WLP215 "Remote" has Taken Off. Now, What? (And our plans for next year.)
Looking back at 2019, it’s been a busy year - we’ve a lot to look forward to in 2020, but first it’s time to reflect on a transformational time for remote working.
The infrastructure and discussion about remote work in all its forms has exploded - networks, communities, events, conferences, workshops, around remote working and office optional working, have sprung up internationally everywhere. And this has inevitably sharpened the differences between those at the cutting edge of best practice, vs. those just getting started with remote in an old-fashioned way.
Recent research from Nuffield Health has explored mental health concerns and loneliness for remote workers, another sign of mainstreaming, focusing particularly on employees who are home working, which we discuss in more depth later.
It reminds us that we have a long way to go though, with research (from the US) with salaried workers, referring to ‘telecommuting’ like it’s 1998, and included people doing work at home outside of their paid work hours! NOT what we’re advocating for, when it comes to remote working, nor a great first experience of this for anyone , such inflexible work arrangements.
Of course the technology has also exploded in 2019, and as we discussed in our last episode (214) there’s a tendency for colocated colleagues to communicate via tech increasingly, and this gets in the way of adoption of remote-first as a strategy. However Personnel Today says remote working roles have doubled in four years, and is now applying to more senior roles, and - shock, horror! - non-millennials want it too. Can we stop now, with the artificial divide, between “digital natives” and “digital immigrants”? It’s a good reminder to be careful about what terms are being used when comparing research - especially as there is so much of it now.
Looking back to NomadCity, which we talked about with the organiser in episode 210, Maya got to attend the conference and summit in Gran Canaria. As well as meeting many of our podcasting alumni in person, there were so many other amazing advocates for good practice in remote work, which was inspiring and energising. And they weren’t all 20-something digital nomads! The diversity of delegates and contributors was fantastic, from large brands, global organisations, through to startups and entrepreneurs. Powerful themes emerging included notifications and noise - a need for asynchronicity and managing our attention effectively in the digital workspace. Remote for social change - building resilience of organisations and individuals, what remote work can bring to different locations. The debates were sophisticated and far ranging, demonstrating a maturity of remote and a need for best practice, with the need for remote already understood
One impressive speaker from NomadCity joins us now on the podcast:
22.46 Rowena Hennigan: Remote Work Advocate
Rowena Hennigan
Rowena is based in Zaragoza in Northern Spain. She teaches and lectures remotely to students in Dublin, and advocates for social impact and sustainability. Her keynote at NomadCity synthesised discovery from interviews with different remote exemplars globally.
There are challenges in measuring aspects of sustainability, but it’s an important area of collaboration for the community in the future, and the future of the NomadCity event - for example from a carbon-offsetting point of view, but there are steps which can be taken from both a top-down and bottom-up perspective.
Rowena’s academic work also includes teaching undergraduates about remote work, an innovative learning track which will surely have an impact on a future generation - overcoming prejudices, checking realities, and dealing with remote strategies across different sectors and communities, as a part of everybody’s future. She also works with organisations in transition, making shifts towards remote, and understanding what’s working in terms of hybrid workplaces - alongside the highly visible remote-first advocates who we hear from more regularly. The opportunities are now so diverse, including a new range of part-time and student job possibilities.
Rowena’s hope for 2020 is to see some consolidation and consistency in the research and even terminology around the remote work conversation, for improved academic rigour and continual maturing of the debate. You can read Rowena’s article about remote work and sustainability on Linkedin or connect with her personally through her website.
42.45 Tech for remote work
Moving on to the tech, and all that has changed in the past 12 months there.
How many tools and applications are there now? Maya writes about them for UC Today, and has seen many recent launches reflecting ever greater niching and differentiation within the digital workspace.
Maybe there are too many? So, we could see merges and consolidations in the new year (sadly news of exactly this has emerged since recording, at Fuze and BlueJeans). However stalwarts like Trello are still going strong, celebrating their 50 millionth user, and may represent a category of crossover apps spanning the work vs rest of life category - does this affect the ability to switch off and disconnect? Do we just need better control of notifications (please, Trello!)?
When Matt Ballantine joined us in episode 191 and indeed other times this year we have reflected on how the tools can shape the way we work, and the dangers of this - particularly if we’re not conscious of its impact. Many tools now seem to aim to replicate every aspect of the traditional workplace, but not all of those aspects are good or worth keeping after all. We have choices, so let’s exercise them… We don’t need to add every feature just because it’s available.
In the new year we can anticipate greater uptake of remote, but that’s likely to go via the route of increasing hybridisation at least at first, rather than organisations jumping right in to remote-only. So that will mean compromises, and tech built to adapt to that - like Nureva, who Pilar visited recently, and other cognitive collaboration tools which are being added to platforms like Webex. Anything which puts the remote participants at the centre, instead of stuck up on the wall somewhere, has got to be good.
And a final word on tech - Office365 had an outage recently, reminding us that we do depend on it all actually working, to do our work. Maya had a power cut in her home office just last week, which affected not just power to her laptop, but access to all the cloud-based tools we’ve all come to rely on. If remote means resilience, we all need to have a ‘plan B’.
The pace of change will surely get faster and faster on the tech front, so hang on tight in 2020, as we continue to evolve new ways of working. What impact will changes like 5G have? We’ll have to see when the future arrives…
59.15 Loneliness and Remote Wellbeing
Mental health in general has entered the public discourse in refreshing new ways in 2019, and this has facilitated the conversation about some of the drawbacks of remote work, including isolation and introversion. The Nuffield paper referred to earlier digs into this a lot, and the responsibilities of employers - coming into the spotlight as more organisations make the leap.
Importantly they recognise that stress from work affects people working off-site and in different ways, including being out-of-mind to managers, and around issues of unplugging and work-life balance. They also acknowledge that despite the wider cultural shift, lots of managers are still uncomfortable talking about mental health issues. The research however pays very little attention to teamwork and the role of the team, which also has a huge impact on emotional wellbeing - it’s not all about the manager and the individual, remote work takes place in a much broader context than that. And the only real remedial action proposed was to have more face-to-face meetings…
We can do better than that, and things are getting better all the time, as these fascinating conversations continue to develop and unfold.
We have lots more to bring you in 2020, including a new podcast series with a brand-new collaborator to share with you- which you can find out about listening to episode WLP216.
We also want to answer YOUR big questions about work/remote work in 2020, so please contact us. Or you can tweet Virtual Not Distant, or Pilar and Maya directly, with any of your thoughts and ideas
And meanwhile, we wish you a very happy end of year break however you are celebrating, and every good wish for 2020 - from Pilar, Maya and Ross at the 21st Century Work Life podcast.
Credit for harp sounds in the flashback music go to SoundEffectsFactory under Creative Commons license. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYQJRq5_nPQ
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