The recent hysterics around remote work

There’s been a recent blanket push in government and in many high-profile companies to bring all workers back into the office and end remote work, regardless of the type of work being done. Like most things in life, there is a gradient or a spectrum here that deserves a look. I worked in various offices for 13 years, and after that have been working remotely since 2006.

Off the bat, it really depends on the job, right? If you’re working on a manufacturing process then likely you’re required at the plant to work on the machine or conduct the process you’re assigned to. If you are a medical professional working with patients, unless you’re consulting via Zoom, you’re hands on patients in a facility with the needed equipment, staff, and medications. If you’re part of a highly interactive sales or design team, where seeing other people helps you conduct your work, then again, the office could be a great fit (also might not be).

But if you work at a computer all day, working solo, calling in to meetings, there’s likely no need for you in the office, and going in can easily make you far less productive. Especially since many of the people you might be in a meeting with can often be in other time zones.

The logistics of getting to the office daily will lower productivity for that individual. Child care and child transportation are two problems before you even get in the car. If you live in a major city like Seattle or DC, you’re looking at an hour commute each way, maybe less if you buzz in at 6 or 7 am. That’s two hours a day, 5 days a week, 260 days a year, or around 520 hours annually for commuting (minus time off, which I, as a contractor, don’t get). That’s the equivalent of 65 work days at 8 hours a day. In addition to congestion, pollution, gas money, vehicle wear and tear (unless your city has good mass transit and you use it), and the loss of other things that could be accomplished with that time.

You park, you walk into the office. You see people, talk or don’t talk. Settle in at the cube or desk or whatever they have set up for you. Maybe hit the bathroom since you’ve been in the car an hour, and grab a coffee. When you’re grabbing a coffee, you’re likely to run into someone and talk. Even if you’re not a big talker, other people are talkers, and it’s easy to get pulled into a conversation someplace.

You settle into your desk area, check email and meetings, and try to get started. In a busy office, there is always a person or people who will tour around all day long and talk to everyone. You can hole up with headphones working away, and there will inevitably be people that pop by your area to talk about the game over the weekend, or office gossip, or the project, or where to go for lunch, or whatever. More time gone.

Heck, before you know it, it’s lunch. Repeat for the second half of the day, then spend an hour or more driving home. I did this for years where I’d drive in, sit at a computer, drive home. No interactive meetings, no nothing that required me be there except a manager who told me to be there, I guess to feel better about “butts in chairs.”

Which is another interesting thing, because sitting all day is not good for you, but good luck getting a standing desk in many companies, or other accommodations that you can provide for yourself at home. I personally developed painful wrist and back problems from sitting all day, until I built myself a standing desk at home, then all the pain literally just went away after standing. But in an office, my only choice, with one exception, has been to sit in a chair the whole day. Seems easy, but in reality it may not be good for your body.

An effective manager, for these types of employees, manages to deliverables. If I have a project due on X date, then it’s due on X date. If you’re working in an Agile environment, then you have sprints, and tasks are due every two weeks or whatever the sprint is. Doesn’t matter where you are. In fact, the more time you spend wanking* around in traffic or the coffee room, the less chance you have of hitting your delivery or sprint.

Working from home, you save all those hours in traffic. You can run your kids around or go to the doctor or do whatever you need to in order to function as a humanoid. You can get up and work at 5:30 or by 8:00 or whenever, because maybe yesterday you worked 12 hours to hit a deadline and today you can start later. After a meeting, you can throw in a load of laundry or tackle the dishes or work out. When those things are easier to take care of, it’s much easier to stay focused on the work you need to get done.

If I need to be in the office for a meeting, or in a manufacturing plant to observe a process, or at a client site, then I’m there. I can be there any day, any shift, any time. Then I’m back home crunching deliverables.

Lastly, as a remote worker, I can work as long or as short as I need to on a given day, and at any hour. I’m not just there 9 to 5. I’m there whenever. I can easily work east coast hours from the west coast, or vice versa. I can meet with people in other countries when it’s good for them. I can work until 10pm to hammer out a deliverable. I can be effective because my office is in my house. I’m there all the time. My personal things are taken care of. And so, I can focus on my clients, my coworkers, my projects, and the quality of on-time deliverables. Which is what I’m getting paid for.

Here we see one person in an office working, trying to get something done, and then here comes The Talking Person to stand there and chew up 20 minutes of her time, giving her just minutes before her next meeting, and forcing her to put off the task she was going to get done until sometime after lunch, if she’s lucky.

*Some may feel the use of the term “wanking” unprofessional, but I disagree, as it pretty well sums up how you’re spending your time in traffic or in an office when you can’t actually get work done. Plus, there are no other fun terms to use. It’s interesting because when I searched “what’s a good word for wasted time,” all of the AI suggestions except one implied laziness on the part of the person wasting the time. Which seems to be the implication in today’s push to get all workers back in the office - that remote workers are lazy and not working. The ones self-managing and being managed well are likely some of the most effective workers out there.

Here’s that AI list of suggested lame words: