Pros & Cons to Remote Work

*Video Transcription*

Appraising the remote work environment…

So I wanted to try and do a really succinct kind of appraisal of what I am seeing in terms of workplaces and allowing continued remote work, or not, and what I'm seeing as the pros and cons to that.

So first, I think, it was pretty incredible how through the need of COVID, technology has accelerated in its accessibility and utility and has allowed a lot of really big, complicated companies to kind of keep moving without missing a beat during the pandemic.

And, with that new technology, people's comfort with that technology, it's definitely opened up the possibility that more people can be doing remote work. What I like about this is that some organizations in smaller markets like Fort Wayne, where I live, are being able to hire people that are in larger markets because they can work remote.

So it's really opening up the talent pool…

…and given the scarcity of talent right now, I think that's kind of a blessing in this situation. I think the downside that I'm seeing is that I don't think people realize that so much of how you are grown, advanced, developed given opportunities comes from those small workplace interactions.

It's that quick conversation down a hallway. It's, a meeting. I just, “hey, I think you should get pulled in here on this.” You know, there are all those small ways in which we get opportunity, visibility, able to demonstrate what we know, kind of let people know what we're about in those small opportunities that just come along in the workplace organically. And I think those are going to be very, very difficult for people that are moving up in an organization to replicate from Zoom calls.

Because we schedule them, we have them, we get off.

So all that casual conversation is really missed or it's really awkward when you try and do it on Zoom. So I think people that are in a place where they want to grow and develop their careers want to be considered promotable, I think they're going to miss the opportunities to be as visible as they would need to be to maximize their potential. Now, having said that, some people don't want that and that's completely fine. You know, there are plenty of people working in call centers across the country who don't want to move up into management.

They don't want to be on a leadership track. They just want a job and it's a job they can do just as easily from home. And so for someone like that, it's not going to really cost them anything to be working from home if they like working from home.

So it kind of depends. I'm also seeing some trends just in terms of the kinds of groups that want to come back to work and the kinds of groups that don't want to come back to work. And and it's this is probably a gross generalization, but more extroverted types of feel: sales, marketing.

Those folks tend to be most eager to come back. And you've got folks, you know, who tend to draw people that are less extroverted, more introverted and they are being more resistant to coming back.

So I think there's not one good way to do this.

I think whether we go back to work, have some people coming back and not others coming back for a partial week. There's pros and cons to each of that. But it's I'm definitely seeing companies have to get creative to figure out how to maximize what's good about these opportunities and the technology that has afforded us these choices, but also trying to negate what might be bad about a loss of culture, loss of community and loss of upward opportunities for advancement.