I think it is a justification that evidences that most people are not able to express more or less complex ideas in writing regardless of the best way in some context.
Come on!!!. Who is happy when you receive a 1 minute audio message on whatsapp?
A conversation can serve to make some minor clarification but the univocal idea/instruction is the one that has been transmitted in writing.
In a conversation, what I understand is not necessarily what the other has explained to me. Much more if the interlocutors have different cultures and/or languages.
The “social” aspect
The “social” aspect, to call it somehow, of the teams where there are remote members is another important thing.
It is quite common for members in the office to have more weight in decisions or greater participation over members who are 100% remote.
This may be due to the lack of written communication skills, due to accessibility (euphemism to call for non-respect of others’ time) but I think it is mainly cultural.
Even if it is not, the remote member is often treated as a freelance.
This attitude creates imbalances within the teams and can lead to remote members accepting that hierarchy and losing interest in adding value to the team.
Companies should encourage relationships between team members regardless of location to banish prevalence over remotely members.
Training
One of the things that determines seniority “Senior” is the ability to work and solve problems autonomously, this is often used as an excuse for not granting the “benefit” of remote work to members who have not yet reached that status.
The first thing that occurs to me … we are all Junior in something.
I think it would be smarter to think of a form of work that allows the training of all team members regardless of the location.
Something that helps a lot is the internal documentation. It is necessary to incorporate/reinforce this good practice that fulfills the triple purpose of transmitting knowledge, helping to improve the skills of written communication and facilitates the incorporation of new members to the team and their adaptation to the conventions of the company.
Companies must encourage and allow the use of part of the day to work on documentation.
Documenting also has the benefit of learning by teaching.
Conclusion
Remote work can be a benefit for the team member because
– Do not waste hours of the day moving to the office in big cities.
– Can attend family matters without neglecting work
– democratizes access to work by having job opportunities being in places far from urban centers.
– etc etc etc
But mainly the remote work is a great benefit for the companies since they will be able to scale the team in an agile and exponential way while the costs increase in mathematical proportion.
Companies just have to learn how to organize.
*English is not the native language of the author of this post, any suggestion that improved the understanding of ideas is welcome