Remote work... forever? It's complicated.

A recent New York Times article asked, "What if working from home goes on... forever", and I've got some feelings on the subject. Mixed feelings. Strong feelings? Unsure feelings? Feelings man. I've also got a poll I'd love for readers to vote on.

But first, feelings. Feelings which will stress the point that despite whatever you may be reading about "The Future Of Working Is Remote!" the choice is ultimately yours and "forever" applies to individuals. So when talking about remote work, considering personal circumstances are key.

I joined LinkedIn in early December. I had moved here from Hong Kong for a job which I consider a career defining moment with a platform I'd personally leveraged for career success. I was glowing about working at the APAC head office in Singapore which featured a number of employee-centric events, activities and office space perks. In December and January I marveled at the first-rate gym I never once used, I ate free lunch daily, visited the free coffee bar in the main lobby at least twice daily, raided the snack drawer at least three times daily and played a couple games of pool and fired up the in-office Xbox a few times.

In late January we celebrated Lunar New Year with a group noodle tossing and had a Lion Dance held in the office, where employees packed in around each other as the Lion danced through the office.

I had fun, obviously.

At the same time, the virus was starting to have a major impact as it began to spread in Wuhan China and was just getting on our radar. People knew it was happening, but it hadn't yet reached us. I look at this video now and think, "My God, look at how close we are all together! Nobody is wearing a mask! Was that lion costume even dry cleaned?"

The day we had the Lion Dance I thought to myself, "This could be the last time I see something like this at our office, or any office if coronavirus continues to spread." For me, the writing was on the wall and I made it a point to really be in that moment and observant, to consider what could be lost and what was coming.

I've looked back at that day often as I've worked remotely since mid-February, with a mix of both sadness for what was lost on an office community level, and with questions around whether or not those kind of moments, or other in-office perks truly matter to me when I think about working from the office versus at home.

Where I'm left now, is feeling grateful to have had the opportunity to experience the LinkedIn office pre-coronavirus as well as office culture in general throughout my career, but also a sense of contentment knowing such a culture can still be maintained, and to a large degree, thrive online.

In the poll voting so far after about 1077 votes as of this writing, such a feeling seems to be the prevailing sentiment around the questions.

So far, this poll sentiment pretty closely reflects the results of a survey of employers by Kung Group, which found that out of 500 founders of venture-backed companies, "Of those who stated they’ll let employees continue working remotely after offices reopen, they reported, on average, that 70 percent of formerly office-based employees will be permitted to work remotely." Go and vote, and I'll circle back around to the results later next week.

Remote work is a personal experience

Another challenge with saying so soon whether or not remote working is here to stay for those industries and professionals who can do their jobs from home, is there's a ton of very personal variables which come into play. Personal experiences really matter. A company can claim to be as productive, or even more productive than before, but we don't yet know the full cost and impact on employees mental and physical wellbeing as a result. Parents? Yeah, sometimes remote work is challenging if thrown into it. Health? For those of us who rely on lots of walking to and from work (hey that's me) the sudden loss can add up in pounds we'd rather not have. Yes, yes... there's exercise. But have you tried exercising with a kid running around? Or biking or running in 90 degree heat and humidity which causes instantaneous sweating? It takes more than a couple months to find a new groove beyond "dealing with it".

It's still to early to count all our eggs, and there will always exist some pitfalls to remote work such as working remotely making it harder to spot phishing emails or resulting in the loss of "crunch time" for some industries like gaming heavily reliant on development pushes.

Living conditions

Here in Asia, people generally tend to live in smaller houses and apartments than in the west. When I lived in Hong Kong, we had a 550 sq foot two bedroom apartment, and it was considered pretty big in Hong Kong. Here in Singapore we're in a 1000 sq. foot two bedroom apartment. It isn't ideal. I've taken over my daughter's room for work during the day. The arrangement works for the most part, but I don't like that I've taken her space away from her for the majority of the day, and it gives her less feeling of ownership of what is meant to be her space.

This is me before I took over her room.

Had I planned for working from home, I would have gone for a three bedroom apartment farther from the city center and with a little bit smaller living space, because our use of the space would be much different than we initially intended pre-pandemic. I would have gotten myself some proper work space. So, that's what we'll do when our lease is up.

Mine isn't a unique situation, and I'm betting what will happen when people's leases start to end and they know they're still going to be working from home, is they're going to move. It's likely property markets will face a decent shakeup. Once people start to find accommodation better suiting their particular remote work situations, it will be easier to say, "yeah, this works for me, I can do this forever."

But what about co-working spaces?

While I'm thankful for the extra family time I've been given, I would kill for an open co-working space right now here in Singapore. Alright, maybe I wouldn't kill, but I would certainly love having the option of one. Where I live, even before the pandemic there weren't any co-working spaces close enough that would make sense for me. They're mainly located around the downtown core. Like just about every other industry, co-working cooperatives have been hard hit and they've had to rethink where they fit in with remote workers, and how they're going to approach reopening.

One co-work company CEO in Europe believes the industry will grow after the pandemic. I'd tend to agree, but I can't see co-working spaces remaining in locations clustered around city cores, regardless of the city. I see it as many smaller co-working spaces opening up along city fringes and even traditionally less business oriented locations. If people will have more opportunity to work remotely, they'll also still have the desire to go out for a change of scenery, privacy and space from time to time. Even if they upgrade current living conditions, I believe the desire to just "get out" and be around other people will always exist, and if you're not close to your office main base, a co-working setup is the second best thing.

Virus reveals remote work inequalities

Women have so far bore the brunt of the impact of having to work remotely during the pandemic, and data suggests less educated and lower-income families are more likely to have work hours reduced during the pandemic, “which in turn is likely to increase inequality in family earnings and family employment income,” according to one report out of Canada.

Agile businesses will win

But they will win only if they retain the agility and adaptability. Businesses have been forced to be more agile than they've ever been. The New York Times article brought up the example of Slack, a communications tool. The majority of Slack's employees surprisingly worked in the office, even though the product is geared towards helping remote work and communication with spread out teams. The company would put on extravagant, slickly produced, hour long all-hands meetings. That ended real quick once everybody was forced to work from home, and the all-hands were reduced to 20 minute affairs where the same information was conveyed at significantly less effort and cost.

Remote work as a "forever" concept will only work if companies like Slack continue to cut the bloat and embrace solutions which continue to reach all employees and clients, even if they're not in the office or close by. Once offices reopen, and the pandemic eventually subsides (which it will, whether in a year or five years) it will become increasingly easier to say, "Well, that was during the pandemic, we've got this amazing office we're locked into on a 10 year lease, so we've got to have people come and use it."

Speaking of Slack...

Here's a nice new list of must know Slack tips for better remote work communication.

Making remote work actually work

As noted above, if remote work actually works for somebody is a very individual and personal situation, and there's no blanket solution even if there are thousands of articles out there with tips to help like how to negotiate a remote work arrangement. The willingness of a company to support remote workers, an individual's financial status, their living conditions and things like Internet connectivity and more all factor in.

Remote work is here to stay, but what actual form it will take in regards to "forever" is still very much TBD, and what might be "forever" for somebody like myself will likely end up meaning something completely different for you.

The best businesses can do is to recognize these different circumstances in their employees and prospective employees, and provide the right conditions and support on an individual level to allow people to have more ability in charting their own remote or in-office career courses.

??What do you think? How do you see your career and working arrangement changing and adapting in the future because of the proliferation of required remote work? Let me know in the comments below, and vote in the poll here.