The global COVID-19 pandemic has made us thoroughly rethink the very nature of work. With lockdowns and quarantines forcing the bulk of the global workforce to work from home, one could argue that the “future of work” is already here. Work, we have been told for decades, will be increasingly remodeled to be “portable, fluid, and flexible,” with advances in technology allowing for much of it to be “anytime, anywhere and anyplace.” This shift has serious long-term consequences, and this article concentrates on the effects it will have on day-to-day office work and ebbing and flowing of work and life at the juncture of these two domains, and the importance of office technology. For as long as we have had offices, we have moved through them in certain ways. But in making this shift from the traditional idea of the office toward the concept of it as an always-on, flexible, virtual space, what happens to these traditional movement patterns and to the workplace dynamics in which they are embedded? What becomes of the “office virtuoso” who is practiced at them in his or her movement through the working day? At the same time, people are dealing with the new limits being imposed between their work and their personal lives. They would like to find a balance, but the line is becoming too hard to see. And with the speed at which our digital world is growing, we’re not likely to see that line getting much clearer. In fact, as one analyst told me, “The boundary between what is happening ‘in here’ and ‘out there’ is growing more unstable every day.” This paper argues that remote work is here to stay and that it will fundamentally change both businesses and individuals. It examines three main dimensions (workplace dynamics, work-life balance, and technological integration) and asserts that all three will undergo critical shifts, pushing businesses and individuals to adapt in new and essential ways.
The ongoing switch to remote work carries a huge consequence: it is changing the very nature of the office. For decades, the office has been an enduring institution. We might have fiddled around with the layout and the dress code, but the basic hierarchical structure has remained the same. Power and authority flowed from the top down, and work at a particular level (usually your level) was managed by someone else at a level just above you. Together, this constituted a collaborative structure. (The Economist, October 11, 2021) The above-mentioned modifications require trust and autonomy as their foundation. The managers who we want to effect these changes have switched from being overseers to being facilitators, dramatizing the decentralization of decisions that were formerly concentrated in the hands of a few select individuals. Meanwhile, these changes go hand in hand with changes in the 24/7 work life, which now places a premium on qualities like self-discipline, proactive time management, and the ability to set boundaries. And all of these things have sprung up alongside or as a reaction to the seismic shift in technology that has allowed for a wholly new way of “working” that is neither bound by time nor by space. In addition, technology has assumed an even higher profile within this setting. Platforms are not just helpful but are also indispensable parts of everyday processes and have become standard for the collaboration, communication, and project management that keep businesses going, period. Through these platforms, everyone—from top to bottom and across all hoped-for horizontal terrain—can engage with operations. And if that is not crystal clear in the ordinary course of business, it seems extra important in a dispersed and potentially disconnected work environment. The clear movement toward remote work means we are fundamentally changing how we think about the structure of employment. It’s a large-scale event demanding new ways of thinking and behaving from both sides of the work equation. “Employers have to think differently about how they structure their work, how they engage with remote workforces, and how they continue to foster the culture of ‘their organization,’” says Jeff Laakko, a senior faculty member in the Management and Leadership Division at Harvard Business School.
Expanding on the workplace changes and technological advancements discussed by K Laakko (2021), remote work has some very serious implications for the performance of individuals and for the outcomes of the organizations that employ them. The work-from-home conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic forced both employers and employees to accept a “new normal” and to perform their old duties in a radically different classification of space and time. After over two years of WFH, the performance of individuals, as well as the overall productivity of the places we work, could use some serious reflection. Organizations are being forced by a big change in the way they look at things to evaluate their approaches to employees’ performance. The big change is that people are beginning to realize that performance cannot be judged particularly well by merely measuring whether someone is present in the office. As a result of the new paradigm, organizations are trying to figure out how to achieve several kinds of goals simultaneously: keep order in the office; make sure that the right people are getting the right kinds of resources; and make sure that the entire organization is “rowing in the same direction.” Segreti suggests a number of studies that can be undertaken to answer these kinds of questions. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly important for employers to create mechanisms within their organizations to preempt the occurrence of burnout and to advance the causes of mental wellness. In truth, technological developments furnish almost all the levers that are available to us right now to make progress on these two fronts. Nowadays, it is not just slack that is being championed as an effective tool for managing work-life “balance.” There are plenty of very strongly held opinions that warn employers not to tolerate overwork or over any kind of working, to seek to automate dangerous work activities out of existence, and—more darkly lately—to make arrangements with the insurance industry to ensure access to excellent health care for all employees. Essentially, the move to remote work continues to present expected and hoped-for benefits but also numerous unanticipated consequences. Organizations, in order to make the most of this new working reality, must put in place several key conditions that make for good remote work, including leadership and performance management, teamwork, and communication. However, distance cohesion, which manages the remote workforce’s sense of being part of something and performing collectively, is Integrated Insight Management’s (IIM) starting place for developing and implementing strategies that make remote work pay off.
To sum up, there is no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated a major change in our work systems. Remote work has become a mainstay, not just a short-term solution. This situation, fortunately, has opened our eyes to the many implications of remote work on the art and science of leadership. Leaders must now pay closer attention to what forms of communication they use because the kinds of trust and autonomy that morale and productivity require exist mostly in conversation, and conversation (including the conversation power brokered by technology) still mainly happens between humans, even if they are stuck in front of Zoom. Meanwhile, what we used to call work–life balance must now be rebranded as work–life integration because no amount of good time management and discipline will make remote work flow if leaders fail to clearly articulate the impact that their teams’ work has on the enterprise. Moreover, this shift requires us to reexamine the kinds of performance indicators and overall organizational strategies we have in place—ones that, historically, have aimed to cultivate inclusive environments where high-quality work takes precedence over all else. And, as organizations adapt to this new normal, precisely what ought to count as “support” for the individuals is going to become an even more pressing question. Will it be the ostensibly high-speed, high-throughput systems afforded by ever-advancing technologies? Or will it still be a good old-fashioned “check in with your coworkers, make sure they’re doing okay” approach that really gets the job done? And better yet, to what degree will both be required? Moving ahead into this new work model demands strategic planning and ceaseless innovation. The renewed emphasis on innovation is propelling us toward the promises of much greater flexibility and even more potential for productivity and creativity. But companies mustn’t embark on planning for and implementing a remote work transition without being confident of clear value creation. Organizations must be able to measure and understand what they are getting for the resources, time, and overall cultural change being expended.
References
Laakko, K. (2021). Pandemic’s impact on employees’ motivation towards remote work.
Segreti, L. (2022). COVID-19’s Influence on Job Performance in a Remote Work Environment at a Small Software Development Organization (Doctoral dissertation, Trident University International).
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