The Remote Work Weekly #11

Welcome to the 11th edition of The Remote Work Weekly!

If it is your first time here, my name is Amr, and I am the author of this weekly newsletter. The goal is to keep you up-to-date on what's new in the world of remote work, whether that's news, emerging trends, insights, studies, and more. So, feel free to subscribe so you don't miss an update.

In this week's edition, we learn about the findings of a survey by Zoom covering employees work setup preferences and the use of AI tools, review the growing attention to the loneliness issue among remote workers, and learn from another experiment conducted by Atlassian's Team Anywhere.

A Survey by Zoom about Remote Work Preference and AI Tools

A survey by Zoom, in partnership with Reworked, provided information about the general preference of employees when it comes to remote/hybrid work. It also gave some insights about the use of generative AI and how it might be utilized in the future.

Regarding employees' preferences, 36% of the respondents said they prefer working remotely from anywhere, while 22% prefer to work remotely from home. Another 25% said a hybrid flexible schedule and 25% chose work in the office as their preference. Hybrid workers report feeling more connected to their teams and managers.

The survey also included questions about the integration of AI technologies, with 94% of the respondents reporting that they use AI in their work. Among the AI users, 84% believe it has increased their productivity.

The majority of respondents agreed that remote work technologies and tools in their organizations need improvement, and 75% believe that their current work setups are inadequate.

Addressing the Growing Loneliness Among Remote Workers

Recently, a Gallup poll revealed that 1 in 5 employees worldwide feel lonely. Among those surveyed, 46% were either on remote or hybrid work schedules. I decided to include this matter in this week's newsletter after reading an opinion piece on FastCompany.com that referred to it as a trend. Personally, I don't think loneliness among remote workers is a trend itself, but paying attention to it and addressing it is becoming more of a trend.

Loneliness is usually discussed as an issue for digital nomads. Aside from the 2020 lockdown time as an exception, loneliness for remote workers hasn't been a common topic of discussion.?

Ryan Jenkins, a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, has frequently included the topic in his speeches and writing. In one of his articles, he concluded that the main reasons for loneliness in the workplace are the rising mental health issues within Gen-Z, the growth of the remote workforce, and the rise of enhanced technologies. Jenkins has recently published a book called "Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated to All In," focusing on how leaders can foster employee engagement and reduce isolation.

Since mental health for remote workers is a matter that deserves more attention, there will be more focus on it in the coming editions.?

Research: Achieving Better Meeting Outcomes

Once again, we review another research by Atlassian's Team Anywhere, a team of behavioral scientists studying issues related to distributed work. Previously, we have covered Team Anywhere's research in editions #2, #4, #6, and #9.

The aim of this week's experiment is to tackle the issue of ineffective meetings. This comes after a survey including 5,000 knowledge workers revealed that 77% of the participants frequently attend meetings that end with scheduling another meeting. And 54% often leave without a clear understanding of the next steps or task ownership.

The goal of the experiment was to test the effectiveness of "page-led meetings," where a high-quality written document outlines the meeting's context, goals, and key decisions. The experiment involved two groups:?

- One group followed traditional meeting formats.

- The second group, after receiving training, facilitated meetings using a structured page.

The results showed significant improvements in meetings led by the structured page approach. Participants were 29% more likely to feel energized and 23% less likely to feel frustrated compared to traditional meetings. In addition, 85% of page-led meetings successfully achieved their goals, compared to 69% in the controlled meetings group. Facilitators and participants found this method to be a more effective use of time, with shorter, clearer pages leading to better engagement and productivity.

The following is a breakdown of the steps followed:

You can find the full experiment report here.

Wrap-up

This wraps up the 11th edition of The Remote Work Weekly. I hope it was informative, insightful, and entertaining :). To receive notifications about each week's edition, you can subscribe here.

If you'd like to share your thoughts or suggest a useful tool, your input is always appreciated. You can reach out to me directly here.

See you next week!

Amr