Remote 4 life - a benefit, or a standard?

It is needless to say that the pandemic brought us to home offices at an unexpected pace. It was a bombshell. Remote became a necessity when it used to be a benefit provided by only a handful of open-minded companies. And business still thrived. People worked as much as in an office environment. They turned out to be even more productive. So why is it that managers wanted so badly to get people back to offices? What is and what should be the workforce response? What is the future of work regarding the place you work from? Hear our thoughts on the subject.

Adapting

We all went through it. The shock of being locked in, settling into new, yet familiar surroundings, turning our living oases into workspaces. Wrestling the occasional child or a pet from crashing our meetings. Oh, how I remember my cat trying to bite my hand off while I was talking to some government official via Zoom. Then we adapted and started to value the proximity of a couch or a stove. Got used to getting up much later. Spending more time with our loved ones since we didn’t have to lose precious time on our daily commute. Not to mention that we instantly forgot about the costs of dining out, parking, and public transportation. It was as if all of us were granted pay raises. 

Back to life, back to reality

On the other hand, managements from all over the world had more trouble adapting to the new working reality. They spent months biting their nails, waiting for a moment for people to start slacking because they were not under constant supervision. They considered themselves lucky that, finally, throughout the globe, the Covid-19 situation gradually got milder, so they rushed into ordering people back to offices. Micromanagement is the silent killer of employee engagement, and the atmosphere of constant control of employees will be the downfall of many businesses that are not agile enough to adapt. Burnout syndrome is fueled by micromanagement and is equally toxic for both workers and the C-level. 

Somewhere, with more flexible managers or stronger HR functions, companies agreed to switch to a hybrid working arrangement, usually with 2-3 days obligatory in the office. That is better than people could have hoped for looking back at about three years. But it is still not enough for most of the people who worked from home for the last 24 months.

Only smaller agile and cross-border companies decided it was best to leave the situation as it was during the pandemic. But, with this model of work, office reopening is a taboo subject. After all, expenses drop considerably when there is no office to maintain and rent. 

Rarely did businesses look at the situation through the eyes of their core value - the people.

Respect the people you work with

People are diverse, all over the globe, but across the smaller teams too - people have different preferences. And different lifestyles. And we can’t please everyone, but we can at least try. Companies often forget that happier employees stay longer with the company and work more productively. So why don’t businesses do everything that is reasonable to ensure their happiness at work? If you asked a random group of people or simply observed the LinkedIn community, you would have noticed that most of the people would simply like to have a choice. They miss the easygoingness of office socialization, but they would also like to sleep longer or drop their kids at school on a few days of the week. 

Life didn’t stop during the last two years. Some people got new family members and they love to be able to witness them grow every day. Companies should not be the ones deciding to take those things away. They should be the ones creating the opportunity for everyone to give their maximum - both at home and at work. What do people lack? Time and a choice on how to organize it. A business should be able to trust the people it chooses to work with to organize themselves in a way that is beneficial both for the individual and the company. 

New office and remote work

We have recently reopened our office, and we are super excited about it! In only a few days, it showed the value we were aiming for. Having a place to collaborate makes the ideas swarm. It’s easier to discuss important topics or team up on various subjects. It is beneficial to gather for production in a place where you can lean on your colleague if you stumble upon an issue. But we do not intend to revoke the option of working remotely. Never.

Everyone should be able to choose!

We want people to be able to pick their workspace, without making them come to the office every week. We will welcome them to our company quarters if they find it better to collaborate live. But we state clearly that the remote 4 life option is here to stay. Going to the office needs to have a purpose as well! After two years of working at home, if you're just going in to do heads-down work or spend all day on calls, why would you want to do that?

In the last two years, after the initial shock, business went as usual in a remote setting. It didn’t matter where everyone worked from. So we decided that, even after the pandemic, everyone on the team will be able to choose where to work from. It doesn’t matter whether it is at home, in the countryside, or from another side of the world - the freedom of choice is what matters more. But now, we also have a cozy working environment to come to if we need a different kind of scenery. Our office capacity is large enough to accept all our team members, however, even though it would be more fun to have everyone in the office, it is much more meaningful to provide our teams with a sense of freedom and the ability to balance out work and life. 

Listen, adapt, and thrive from what you've learned

Not all jobs can be done remotely, but the number is increasing every day as the planet speeds up on the digital transformation road. It is important to acknowledge the fact that not every job description consists of tasks that can be done on a laptop, anywhere. But it is equally important to think of how to enable those, who can choose their respective workspace, with the freedom to choose. All that businesses need to do is to provide the necessary resources for those choices. Remote work should not be advocated as a benefit, everyone will need to - sooner than later - accept that the people they hire are intelligent, self-respectful adults that learned that they can value their time and not cost business with it. 

It will take time, but we are positive that a remote working arrangement will be a part of the standard work conditions, that it is the new “normal” and that it IS healthy for the eligible workforce worldwide. We strongly believe that both the mental and physical health of all people is essential for any business to thrive.