For the last 2 and a half years, remote working has been the norm during the Covid-19 pandemic and many of us have made the choice to continue to work remotely.
The term "remote working" simply means "working away from your employer's main/usual place of business". This can include our homes, our gardens, a local coffee shop, a satellite office or co-working office spaces from companies such as WeWork, or anywhere else that isn't the employer's main office.
This is the first time many of us have found ourselves working remotely in our lifetime. But remote working has been around for decades before Covid-19 was even a thing!
Whilst there has been that integration of where people conducted their business and where their families lived and gathered since the Victorian times (known as "workhomes"), it wasn't until the 1970s that terms related to remote working started to make a resurgence.
Jack Nilles is often cited as the "father of remote work". He is credited with creating the terms "telecommuting" and "teleworking" in 1973 when he was working at the University of Southern California as the Director of Interdisciplinary Research. During the OPEC oil crisis of 1973, Nilles proposed telecommuting as a way around the normal commute to and from the office and the rocketing oil prices at the time that came as a result of the embargo in place at the time. Towards the end of the decade when the first personal computers became available and the oil embargo was still ongoing, telecommuting became increasingly commonplace and people could save a lot of money on travel costs, particularly during the oil embargo, and contribute towards better air quality by telecommuting even just 1 day a week.
Now that we've had 2 and a half years of remote working en masse, what can we take away from it and do we think it is here to stay?
When writing this article, I was partially inspired by the episode of The Diary of a CEO that featured the author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell as a guest.
Some of Gladwell's quotes around the subject in the episode include:
"Its very hard to feel necessary when you are physically disconnected"
"It's not in your best interest to work at home"
"If you're just sitting in your pyjamas in your bedroom, is that the work life you want to live? Don't you want to feel part of something?"
"We want you to have a feeling of belonging and to feel necessary. And if you're not here, it's really hard to do that. What have you reduced your life to?"
"If we don't feel like we're part of something important, what's the point?"
"If its just a paycheck, then what have you reduced your life to?"
"[using company culture to encourage staff and recruits to work on-site] could have a really lovely thing where if you preferentially select people based on their desire to work in an office, that's a really wonderful way to build a nice office culture"
Since the release of the episode, there has been criticism of his comments, mostly from those of us for whom remote working has directly benefitted. Which makes sense as, after employees have been working remotely for the last couple of years, we're best placed to comment on it and to comment on what works and doesn't work for us.
So below, I'll do my best to consider as full a picture as I can, whilst also using my own experiences of remote and on-site working, to see if there are indeed points to be made for either side of the coin.
Environmental impact
Remember how we didn't leave our homes for a lot of 2020? It turns out that primary energy demand dropped nearly 4% in 2020, which resulted in the largest ever decline in global CO2 emissions. The production, supply and consumption of fossil fuels was greatly reduced around the world, which means a huge reduction in harmful CO2 emissions that can damage the planet's ozone layer, but can also damage our health more immediately.
In an article published in 2018, the WHO estimated that around 7 million every year die as a result of outdoor and household air pollution. But during 2020 when there was a huge reduction in the use of vehicles that are powered by fossil fuels, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) reported that the UK met almost all of the air quality targets for the first time since the targets were introduced in 2008.
So by working predominantly from home, we played a huge part in mitigating air pollution and fossil fuel usage nationwide. That's a huge moral victory right there!
Costs
The daily commuting costs can all add up over time! For the years I was commuting to my place of work pre-covid, I would be spending a huge amount of money on buses, metros, trains, and in some instances taxis.
Since commuting was at an absolute minimum during peak Covid pandemic time, we were saving a significant amount of money on commuting. Not to mention a significant amount of hassle! Trust me, the morning rush hour on buses and metros to and from Birmingham is no picnic. Certainly not how I want my day to start.
And after doing a commute from time to time in and around London on the Underground, I have total sympathy for the people who had to do that every day!
But due to the increase in the number of people working from home, there has been an increase in household costs (energy and other utilities) from the increased use of household items that weren't being used as often pre-Covid because we weren't at home to use them during the day. This includes things like kettles, lights, microwaves, televisions, radios, laptops and computers, phones and chargers, water, and broadband internet.
According to Statistica, domestic electricity usage across all households in the UK rose from 103.82 terawatt-hours in 2019 to 107.85 terawatt-hours in 2020 and then to 108.82 terawatt-hours in 2021.
To put that into perspective, that's a difference of over 1.1 billion hours nationwide of oven use between 2019 and 2020, and over 421 million hours of oven use between 2020 and 2021.
Obviously with increased energy usage comes increased costs. So whilst we may have saved money on the commute, that money will have instead gone towards increased utility bills instead!
Culture
Company culture is a corporate-ese way of saying "the feel/vibe of the company". It is the result of the collective attitudes, behaviours values, goals and practices that define the company, along with the rituals that we have around connection and trust in each other.
It could be suggested that building and maintaining a company culture remotely is more challenging compared to when we were all working in offices, but this doesn't mean it is impossible. Company culture isn't something that is built in a physical office. It is built by the people who are there and working together.
But "office culture", which is different from company culture, creates a proximity bias that can exclude colleagues who work in other locations to the company's main place of work, or colleagues who aren't sitting within earshot of management or in their line of sight. It can present as managers promoting or giving better treatment to staff working close to them, and neglecting those who are at the other end of the office or working outside of the office entirely.
There is satisfaction and fulfilment to be gained from work when we feel like we are "part of something" and that our efforts are being recognised as working towards that goal. That's true.
But it isn't a rule that we have to be in an office or be working our hours at the time to get fulfilment out of feeling like we are part of something, particularly nowadays where all staff are encouraged to promote the brands of themselves and their employer.
Again, culture is created by behaviours, habits, rituals, and everything that people do together.
Language plays a part as well. For instance, you may have leaders and managers encouraging people to "come back to work". But this implies that the time where we've been remote working has been a reprieve from work (it hasn't!), and that the only way to work is to be in an office simply because that's how its been for years. Doesn't seem like that would do any favours for maintaining a positive company culture when remote work has benefitted so many, would it?
Going forward, we can use what we have learned over the last 2.5 years to elevate company culture and make it even more inclusive and accessible, expand the already existing strategies, and eliminate toxic traits that have seeped into pre-covid company culture.
We're now in an era where flexibility and embracing different working styles to achieve the collective goals of the company and the team are playing a front-and-centre role in businesses' identities going forward. No one wants to be left behind as we enter a post-Covid society, and so learning and practicing good behaviours and rituals that contribute to a positive company culture for everyone, whether they are on-site or remote, must be one of the priorities of every business for years to come, I believe.
Health
For some employees, regular working on-site just isn't feasible due to certain health conditions and disabilities that make getting to and working in the office very difficult. Yet pre-covid that was all we knew so we had little choice but to go along with it lest we risk our future prospects of continued employment or promotion or anything else.
Staff with conditions or disabilities that can cause chronic pain or can impair movement and activity, like ME or disabilities/injuries that require staff to use mobility aids, can see their quality of life at work severely impacted.
Staff who are neurodivergent, autistic or deal with heightened sensory sensitivities could find a busy commute or constant noises or visual stimuli or anything else that affects our senses to be highly derailing or overwhelming, which can in turn affect our normal working days.
Staff who are dealing with mental ill-health such as anxiety or PTSD, or who have been experiencing bullying and harassment that has not been addressed, can find working in an office with their abuser to be highly traumatic and triggering and can have a serious impact on their health at work and their desire to work for that company.
(Spoiler alert, no one wants to work for an asshole boss! You don't need me to tell you that!)
Whereas at home we can set up our work areas exactly where we want, like a study or garden shed, and how we want with the things that we know help us.
Plus we can even wear what we want as well. More and more companies are introducing a "dress for your day" policy where, if you are not meeting clients or anyone that you need to really dress up for and make a real effort for, you can come into the office in more comfortable clothes for yourself.
Some of us neurodivergents may experience difficulty with some sensory stimulation around certain clothes and fabrics or the labels in our clothes being so distracting that we can't focus on what we are doing at work because of the intense irritation and the sensory overstimulation that comes from it. For some of us, that discomfort can be all we can focus on to the detriment of what we want to be able to do at work.
Neighbouring businesses
When we are working on-site, we spend our moneyon food and drink for breakfast or lunch. So doing that can mean we're contributing to the continuing existence of these neighbouring businesses, which in turn means the staff can continue to come to work and make a living for themselves.
Doing this greatly helps smaller independent or family-run businesses that haven't been around long enough to build up the same level of reputation and goodwill as, say, Costa or McDonalds or others like them.
Birmingham, for instance, has a great community of independent businesses, and it is a very attractive city for those who sell on food markets like the German Christmas Market. When I was working regularly on-site in Birmingham, there would be regular food markets in Victoria Square and I loved visiting the Jamaican food vendors and having a jerk chicken, rice and peas lunch from them (though my waistline didn't enjoy it as much as my mouth did!)
Spending our money at these smaller indi places means more to them than it does to Costa or McDonalds who don't really need our money! So that's a positive to consider if we want to be doing more good with our money.
Priorities
Home workers often praise the fact that they have been able to be more present for their family and friends since transitioning to home working during the pandemic, and choosing to continue home working going forwards.
For instance, 90% of Dropbox employees work remotely. The feedback is positive and tends to cite the improved work-life balance and increased employee engagement.
There will be employees who have parental responsibilities and can't afford childcare, or who care for elderly family members or friends or neighbours, have multiple commitments to their families or their communities, or who want to achieve things for themselves or their communities that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to had they continued to work on-site.
We feel much happier when we are able to make informed decisions for ourselves. Having that choice taken away from us or having someone else make the decision for us without consulting us can make us feel resentful, unvalued, and not listened to. Like if someone else orders for us in a restaurant and we receive a meal that we never wanted in the first place.
If we feel empowered to make the best decision for ourselves and assured that our employer will support and value us regardless, we will feel more satisfied and fulfilled and our employer will likely see increased engagement and increased staff retention. Trusting staff to make the best decision for ourselves here is the best choice an employer can make for these reasons above.
What about me?
I've worked remotely for, collectively, around 15 months.
I've enjoyed a number of things about it.
The lack of commute,
Being able to start my days well after plenty of sleep and a nutritious breakfast,
Fewer distractions when I want to do deep work more often,
Having more power over who I choose to chat with at work. Being selective over who I choose to chat with, as opposed to having people at work who I don't like and don't want to interact with, means I can build deeper and more meaningful relationships with a few select people. I've gained friends from work this way too! (Stef, Daisy, Naomi 🥰)
But it isn't without its drawbacks.
Due to a small home and my mother also working from home, space is an issue. My workspace isn't set in stone, and my mother and I can sometimes step on each other when working.
I miss the ability to see some colleagues in person and be around them more so I can learn more about how we work together and how we can support each other.
My personal view is that there won't be a one size fits all approach to the entire workforce when it comes to work locations due to the diverse profiles of employees who have different needs and requirements to be able to bring their best to their employer.
Employers who embrace the positives of and work with staff around the drawbacks of remote working (they do exist) will be in a much better position to attract and retain staff than those who don't. Empowering staff to choose what they believe is the best outcome for themselves and supporting those decisions means that employer will be miles ahead of their competitors when it comes to attracting and retaining staff.
But we all have a part to play in making our working patterns work for all of us, whether we work full-time on-site, full-time remote, or a hybrid pattern. What works for one won't always work for others and so it is us to all of us to work with our colleagues to ensure that everyone is included at work, everyone can access what they need at work regardless of where they work from, and that no one is left out simply because of where they happen to work from.
I myself am excited to be able to see my colleagues more regularly. But I'm happy with being able to make use of a working pattern that keeps me and my family safe (as we're not out of covid yet!), and that encourages me to think about what I want out of a workplace and what I want to achieve with my life and career.
Be safe and be well! :)
P
Credit: Cover image photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash
Further reading:
9 out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air, but more countries are taking action (who.int)
How to Collaborate Effectively If Your Team Is Remote (hbr.org)
Author Malcolm Gladwell slams working from home (ampproject.org)
Column: Hey Malcolm Gladwell, I'm working in my jammies and I'm just fine (msn.com)
Malcolm Gladwell roasted for criticizing remote workers (nypost.com)
Return to office realities: 4 things employees say they're struggling with | ZDNet