Remote work's downsides emerge

Many CEOs don't want to stay remote long-term because of a combination fear and cognitive inertia. *With the exception of jobs that are currently impossible to do remotely. I've led a fully-remote team at Kofi Group for over 3 years. The current discomfort felt by many is a result of 3 things: 1. Many organizations are being forced to work remotely and did not have the opportunity to fully integrate remote work into their culture. Successful remote-first companies have this down to a science. 2. This is part two of a normal cycle after the initial excitement phase. After working onsite for several years and being forced to accept a massive paradigm shift, is it reasonable to expect a full adjustment after 4 months? Who can fully adjust to any new work environment in such a short amount of time? 3. Everyone is under more pressure, but parents with young children are experiencing acute levels of pressure that is mentally/physically draining.

Honestly, I don't see how companies have much of a choice. Now that workers have gotten a taste of work-life balance that isn't more work than life I don't see them going back any time soon. Not to mention, 4 months isn't a large enough period of time to really tell whether remote is possible long term. This coupled with the fact that most employers have just winged it instead of trying to understand how fully remote companies operate. Give it time, give it a real try...really put in the work and I think you'll find that it isn't just better, it's more profitable. Not to mention, how many millions are wasted on office space that could be reallocated toward research and development or providing better benefits to your employees? CEO's need to stop being so reactive and be proactive in their execution. Something like that will work if given the time needed to adjust.

First, bravo to Chip Cutter and the WSJ for their real-time insights into the evolution of this forced collective experiment with full-time #remotework. Unfortunately most organizations went into their rapid Covid remote response unprepared. Flexibility in how, when and where work is done was not part of the cultural DNA. Work was where you “go” not what you needed to get done. They didn’t have the infrastructure or the planning, coordination and execution skills and tools in place that would have made the transition more seamless. The good news is that there are organizations that had made the strategic shift to high performance flexibility pre-COVID. Right now they are mostly remote for jobs that support it but when realities change and it’s safe to be physically together again, they will know how to recalibrate back into the hybrid remote/onsite organization they were before. Because they know how to answer the question “what do we need to get done and how where and when do we do it best?” Right now that’s remote. Next step for other organizations now struggling is to put that same strategic intention around remote and flexible work.

As someone who’s built and led a large, high-performing remote team for nearly seven years, I’d say that when people claim it’s impossible, it’s because they don’t know how; not because it’s impossible. Our team of 80+ collaborates strongly; has a robust mix of people from their 20s through their 60s; and trains and develops everyone intensively. All of us have become significantly more valuable — at our company and beyond — as we’ve broadened and deepened our skills. That includes hard and soft skills. We develop people so well that our competitors and other companies are always trying to poach from our team — even during this current economic cycle. And this is against the backdrop of tens of thousands of other writers and editors losing their jobs or being underemployed. If managers don’t know how to build and lead such teams, I suggest they learn. Such skills are highly learnable. It does take intent and commitment, though. Such leadership skills are a competitive differentiator now. In the next decade or so, they’ll become table stakes for anyone who wants to hire and retain top talent. That’s because top talent has the most career optionality, including the choice to work remotely or not. Telecommuting also happens to boost opportunities to build diversity, equity and inclusion. That means for instance that Silicon Valley companies like ours can extend opportunities to people well beyond, who aren’t already in the startup and tech ecosystem. If you’d like to learn a bit about how we do this on our team — which is extensible to many other domains — check out this piece: https://firstround.com/review/struggling-to-thrive-as-a-large-team-working-remotely-this-exec-has-the-field-guide-you-need/

These are certainly unprecedented times and this version of working from home is a different animal entirely. I’ve been a healthcare recruiter for over 27 years and worked remotely for the last 22 of those years. In the beginning, it took 8-12 months to learn this new skill and find my personal stride. Since then, I’ve never worked harder, been more focused, productive or passionate about my work, colleagues and ChenMed’s mission to deliver better health. Working from home isn’t for everyone, but there are many of us who do it and do it exceptionally well. Grateful to fall into this group and to work for a progressive company that continues to afford me this incredible WFH opportunity. Just one of many reasons why I’m here.

I knew this "working from home" would get "old" soon-we humans want to make connections and are emotional in wanting those connections-I have maintained that certain companies will now to start to"market" themselves as "working at the office"-they will hire a ton of people from other companies too:)

At its core, people need person to person human interaction to be truly productive and more importantly to be truly happy.

Let’s be clear: this is not remote work—this is a Covid-19 induced child and spouse, work and home-schooling, timeshare experiment gone bad! ??