Remote work: the rules have changed

When the Covid19 pandemic began in 2020 and all the companies sent their collaborators to work from home, between fears about the pandemic and excitement about working remotely, we started a milestone, a before and after.

Especially those of us who have technological or digital responsibilities, we said: "ah, this is very easy, my whole team is digital people, young people who are used to remote work, we just need video conferencing software, a chat, and nothing else".

But almost unnoticed, a "tsunami" passed over all of us, suddenly the working conditions changed, the effect of those conditions were causing small effects, sometimes without being noticed in the people, in the equipment, in the management of time, and one day we wake up and find ourselves from the comfort of the house in several new challenges and problems:

• Depressed people.
• Full meeting schedules, including 3 or 4 meetings at the same time.
• New teams that take a long time to mesh and trust each other.
• More working hours but not necessarily higher productivity.

There is a lot of information on the internet with recommendations on how to face these challenges.

My recommendation:

1) Accept that the rules of the game have changed, analyze in the case of your own company how this new reality applies to you. Don't assume that everything is fine.

2) Measure the impact: implement a survey that allows you to identify critical points, ask your people in their specific cases how their work style has changed, talk with your peers from other countries.

3) Define a remote work framework: it is not as simple as implementing what other companies have done, but identifying what works for you and your work teams.

I love remote work. I have been practicing it since 1994 when the internet just arrived in Venezuela. I am used to working with remote teams in different cities and different countries.

But, the covid marked a before and after in remote work: one thing is that some are remote, and another very different thing is that we are all remote. So, with this post, I do not want to say that we should go back to face-to-face work (never!). But I want to highlight that to take advantage of all the benefits of remote work we must analyze how to adapt so that all people are the happiest and most productive working remotely.

#BeRemoteHappy