Remote, But Not Distant
"How detached from reality does the work-from-home crowd have to be? While they take advantage of those who cannot work from home. Why did I sleep in the factory so many times? Because it mattered."
- Elon Musk, October 2023
I'm not sure I'd ever start a blog post quoting Musk; however, here we are. Musk has consistently disparaged remote work and its users. In May of this year, Musk told CNBC he thought remote work was "morally wrong" and likened remote workers to Marie Antoinette's infamous (and falsely associated) "let them eat cake" remark.
Musk and other CEO's proclamations about the problems of remote work, especially in the post-pandemic era, including its perceived negative impact on workplace culture, are anachronistic and short-sighted. As I wrote recently in a blog post about The Changing Nature of Work, the response of many corporations on remote work increasingly aligns with the view that we are a "land of workism" and that how we do work is homogeneous in that it should be "back to the office" every day.
An opposing narrative to everyone back in the office exists as we see a significant shift in how workers view their relationship with work, while at the same time, companies are making deliberate choices about post-pandemic organizational norms and culture.
I have led distributed teams domestically and globally for over twenty years. Remote work is not a new phenomenon. And, during COVID, the share of employed Americans working exclusively from home rose from 4 percent in 2019 to 54 percent in 2020. The great COVID experiment of moving everyone to a home office proved that a permanent office setting was unnecessary for all roles. The experiment provided many with a different experience and operating model. Namely, remote work is a viable and warranted option for many, offering flexibility, balance, and harmony to help manage our lives and help temper the feelings associated with workism.
In his recent New York Times Opinion piece, The Five-Day Office Week Is Dead, Nick Bloom, Professor of Economics at Stanford University, who has been researching working from home for twenty years, states unequivocally that "working from home is here to stay."
Of course, remote work is only for some and is not a one-size-fits-all solution to how we work. It has potential benefits and drawbacks, like most solutions. For example, it would be short-sighted to not analyze the impact of being a remote worker when discussing career advancement. Separately, as much as remote work has given employees long-sought-after autonomy and flexibility, not being in person may impact the ability of teams to be at their best and to innovate.
And yet, as Bloom points out, "Despite all the noise some business executives made to the contrary, remote work saves companies money. It cuts overhead, boosts productivity, and is profitable. Remote work also has major benefits for society, including improving the climate by cutting billions of miles of weekly commuting and supporting families by liberating parents' time. We all should celebrate the resilience of our workers and the benefits of working from home."
So, as the role of remote work evolves, and we assess how to create more flexibility as our relationship with work changes, it is fitting that the next More Elephant conversation is with Melissa Romo, author of "Your Resource Is Human: How Empathetic Leadership Can Help Remote Teams Rise Above."
Melissa, like Nick, argues that remote working is here to stay. Those words are boldly displayed on the book's back cover. Inextricably linked to the challenges of workism and attaching our identity to what we do for work, Melissa explores the five unspoken remote work emotions and identifies the five remote-ready leadership behaviors that can help all teams when 65 percent of remote workers say they felt isolated.
By leveraging the Remote Relationship Wheel TM, Melissa aims to "give remote leaders the counsel and courage to embrace empathy, adapt their communication, and inspire optimism that will drive culture, build connection, and help their people do their best work."
Melissa, I, and many of our work colleagues throughout our careers have benefitted from and advocated for remote work. We are proof that a growth mindset, leadership that impacts people, and building a winning culture can be achieved without demanding everyone be in an office five days a week!
