WLP245 What We Can All Learn from What's Going On
In today’s episode Pilar and Maya discuss an eclectic range of articles, looking at some of the obvious and less obvious consequences of what’s happening in the remote work space right now (July 2020), and what we can learn from it.
If you have a news item you’d like us to take a look at please do send it to us, and don’t forget you can always…
2.16 The future of work without borders
There’s a massive scam hiding behind Google’s search results - here’s an interesting story, proving perhaps that human ingenuity still beats out the algorithm, as developing world pieceworkers demonstrate here (where they persuade a search engine to pay them for ‘local’ knowledge specific to European and US cultures, paid at far higher rates). As work loses geographical borders more and more, then geo-arbitrage becomes irresistibly motivating of course.
Meanwhile, big corporations have their eyes on a flexible future, and we’re seeing new practice emerge from around the world: Fujitsu Embarks towards 'New Normal', Redefining Working Styles for its Japan Offices:
“[Fujitsu] will begin to primarily work on a remote-basis to achieve a working style that allows them to flexibly use their time according to the contents of their work, business roles, and lifestyle. Fujitsu anticipates that this will not only improve productivity but also mark a fundamental shift away from the rigid, traditional concept of commuting leading to enhanced work-life balance.”
This is such a massive shift for Japan, where the language contains a specific word for ‘death by overwork’ - it's so encouraging to see the way they are embracing (and resourcing) the cultural transformation, that must accompany such a structural overhaul.
Compare this to our podcasting buddy Robert Kropp’s reflection on the remote transition at Siemens - another powerful reminder of just what a big deal it is, to transition to remote at this global scale, and a fascinating comment thread to dig into on this LinkedIn post.
Meanwhile closer to home at Essex County Council they have also been reflecting on recent changes and done some primary research: Digital remote working - research findings - Service Transformation, and produced this transparent and insightful report. They made an effort to unpick the differences between remote and flexible work, and that so much depends on management attitude: managers who are resistant to remote work measure time over task, but better results are obtained when trust is higher. They looked at gender issues too, and concluded that working remotely works best when it’s by choice, and for most people, not every day (a timely reminder for us in the remote work community to remember the importance of hybrid teams, which we can be inclined to denigrate, and what this might mean for the future).
20.26 meanwhile in the media…
This depressing article from the Guardian about 'the quiet grinding loneliness of working from home' made Maya groan (especially when people kept tagging her in it), but it’s good to be reminded how hard this has all been for so many people - even when journalists conflate living through a terrifying pandemic and all the impact that has on people’s mental health, with the effect of working from home. Especially when working from home is combined with micromanaging, from either an app or an unsupportive (and probably unsupported) supervisor.
However, it’s essential that those who are NOT happy about working from home to be given a voice, and they deserve advocacy and to have their views considered. And to have better management and tools and support, especially when times are so distorted and strange, and nobody had any choice or preparation about all this.
(Don’t forget, we had a whole series earlier this year about connection and disconnection in remote teams, in association with Shield GEO… Do check this out, if these issues are affecting you and those you care about, and look out too for our upcoming ‘podcasting for connection’ service, to help bring your team together, wherever they are.)
38.56 and more research:
Some serious multi-modal findings here from the big budget of Microsoft in The future of work—the good, the challenging & the unknown, we always love good solid evidence, and now we have the data: Brainwaves reveal remote meeting fatigue is real - and changes in the way we work and collaborate have a measurable impact. Clearly, we need more asynchronous communication, as we keep saying here at Virtual Not Distant! But Microsoft really want to talk about the latest features of MSTeams where all their growth is, including their new ‘together mode’ where everyone is in the same background - quite playful and innovative, in addition to making our brains exert less effort, according to the data.
And a big report from the EU, Regulations to address work–life balance in digital flexible working arrangements, takes a deep dry dive into the legal frameworks including the Work–Life Balance Directive (EU/2019/1158), adopted in June 2019 and due to be implemented by Member States within a three-year period. The directive extends the existing right to request ‘flexible working arrangements’ to all working parents of children up to eight years of age, and to all carers. Workers who exercise this right should be protected against discrimination or any less favourable treatment on those grounds.
It’s interesting that much of the best practice examples the researchers explored came from the company level, even quite small companies, showing big gap in the middle at the enterprise and nation state level - where there’s an urgent need for policy and implementation. But given the impact (or otherwise) of the original Working Time Directive (in law since 2003), perhaps it wont have a huge effect on a lot of knowledge workers anyway...
50:56 And in the Virtual Not Distant world:
Maya reflected on the recent episode (241) about trust, to talk about trusting the system and the work, as well as the people. In a sense you can design out the need to trust, in some aspects of the workflow, through appropriate checks and balances.
A quick shout out to Lorraine Charles who joined us in episode 212 whose refugee training programme has a partnership with a new French NGO - extending the truly global potential of remote opportunity to some of the world’s most disadvantaged people, to be hired by global companies: CHAMS to partner with Na'amal and UNHCR to provide skills for remote work - Jordan.
Maya is working on a new book series called Healthy Happy Homeworking, with volume one coming soon (join the mailing list for pre-order opportunities). She also wrote an article about the recent remote revolution and its downsides: This wasn't what I meant when I said working from home was great. After 20 years of working from home, she hopes some of what she’s learned can be helpful to other people facing life changing decisions right now.
Hello to Nikhil Vimal - thanks for sharing our podcast, and all that you learned from it, we love it when we spot things like this, and the feedback as well as the ego boost is invaluable.
Pilar is running an event on the 3rd September with Next Stage Radicals, on ‘planned spontaneity’ - so sign up to workshop this concept here (it’s going to very spontaneous).
The question of transcripts does keep bubbling up - would you like to see a full transcript of this episode, instead of or in addition to Maya’s summarising show notes? We are exploring sponsorship possibilities for this, so is that something you’d like to get your brand involved with? Let us know!
A quick hello to our new team member Becky Boyd who Boldly, who is helping with some backend stuff and admin, also our LinkedIn page - so say hi to Becky if you spot her there!
And last of all Pilar found our website strapline quoted here, on Virtual facilitation and training for remote teams – FUTOUR - we love these little echoes, from the from around the world of remote collaboration.
And do keep your feedback coming, we really enjoy it - please 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 with our training, coaching, and facilitation services during these challenging times.
If you like the podcast, you'll love our monthly round-up of inspirational content and ideas: