WLP258: Beyond WFH: Embracing the Spirit of Remote Work
Welcome to the final recording of the year for Pilar Orti and Maya Middlemiss on the 3rd December, and rather than a typical ‘What’s Going On’ episode we’re trying to take a longer perspective - while being mindful of all that 2020 has taught us, about trying to extrapolate trends and make predictions, as we’re often tempted to at this time of year.
So we’re trying to look forward bearing in mind some broad concepts and how they’re playing out, and we start with a question from a listener.
03.34 Serendipitous encounters
Sam Spencer on our LinkedIn page asked “How might we help remote workers compensate for losing the bumping spaces, accidental conversations, and the other serendipitous encounters they used to have in the office? Particularly with people outside of their immediate team or collaborators?”
We recommend checking out Episode 211 on planned spontaneity in teams, but looking at the wider organisation there are some other things to bear in mind - not least as some of the emergency collaboration solutions organisations threw together earlier this year probably sorted out how we connect with our own team to work, but paid less attention to broader organisational conversations.
And they really matter for so many reasons, not just socially, people get non-management support and supervision from others outside of their own teams. But the difficult thing is always to change our habits, and when circumstances change it takes time for catch up. That quick chat in the lift or the carpark is hard to replace by text, even when we create the context for it deliberately, and it’s simply harder to be spontaneous when we are remote - so establishing some structure helps.
We need to talk informally about the work, instead of just working on the work, just as much as we need to talk about non-work things. So think about bringing in guests to your team meetings, finding new sources of information and inspiration, and be open to recognise the less obvious opportunities to ‘bump into’ each other online (our LinkedIn Page is one useful place to hang out!).
14.06 Designing for the interactions we want to see
The reality of this need for intentionality is clearly dawning on many, with a spate of large organisations engaging advocates at a senior level: Why You Need a Head of Remote Work.
Shifting the culture of an enterprise takes investment and authority across multiple departments, so let’s hope talk truly gets worked, and these efforts pay off - but is ‘head of remote’ the best name, for someone who should really be about ‘head of everyone doing their best work wherever and however they do that best’ - which we’ll struggle to fit on a business card.
Really it’s about connecting people and designing ways for them to communicate, because deliberate nature of remote work includes designing for interactions, even being very intentional for the kinds of conversations we need to have, and deciding how to have them, as well as how information and data assets flow (securely and reliably!). It is a change programme, but also a long term maintenance one, so it needs long term resourcing to be effective.
Meanwhile it’s great to see global enterprises getting on board with the spirit, as in this Microsoft blog post Embracing a flexible workplace, which considers flexibility from many perspectives and a highly individual way of looking at things. And where they go, others will surely follow.
25.20 A ‘work from anywhere’ future?
As the world hopefully unlocks, and we are no longer restricted to our homes, where could we work, if we use our imagination? This article from People Management asks Should employers let staff work remotely from abroad during lockdown? - which implies it’s very much at the gift of the employer, permission to leave the country. But the reality is there is much to consider from technical, legal, financial, and other practical considerations, and some roles are probably more intrinsically nomadic than others.
Let’s face it, 2020 certainly taught us all that lots of organisations and individuals who never thought they could work from home, managed to do so. So, let’s open up the conversation, and the possibilities - especially when your next job could be anywhere. More transparency on each side will certainly help if there are real reasons why work could not be done from anywhere on Earth, and now information is so easy to share there is no excuse to avoid the conversation, even if organisations’ first instinct is a recall to base: Google Asks Workers Who Went Abroad for Covid to Return.
Which goes on to one question we can safely predict will be a big issue for 2021: How do we adjust salary/compensation, based on location? Should we do so? What’s fair?
And truly, has it ever been fair? Everyone makes their own trade off in terms of where to live, acceptable commute costs in terms of time and money, vs where they chose to live. Obviously over time, real estate and rental costs will adjust too, as our cities and communities change to accommodate changed realities… of which salaries are only one aspect.
Tim Burgess from Shield GEO pointed out that it’s complex to adjust things internationally, in terms of tax and employment law, etc. It’s not insurmountable, but most of these statutory things are not designed for this kind of reality, and take the longest time to catch up.
Let’s hope WorkingMums are right, and the 4 day working week is on the way anyway. Time to re-energise - workingmums.co.uk
Finally do check out this piece we shared in our newsletter, from an academic journal (which is great to see), featuring a remote exemplar - GitLab: work where you want, when you want, looking at whether remote can truly scale, and areas where more research is needed - including isolation, asynchronous communications, and compensation… So it’s good to know we’re all thinking about the same things, as we conclude this transformational year.
That’s it for our final 2020 recording, but do look out for a repost of our very popular Remote Work for Social Change episode, and further news in the new year about our ‘Podcasting for Connection’ service. Meanwhile, you can sign up for our newsletter in the box below, and do send us your own questions about remote collaboration and leadership. We may be able to answer you in a future episode, or help you out with our training, coaching, and facilitation services.
We love hearing your feedback and comments so feel free to contact us, or you can tweet Virtual Not Distant, or Pilar and Maya directly, with any of your thoughts and ideas, or if we can help you.
Thanks for lending us your ears in 2020 - it’s been a wild ride, and a pleasure to have you along with us for all of it.
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