Remote World

Is the remote world here to stay?

There are positives and negatives to every production model.

Remote work offers incredible benefits to employees that range from extra free time to better health and satisfaction. Enjoy working in your PJ’s? Remote is for you. Love to take a walk, get some fresh air, and reset on a lunch break? Remote is for you. Tired of the boring commute? Remote is for you. Multi-tasking, like folding your clothes while listening to a meeting, your jam? Remote is for you.

There are obvious boosts to remote work that are pushing some employees to take pay cuts to stay at home permanently. Companies are seeing huge benefits too as they can shed costly office locations or provide better incentives for working overtime or during holidays when heading into the office is not required.

So why isn’t everyone that can operate remotely, electing to do it permanently?

The main issue is centered around control and productivity. Employers love their data collection techniques to track performance. Recording and surveilling employees using software or hardware is a dangerous path that may be bad for business and employee satisfaction. Employer’s goals should be centered around providing great benefits, working conditions, and positivity as employees generally want to do a good job when they feel valued and compensated. The goal of remote work is to continue working from a state of flexibility. Managers and executives are taking a hard look at their data to make decisions that fit their business model.

The cost of operating remotely is hard to gauge. On one hand, employees could be less productive, but on the other businesses were able to pause and take a hard look at their production model. One of the most important things gained in the period of chaos caused by the pandemic was visibility and auditability. Enterprises could grasp the full extent of their working system and shed the broken, unnecessary, and outdated items. Underperforming employees were let go, old assets were retired, and new procedures were put in place to better prepare their businesses for the future. If your employer did not take the time to address the bloated or broken, it will come back to haunt them over time. New competitors, better systems, and most importantly, massive amounts of data were collected during the struggle. Businesses will be made better by incorporating remote capabilities, even if it does not remain a full-time option for you.

So, is remote work better overall if you have great leaders that encourage flexibility?

Remote work is a strain for professionals trying to keep security at the top of their lists. Human behavior will most certainly break down any system thought to be secure. Unauthorized device sign-ins, mixing work and personal resources to accomplish tasks, and outdated security patches that are not closely tracked by IT departments are just a few of the things that come to mind when considering remote work.

Many companies are electing to establish a zero-trust environment, where employees will be jumping through authorization hoops to access their enterprise resources. Zero-trust makes a very strong case as it will deny every unauthorized user. The only drawback would lie with employee frustration and a minor hit to productivity as you would be forced to sign in using multifactor authentication a few times during the workday.

So, what’s next?

In all reality, the simple answer is what works best for you. If you love remote work, find yourself thriving, and want to continue… then fight tooth and nail to retain the capability. If you can’t win, consider other options as many companies are looking for talent.

If you need the structure to your schedule that an office routine offers, then be excited to get back on track. Employers should be making every effort to support the style with the best productivity outputs and support the leaders that make it happen. If they opt to surveil employees and chase the few minutes they lose to remote work, they will lose to competitors that keep employees on track.

For me, remote work is great for balancing my work priorities and goals. It allows me to focus on the things that matter most to me like family, time in nature, and staying healthy. If the situation you’re in just isn’t cutting it for you- create a strategy, deploy it over time, and execute. Keep putting positivity out into the world and working hard!

Thanks for reading, what are your thoughts on remote work? Comments work best! See you next time.

P.F.