Remote working is “the way of the future”, “an inevitability”, “preferred by employers and employees alike”, blah, blah, blah.
But why?
I have worked with many different clients over the course of my career: From large multinationals, to SMEs that I didn’t even know existed. Some surprised me negatively, some positively.
One of the worst surprises I’ve had, was a leading importer of furniture in its country of operations, the offices of which, were located in a dilapidated block of flats. Going in for my first meeting with them in their premises, I was afraid that the ceiling would fall on my head at any moment. Inside, the situation wasn’t as bad as it was on the outside, but people were cramped almost on top of each other and despite a modest internal renovation effort, the offices were about 15 years behind the standards of the time.
I literally felt sorry for those poor people that had to bear with this environment day in and day out. Would these people choose to work remotely had they had the chance? Most likely yes. Would the company lose anything from such a move? Most likely yes.
Whether we like it or not, proximity helps enormously with coordination. The ideal organization would work almost as a car factory: Everything in perfect harmony, one employee finishing their task and delivering to the next in line to contribute. Can this be done remotely? Yes. But what about less-than-ideal situations? How will you manage the (inevitable) disruptions? How can you tell someone to drop what they are doing and start something else, without having the opportunity to sit with them and assess the impact of such a move? In theory it may sound easy, but in practice, indirect methods of communication should never be used for crisis management. So while it may look like a saving for the company, remote working is in reality a loss, because of the asynchronization of work.
And what about the other side? What about the employees? I think that most employees wouldn’t like to work from home if their work environment was more inspiring. A nice office, a decent desk with enough privacy, well-maintained premises, access to daylight and equipment that facilitates instead of obstructing, can go much further than you can imagine. I used to work with a firm that wanted to renovate their offices in order to increase the available space (not because they understood the importance of a decently spacious working environment, but because they wanted to pack more people in). They asked a professional architect for a proposal. In the end, they assigned the task to… one of their employees. From what people who still have the bad luck of working there tell me, now everyone would like to either work remotely, or work elsewhere. And the management is still wandering why they can’t even get close to the leaders of their industry…