A common thought is that when we emerge from the current ‘lockdown’ situation, one of the elements of the ‘new normal’ will be a wider embracing of remote working. The upsides to this for the individual worker being for many a much reduced journey time to work (but that has an impact on decompressing/differentiating work from home) and the ability to better focus on work (avoiding the challenges of open plan offices); upsides for the business being a potential to reduce the size of the office space required and the ideal of greater worker productivity. There are though a set of success factors emerging for such remote work driven productivity that are being crystalised through our current experiences:
Children; need to be in school or daycare. Links to the 2 factors below
Space; needs to be dedicated during the working day
Privacy; free from interruption
Choice; At the moment for many there is none but on the ‘other side’ it needs to be the workers wish when to work remotely.
Aptitude; the ability to fully utilise the enabling technology
There are (at least) 2 big reasons why remote working shouldn’t become a 5 day a week norm:
Social company; humans need contact otherwise we can feel isolated, become lonely and develop depression. No technological solution can overcome this need.
Innovation; face to face contact is essential for developing new ideas, and new ideas are becoming harder to find….