Taking a Stance on Remote Working

In this article I will not only present arguments for and against remote work, but give my opinion on why I think the office is crucial to the workplace. In the last few months we have witnessed Apple tussling with employees to return to the office, the phenomenon is not constrained to Apple, it is a debate happening in our post-covid world.

Personally I believe office spaces are good, I think the office is more often than not a vital component to success, we’ll return to that in a moment.

Why remote work is good

I’ll start by steel-manning the argument for remote work within businesses. Remote work offers the employee freedom and the opportunity to design a better work life balance, by removing the stress of the commute and opening the possibility to live… anywhere. In doing so there’s a chance to save money, have a positive environmental impact, and create the opportunity for the optimum environment for productivity.

The discussion is nuanced and is dependent upon firms life-stage, size, and model, as well as the employees role, circumstance and personality. I do believe that many people use remote working to create the optimum work-life balance to maintain performance, whereas others may exploit the freedom as a means to generate a more passive income.

Fundamentally the argument (for me) boils down to you having to enjoy what you do to be good at it, however I also acknowledge not everyone wants to strive for excellence, some people just want a straightforward life. Knowing many people who take income from employers whilst putting in minimum effort, I do not think these people are wrong, I would think the management structure is ineffective at evaluating employees potential and or output.

Ineffective evaluation of employees is a surefire way to have high employee dissatisfaction and churn. On the other hand, if people take a job and think they’re entitled to work from anywhere, then they need to find a company that permits this or have this agreed with the firm before starting work.

Why an office environment is good

An office provides an opportunity to lower communication gaps. Communication is physical, and tonal so much as it is verbal, this is great for improving efficiency and building a fast-paced team dynamic. The establishment of a physical team reduces managerial challenges, as well as assisting people be motivated and productive.

Since the dawn of time humans have been working together in physical spaces, and though I think that the digital space offers new possibilities, I do not think it will replace the humanness of being in the physical presence of others with a shared sense of purpose. Employers must have a stance on this, in essence the new paradigm of the virtual team has created a new avenue for your company culture.

You don’t get to decide if you have a company culture or not, you have one, if you do not have a stance on remote work the stance will be decided for you by the employees. From 2022 employers should make it clear before hiring their position on remote, hybrid, and office based work.