What if Employees Had Already Been Working Remotely?

I’ve been watching the white-collar business world spin off its axis since COVID-19 hit. Employers everywhere scrambled to send their workforce home with enough of what they needed to keep business running.

I’ve watched with wonder and curiosity - How will this impact the way we do business going forward? - as well as compassion - How are people navigating the physical integration of their work and home life for the first time, especially with the stress of the pandemic and every other member of their family now home with them?

I have a unique perspective based on my own professional experiences. I’ve been working from home since 2001. My commute from “home” to “office” is a few steps downstairs into my designated work-space. For nearly 20 years now, I’ve worked virtually.

I became a virtual assistant for real estate agents (before ‘virtual assistant’ was a widely known term), and from there developed my own training program to teach other women how to be successful virtual assistants (and Virtual Experts?), running successful businesses from their homes. Before that, I had a nearly 20-year career in corporate America. (Yeah, I’m getting old.) 

If Employees Were Already Working from Home  

When Governors across the U.S. shut down businesses or had them send their employees home to work (if/when possible), I had the opportunity to continue business-as-usual. I already had a designated spot in my home without distractions, complete with an office chair and desk. 

My computer, internet, and software applications, which make doing my work possible, effective, and efficient, were all in working order. I was already familiar with how to troubleshoot my own tech issues and attend remote meetings. My schedule was established as was my ability to be flexible as needed. 

The format and structure for productive virtual team meetings and collaboration were already established. Measuring the success of a particular project or initiative, even while segregated at home and largely working independently, was not new. 

I know this has not been the reality of a majority of the labor force who was sent home to work. But it could have been if companies had been proactive and forward-thinking about the benefits of working remotely. 

Some companies didn’t have enough hardware and software to allocate out to each employee. I know people who are using their own computers or laptops to perform their work and access their companies’ networks. That by itself is a liability and security concern for both employer and employee. Other businesses hadn’t gotten “into the cloud” yet, making it nearly impossible for people to perform work from home using the internet.

Depending on the residing location of employees, internet connectivity might be poor. Depending on how technically savvy the employee, the effectiveness of now having to go 100% digital in all ways and without IT support, has been stressful. 

Managers and team leaders are trying to determine how to account for their employees’ time and performance when they can’t see them at their desks. Employees are trying to figure out how to keep doing what they always do while feeling like they have fewer resources and less time. 

Plus, employees are physically uncomfortable. People are working from kitchen tables or the couch because they had no reason to set up a workstation in their home before. They’re trying to keep children’s hands or partner’s hands from the family computer or laptop that is now also being used as a source of income. 

They’re feeling isolated. Before, they were in an office with colleagues’ desks surrounding them or offices lined up that they passed by regularly and popped into for a quick chat on their way to the breakroom for more coffee. Now, they might be at home with their family or they might be home by themselves entirely. Either way, it’s not the same as the shared understanding and camaraderie of the workplace that they are used to. 

The accidental remote worker is not loving these work conditions or circumstances. They are stressed. And living in a pandemic is stressful enough.

COVID-19 is Not the Best Test Case for the Successfulness of the Virtual Business

People everywhere are talking about whether remote working is the way of the future. I think we have all known for a long time that it is. There have been huge increases in the number of remote workers over the last decade. But right now, because of the volume of people working from home, researchers and journalists and economists want to assess and measure the effectiveness and predict its impact on the way we do business. Except, COVID-19 is not the best test case. 

Employees being sent home were sent home out of panic. Out of required government mandates. There was no time for a plan. No concerted preparation. No reserved resources (at the magnitude required) to truly respond to what was being asked in having to send their workforce home while keeping business running. 

And while employees have been faced with overcoming the challenges of working at home for the first time, they also face fear, anxiety, and stress about the health of their families, their access to consumables that are flying off the shelves, and all of the other things they are having to learn how to do, cope with and manage for the first time. 

While COVID-19 may have forced our hand to consider a new way of doing business, these are unusual and extreme circumstances. Too exceptional to be used as a benchmark for the success of the white-collar workforce going virtual. 

However, if you remove COVID-19 from the equation, and businesses are given time to appropriately plan and outfit their workforce, we can have successful virtual businesses, successful employees, and a new way of doing business that will be prepared for anything else that may come in the future that none of us could ever predict. If that happens, we’ll be a little more ready and a little better off. 

Kathy Goughenour is an experienced and savvy business coach and trainer. From corporate marketing to Virtual Assistant to business coach and trainer.

Since 2008 she's trained and coached over 200 women to build successful Virtual Assistant home-based businesses through her program Expert VA Training.

Want to learn more about how to create a successful Virtual Expert? business? Watch my free webinar today.