Reflections, Lessons and Insights on a Decade of Remote work: the supercilious nature of some companies

So, as we all know, a majority of the white-collar jobs have been forced to go remote due to covid. And surprise, most of us prefer it. And shocker, there have been organizations who have been remote 1st before covid, long long ago in a workplace far far away…?

People have been working remote since the internet started, we just didn’t call it remote. Those of us who have been remote 1st before covid feel strange that so many new terms and abbreviations have been introduced to the world’s lexicon to accommodate this shift.

The psychology of remote is less understood, but video game companies have been harnessing its insights since the beginning. Geographically distributed teams of players would collaborate in video games, release to the masses.?Sure, to “play”, and not “work”, but to use an old term I found while doing research years ago, it’s called “playbor”, a mix between play and labor.

The double-edged sword about the internet, is it is a vale of ignorance, people are judged for the content of their minds, and their communication skills. Yea sure, maybe they are a dog in disguise, but as long as they can do the job, we don’t care. I don’t think most hiring managers understand this, if they did, they would be able to bypass entire HR departments, on the internet and via remote we know nothing about the other person, except what they tell us. There is no room for hidden subconscious bias, there is little room for a majority of the factors that tip and influence are judgement. If they don’t provide a picture or use a web cam, we have no idea what they look like. Thus, we have no idea if they are physically attractive, thus we have no choice but to treat everyone the same, by enlarge. Where women are sometimes bullied online in videogames, in a remote platform such conduct will likely be decreased.

There is a secret reason why many companies don’t want to deal with remote workers, if you can get any leader to admit this, that is a leader you can trust. That reason is CONTROL.

There is a lot of discussion on the technicalities of working remote.

how would certain things get done?

How would we socialize?

How would we collaborate?

How would we manage other people?

How would we establish genuine human connection?

How can we “trust” people we don’t “see?”

?How would we know when people clock in, so we can track their hours?

I guarantee you; all of these concerns have been solved and have been debunked before.

No one questions people who use phones to do their job.?By the alarmist knowledge they would be considered remote too. These issues are a reflection of the limitations of our tools and technologies, not core issues of the nature of Remote work. The key thing that remote work does, is it undermines the age old 9-5. It makes companies wonder on the countless amount of moneies they have spent in configuring and building office space. ?

I currently lead a small remote company, and have been collaborating Remotely for a decade.

?If I were to scale up or apply for a large remote organization, and they asked how to better manage their remote workforce I’d say:

1.??????Manage differently, many in person management techniques will not cross over.

2.??????Do one on one check ins with everyone periodically. People want to feel herd.

3.??????Find common ground between your members, and actively encourage collaboration.

4.??????If people don’t turn on their web cam off the bat, don’t mention, ask or order them to do so.

5.??????Approach people as needed, forget the power dynamic of how people should come to you.

6.???????Make sure you update your online status regularly, to reflect your availability

7.??????If people turn off notifications on their phone to set boundaries between work and home, and don’t respond as promptly as you’d like or expect, let it go, and just deal with it.

8.??????If people have not met face to face before, gently ease them in to this idea, springing it on them with no warning is bad. Also have a good reason, such as a big event or conference.

9.??????You can tell people what to do, or how to do it but not both.

10.??Set core working hours across teams/ departments when people are expected to be online.

11.??ALWAYS double check Time zones!

With the technology to be reached anywhere at any time, those of us who are remote veterans are uniquely positioned to be Subject matter experts on how to reframe perspectives, and advise others.

Sometimes people think it can’t be all that different and complicated to Face to face, to that I’d say, your dead wrong.?There is an entirely different perspective and psychology that goes on in ??????????????remote, if managers and leaders don’t account for this, the staff they manage will find other places that do understand.