WLP281: What's Going On - Is the World Really the Remote Worker's Oyster?
In today’s ‘What’s Going On’ monthly episode (recorded on 10th August 2021), Pilar and Maya explore some global perspectives on the remote revolution.
We touch upon some of the legal and regulatory challenges to emerging international ways working and employment - so let’s get a quick disclaimer stated upfront: no one at Virtual Not Distant is qualified to give legal advice of any kind, and all discussion referencing business/tax/employment regulation and compliance is for your interest and entertainment only. There’s quite enough dodgy advice doing the rounds, and we have no intention of adding to it.
Episode 281 of the 21st Century Work Life podcast . Headshots of hosts Pilar Orti and Maya Middlemiss.
03.10 Back to (the) work (place)
The contractual issues affect everyone, who may have signed up for work in a specific location or under particular conditions, which remain in a state of flux.
Anyone who chose a job because of its location, has a lot consider right now. While some miss the office, others are leaving jobs which will no longer support remote, because they’ve discovered new potential within themselves as well as personal preferences.
Some employers are resorting to raffles and bribes to get workers back in to the office: Work at the Office, Win a New Car! Seriously? There are some misaligned incentive models emerging for sure.
On the other hand, an online grocery service in the UK are taking a very different approach: Ocado Group offers staff remote working abroad. They’re supporting their people to work from a location of their choice for up to one month a year. A great step in the direction of meeting needs of staff, especially those with overseas family they have been deprived of contact with of late - although it will exclude a lot of their customer facing people, obviously.
13.54 Regulating ‘work from anywhere’
One month a year doesn’t sound like a lot, but it can get really complicated for employers when people want to be overseas for longer periods.
HBR are exploring this idea with this report - Your Company Needs a Digital Nomad Policy, so it’s good to see the mainstream business press recognising the need to get in front of this conversation, before people take matters into their own hands, on a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ basis which could backfire badly on all parties. Digital nomads used to be mainly entrepreneurs and freelancers, but as this report points out, "the number of digital nomads with traditional jobs rose from 3.2 million in 2019 to 6.3 million in 2020 — a 96% increase."
So it’s vital to draw up clear agreements referencing the location and scope of the work to be done, as well as any red lines and restrictions, and more and more organisations are grasping the importance of this - Top CHROs Believe 'Flexibility Within a Framework' Is the Future of Work (Gallup, June 2021).
The HBR article above references an exploratory paper from a US legal firm, What to do about "Global COVID Nomads", which digs into this on an employment law basis (from a US point of view).
They propose an interesting taxonomy of motivation and activity for employees working overseas, from the average compliant telecommuter enjoying a workation, through to the “Stealth self-directed international-traveler telecommuter”, who could be on very thin ice from a range of perspectives (insurance, employment law, technical problems, tax residency, and more.)
Again the clear message is transparency - having the conversation and setting the parameters and guidelines, instead of letting people take things into their own hands. Don’t be a test case - we might expect that some things which got overlooked during lockdown, will now get regulated more tightly. You don’t want to be that person who ruins it for everyone in your organisation either!
Employers-of-record are another solution, for people who want to be more nomadic, and employers who want to support them. It’s great to see practical compliant legal services, underpinning this nomadic employee movement. Our podcasting partners Shield GEO have recently been acquired by Velocity Global, highlighting interest in practical legal solutions in this space, and Nadia Vatalidis from Remote.com (who joined us in episode 277) shared this video to highlight their own priorities for putting their recent $150 million Series B investment to good use.
34.10 The future is flexible…
Let’s remember, in all this talk of location-hopping, that flexibility as a principle is about much more than where you work.
When you have trust and asynchronous communications, you can offer people flexibility in different ways, and support those whose job may need to be done in a particular place. Perhaps their job could be done in more personally flexible ways - Ocado van drivers might not be able to work from another company, but maybe their shifts or vehicles or beats could be made flexible? Talking to people about what they want is a good first step.
Recent research from the Future Forum team supports the idea, and warns of the consequences of disregarding the evident desire: Future Forum study of 10,000 knowledge workers shows that 93% want flexibility in when and how they work; more than half are open to a job change.
Anyone who recognises The Future Forum as a research initiative from collaboration tool Slack, may have spotted this rather nice message in their latest app update:
It’s easy to be cynical about mental health support from corporations, but if this made people smile, why not! (Perhaps they should also be reminding people to manage their notification settings, to promote that good night’s sleep).
Something else new from Slack is their ‘audio huddles’, which got accidentally announced in a Clubhouse event earlier this year(!). It will be interesting to see how these spaces get used, in terms of audio meetings vs huddles vs other ways of collaborating and communicating in Slack.
Have you put audio to work on this platform? Please let us know! (and if you’re listening to this in the future, tell us how you’re using the Teams of Zoom clones which will doubtless have emerged since this point...)
41.30 Company news
Pilar is now working from a central London coworking some of the time - enjoying that city experience, and even some aspects of an occasional ‘commute’.
So we now have a Leicester Square business address, and Pilar has a new psychological space, as the freedom to enjoy the city as it emerges. Perhaps will one day reflect a new trend of how we use city centres, for working on a more occasional and social basis? We will return to this theme no doubt!
Even confirmed homeworker Maya has started working at a local coworking very occasionally, proving that post-lockdown, we can all enjoy greater freedom and flexibility, in safe and intentional ways.
For further coworking inspiration check out episode 279, and meanwhile please contact us, or you can tweet Virtual Not Distant, or Pilar and Maya directly, with your thoughts and ideas about anything we have discussed in this episode or others, as well as links or themes you’d like us to explore in future ‘What’s Going On?’ discussions.
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