Why the 'Great Remote Work Experiment' may have been flawed(bbc.com)
bbc.com
Why the 'Great Remote Work Experiment' may have been flawed
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210810-why-the-great-remote-work-experiment-may-have-been-flawed
9 comments
It was certainly a test under non-normal circumstances. People didn't know how long it would last, and may not have the option of going in to the office at all.
For example, a lot of people have put off moving out of expensive, bad accomodation near the office because they didn't know if it would last; working from home in an overpriced flat, where a significant other and handful of children are also all trying to work from home and nobody can go out, is a very different game to working from home in a nicer, bigger, cheaper house with a lot more room in a nicer area where people can go out and where people can go to the office as needed (which, I have to say, for me is basically never - I have sat at my office desk once since March 2020, and that was to empty the drawers and clear it, since I'm never sitting there again; I do have a strong bias in favour of WFH).
I now have someone on my team moving a couple of hours out of London, to live by the seaside in a house rather than in central London in a little flat, and one chap has moved all the way back to Yorkshire, where he is now near family and friends, back where he grew up. For them, now that they have the assurance from our big boss that this is a permanent option (with new contracts, no less, stating that the employee's place of work is their own home or other such suitable location) WFH has suddenly transformed in an enormous way that it hadn't really permanently done so during the immediate Covid response.
For example, a lot of people have put off moving out of expensive, bad accomodation near the office because they didn't know if it would last; working from home in an overpriced flat, where a significant other and handful of children are also all trying to work from home and nobody can go out, is a very different game to working from home in a nicer, bigger, cheaper house with a lot more room in a nicer area where people can go out and where people can go to the office as needed (which, I have to say, for me is basically never - I have sat at my office desk once since March 2020, and that was to empty the drawers and clear it, since I'm never sitting there again; I do have a strong bias in favour of WFH).
I now have someone on my team moving a couple of hours out of London, to live by the seaside in a house rather than in central London in a little flat, and one chap has moved all the way back to Yorkshire, where he is now near family and friends, back where he grew up. For them, now that they have the assurance from our big boss that this is a permanent option (with new contracts, no less, stating that the employee's place of work is their own home or other such suitable location) WFH has suddenly transformed in an enormous way that it hadn't really permanently done so during the immediate Covid response.
It was not flawed, it was new, it required to adapt, to do things differently and most people did it great. This is the future and being stuck in traffic I hope will be a thing of the past.
It is flawed though. In a "perfect" world, people would have had time to set themself up to work remote successfully by getting the tools and support they needed.
Instead, people were working from a bed/couch/wherever they could because they dont have the room in their current living situation to handle a remote office. Couple that with potential roommates/live in spouses/children who are all doing the same thing and yea its not gonna be as easy as someone who started remote prior to the lockdowns and had time to set up an office.
My partner is the perfect representation of this. I was remote prior to the lockdowns in our area. I have a nice standing desk, external monitors, headphones, and already had processes in place to deal with it all. She, and her company, did not so for a few months there was a lot of struggle as she tried to find a place to work in her cramped one bedroom apartment for a company that wasn't prepared to go remote.
Instead, people were working from a bed/couch/wherever they could because they dont have the room in their current living situation to handle a remote office. Couple that with potential roommates/live in spouses/children who are all doing the same thing and yea its not gonna be as easy as someone who started remote prior to the lockdowns and had time to set up an office.
My partner is the perfect representation of this. I was remote prior to the lockdowns in our area. I have a nice standing desk, external monitors, headphones, and already had processes in place to deal with it all. She, and her company, did not so for a few months there was a lot of struggle as she tried to find a place to work in her cramped one bedroom apartment for a company that wasn't prepared to go remote.
Nothing is going to be perfect for everybody, but still, working from home has given a break to the planet and to most of the people.
Working remotely has been the highlight of the pandemic - it was the perk I never knew I wanted until I had it. I’m hoping it doesn’t get pulled back now that the “great experiment” has proven that it works. The main thing irking me now is the few companies trying to tie wages to location as if my skill set is somehow less valuable because I live on the north side of the street rather then the south. Unfortunately they are major employers - supposedly progressive companies like Google and Facebook - so there is a real danger that could catch on if they are successful. Obscuring your location from your employer could be a thing. Slack tattletales your timezone, so you would need to make sure your computer’s clock is set to the right timezone. You might need a vpn running so things like smtp doesn’t record ip addresses that will betray your physical location, etc.
> Obscuring your location from your employer could be a thing
This seems fairly unlikely... Your employer needs to do some really basic things that require knowing where you live, like withold your state taxes, ensure they are abiding by state employment laws at the very least.
This seems fairly unlikely... Your employer needs to do some really basic things that require knowing where you live, like withold your state taxes, ensure they are abiding by state employment laws at the very least.
There has been location arbitration in IT for decades in the form offshoring and near-shoring. There is no reason for that to not be a thing within the US. Many companies will value (whether it is really valuable or not) people who come into the office on a regular basis. Should those people not be paid for their willingness to be there in person?
Lying to your employer to get more money is a bad idea. Your suggestions could be fraud.
Lying to your employer to get more money is a bad idea. Your suggestions could be fraud.
It's always fraud when the little guy gets one over on the big guy, but strangely never the other way around, in practice
2015-2019: "If you take a day to work from home, that's fine. Just don't make it a weekly thing. We don't allow remote work as a general rule. Working together in the office is a key part of our culture."
Jan 2020: "We've heard your concerns about coming to the office, but we assure you that we follow the government guidelines, installed sanitizer stations everywhere etc. Working together in the office is a key part of our culture."
Feb 2020: "OK so the government now officially recommends that all employees work from home where possible - we will look into that, but for now, let's all still go to the office. Working together in the office is a key part of our culture."
March 2020: "OK so now the government has made it illegal for us to ask you to come into the office. We are grateful to have this opportunity to embrace remote work! As we've always said, we are glad that we are now fully ready to allow remote work for the future!"