COVID-19 Is Doing A Disservice To Remote Work
We live in strange times full of fear, uncertainty, doubt, stress and anxiety. We can’t go out of our homes. Our kids are home-schooled. We are worried about our loved ones. There’s a significant slowdown in the economy. We’re feeling lucky if we still have a job… and we’re trying to work from home.
We don’t have a choice. Many of us are now working from home.
At first it seemed like this was going to be beneficial for the future of remote work. We were hopeful that companies would inadvertently unlock remote work’s potential and realize they should have done this earlier.
Unfortunately this is missing a big point.
Current Situation ≠ Remote Work
What we are experiencing is not simply remote or distributed work. Our environment is missing crucial things that are required for productive remote work.
We got caught unprepared in many ways. The change from days in the office to home office was very abrupt. Right before the pandemic most lives were not designed/optimized for remote work, let alone remaining at home 24/7.
Most of us didn’t have a dedicated office separated from the rest of the home with a door that we could close. Most have ended up working from a bedroom or on the kitchen table. This is fine for a day or two, but it can quickly become a productivity burden.
In some cases, partners are working from home too, sharing the work environment. Some of us have to juggle homeschooling our kids during work hours.
At the same time, there’s a lot of distractions caused by the pandemic that take us away from our day-to-day work as most of us are trying to stay in touch with our loved ones and to keep up with the daily news. There’s a reason why Covid-19-related channels are the busiest ones on any Slack these days.
Then, there are organizational concerns internal to each company. For those concerns, remote work would become a magnifying glass that exposes the cracks in the company culture. Most of these organizations will have to make mistakes to discover what works for them, and they will get it mostly wrong… at least at first.
As bad as this sounds, you still control certain aspects of this. Dare I say, you have some responsibilities as a manager.
Take care of your people. Don’t let them feel isolated. Listen to them. Reconnect them.
Rein in your fears! Control your mistrust instincts! You hired these smart and competent people, so let them work. When this scary episode is over, don’t let your insecurities and mistakes contribute to the reason why you hear:
“Remote work is not for us. We’ve tried it. It has failed.”
Thank you for reading.
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