Remote Work Lifestyle – Pro’s and Cons

My eyes meandered open at 8:10 am. My phone still happily snoozing until an 8:30 alarm was set to wake us both. A weekly office catchup meeting at 9. 

“I am early for work”, I thought. And as I lay there, enjoying 20 minutes of peaceful contemplation while my body slowly arose, I reflected on how my morning routine had changed. Prior to COVID, waking up at 8:10 for an 8:30 alarm would be a disastrous start to the morning. A 9 am start would have me ready to leave the house at 7:30 am, 7:45 at the absolute latest.

I smiled sleepily as I turned on the coffee machine. It would take more than a global pandemic to upset this morning routine. I sit down in my home office and join the meeting at 8:57 am, 3 minutes early. 

“Yes, I like this”. 

Here in sunny Queensland, Australia, we are waking up from the COVID coma and beginning to reemerge back into our lifestyles of pre-COVID times. It will never be exactly the same, but there is an enthusiasm toward “getting back into it”. Restrictions are easing, COVIDsafe systems are in place, and people are glad to be back outside and connecting in person.

However, workplaces have changed. We were forced to quickly adapt to a new system that we are still largely lin shock about what it means. There are as many articles out there about the benefits of working from home, as there its detriments.

For employers, many have cited increases in productivity. while others are now looking at cutting the expenses of a physical location. For teams that managed to keep their doors open, their services relevant, and their teams connected, the shift has been largely positive.

But there are drawbacks. And the problem is not the remote nature of the work so much as the leadership style of the teams themselves. Sales teams have noted reductions in productivity and morale. While software engineers and online service providers have not. Teams that relied on collaboration to help solve creative solutions are experiencing difficulties recreating the “brainstorm” environment from a distance. While employees who suffered under a micromanaging system now have a little more freedom to work on their own terms.

So is remote work Good or Bad?

As you can probably imagine, the answer is not so black and white. It all depends on what you want to achieve.

As most businesses either transitioned to online work and services during the pandemic or risked shutting their doors, as the situation now improves they are faced with a decision.

“Do we remain a remote workplace or not?”

If remote work is suitable for your business post COVID then you will need to decide on what it is you are hoping to achieve. It is possible to create collaborative, communication-based solutions via remote systems. Our experience as hosts for our remote game is a testament to this fact. Given the right tools, human beings will adapt to new creative methods, so long as communication is consistent, goals are achievable, and deadlines are clear.

To be a successful remote workplace you must:

• Have an effective cloud-based organizational system. Use software such as Slack, Google Drive, Google Meet, Facebook Rooms, Microsoft Teams, Trello, Monday, Shift, Asana to keep track of goals, progress, and productivity.
• Communicate consistently, but not constantly. Have regularly scheduled meetings for teams and staff. Keep these meetings concise and to an agenda, yet also allow for personal interaction. Schedule weekly lunchbox meetings as an opportunity to chat outside of the workload. Do not surprise your employees with video calls, or bombard them with meeting requests. This will quickly destroy a sense of trust and create one of surveillance. People are more productive when they work with purpose, and interrupting that workflow will only decrease productivity.
• Set deadlines, not timelines. The largest shift that remote work has allowed is that people are able to work at a time that suits their needs, and not their employers. By being able to access their workspace at any time it presents an opportunity of freedom for the employee. Demanding a 9-5 routine of workable hours is fast becoming a dogmatic metric more than a functional operating system. Create realistic deadlines for projects and then check in on those deadlines as to progress. If it so happens that Mark works on the project at 10 am – 2 pm while Susan does it after the kids are asleep then so be it. As long as they are able to meet their deadlines then how they meet them is not up to you anymore.
• Pay for Projects, Not Hours. This is similar to the above point but bears mentioning separately. As your employees will be more productive self managing their time, it is important to shift your financial philosophy from paying-for-time to paying-for-projects. This incentives employees to complete work with increased productivity. It has been written that the 8-hour workday results in 2 hours and 53 minutes of productivity. So when you pay for a project, you are paying for the value of the project, not the time it takes for it to be completed. Set achievable goals for your employees and pay them for completing these goals. It is a mindset shift, but an important one if you want to successfully run a remote business.

In Conclusion

If you have managed to survive the remote work transition either as an employee or employer then consider yourself one of the lucky ones. If you are trying to decided how to move forward then working from home is going to bring new challenges. But it has most likely heightened existing ones. The answer to whether it is good or bad comes down to whether the workplace culture, leadership, and systems were either effective or not. 

Create a positive company culture by using systems to help your employees feel connected. Run remote games, schedule virtual lunchbox meetings, and let your employes self manage their time. Doing this whether you run a business in person or online will yield the same results: increased productivity, increased agency, and more fruitful interactions and relationships.