Will Remote Work Become the Default?

I've been reading some prognostication by heavy hitters in the business world about what they believe will happen once the lockdowns, shut-ins, and other Coronavirus precautions are lifted and allayed.

Many of these people are in tech or involved in tech as venture capitalists, advisors, and bankers. Tech is renowned for embracing remote work, for good reasons. Some of those reasons being that it naturally lends itself to remote work because the workers utilize the tools of the trade in tech heavily to perform their work already. They also find themselves traveling to client's locations often since the work must be performed on-site. So the need for a centralized office becomes unnecessary.

So for many tech businesses, what could have been remote already was in many cases. Where it makes sense, and some workers are capable and willing to work remotely. For some, it's even considered a perk of the job.

But for many jobs outside of tech that has gone remote, which has been a phenomenon in business for years now as technology has made it seamless and easy, they are having to quickly figure out how to perform their work remotely and manage a team of workers remotely. Zoom has been a popular piece of software for conference and video calls. Which is a service that's relatively old, thanks largely to Skype, which seems to have been displaced by Zoom and Teams.

It seems easy to think that people that are working remotely by mandate of the Coronavirus scare will want to stay home and keep working that way. And it may seem that companies who have been able to make such an arrangement work may want to make that the default due to possible cost savings. And that's what the thought seems to be from the folks making predictions. But that's short-sighted and not looking at the case thoroughly in my mind.

Firstly, there were reasons these companies weren't operating remotely, to begin with. Secondly, consider not everyone is willing or able to work remotely. Remote workers require a great deal of self-discipline, focus, work ethic, and organizational skills. Moreso than most. That's not to belittle in-office workers. However, it's a fact and something I know from working as a consultant for many years from a home office. I also was married to a marketing professor who suddenly found herself as a remote worker, and it was a shaky situation, from my perspective. A professor doing her work in bed while watching Netflix personally would concern me as a student and Dean and Chancellor. (Education is going to be an industry that I believe will keep offsite/online classes and work a more common scenario. I say that as someone who has been a marketing professor, I spent more time than most in a University setting and immersed in academia for the better part of a long life.) And it's not just the workers off-site. It's managers and business owners being able to manage off-site workers.

Some programs allow managers to micromanage employees down to the second if that's what's desired or needed. But that's a terrible way to operate, in my opinion. Part of the beauty of working remotely for the worker is autonomy and freedom from micromanagement. And for the manager, it's not having to worry about watching your employees like kindergarteners.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, there's an assumption being made that productivity is being sustained and able to be increased by employing remote workers. Although there may be cost savings in real estate needs for a centralized office, there are considerable expenses in technology to enable remote work. Both hardware and software and travel expenses. Will margins be able to be kept and grown?

What I think will happen is there will be a shift for some and not for others. I don't think remote work is going to become the "default" for sectors or whole industries. I believe it's going to be more granular and depend on the individual business and business models that are supportive of such an operation.