No Remote Employment. Onsite Only. Remote During COVID-19 Only. Anticipating Return to Offices.<\/p>\n
Didn\u2019t COVID-19 teach us that tech-related jobs, and many other white-collar jobs, can be done remotely without significant problems? Yes, we had some early glitches with meetings and unfamiliar collaboration tools, but those challenges faded quickly.<\/p>\n
If an employer isn\u2019t going to be flexible after the pandemic, I\u2019m not that interested in the position anymore. Forget it.<\/p>\n
Looking back, I always wanted to work remotely.<\/p>\n
When I was an undergraduate, my dream job was working at a major newspaper in California\u2019s Bay Area. I wanted to write about technology, business, and policy.<\/p>\n
Newspapers have employed\u00a0correspondents<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>since the penny tabloids. Reporting from afar, submitting reports via correspondence to the main office.<\/p>\n Correspondents turned to the telegraph for filing reports quickly. During the 1950s, major newspapers would employ transcriptionists to take reports via telephone.<\/p>\n By the 1990s, reporters were in love with the Tandy TRS-80 Model 100, a computer that was smaller than a typewriter. I knew reporters with Atari Portfolios and Epson HX-20 computers, too. These computers featured LCD screens with a only a few lines of text. They were, however, ideal word processors on the go.<\/p>\n News media need reporters where the stories are, not in the newsroom. Yes, you\u2019d return to the office, but you worked out in the field.<\/p>\n My other career path also encouraged remote work, and that was in the 1980s.<\/p>\n As a computer programmer and technical support consultant, I had a terminal in my apartment. I could work anytime I wanted. Projects mattered, not hours clocked.<\/p>\n The novel coronavirus pandemic proved many jobs don\u2019t need to be located in a central office.<\/p>\n Call it telecommuting, work-from-home, work-from-anywhere, remote work, \u201cofficing\u201d at home (one of the odder phrases I\u2019ve read), or whatever you like, the reality is that many people managed to work off-site without problems. Many of us even work better without the distractions of an office.<\/p>\n Yes indeed, some of us focus better at home. We don\u2019t find the refrigerator to have magical powers. Wearing comfortable clothes didn\u2019t zap our professional skills.<\/p>\n We listened to music, looked out our windows, and worked.<\/p>\n So why are employers now insisting we return to offices? As I started looking for new opportunities, I noticed how many job listing include, \u201cRemote work is not an option\u201d and \u201cMost employees are now on site.\u201d<\/p>\n Employers should be open to new approaches. More flex time. More WFA options during the week. Consider projects, not hours spent in the office.<\/p>\n Instead, employers are signaling, \u201cWe don\u2019t trust you to do good work unless we can see you.\u201d<\/p>\n Dress it up with all the silliness about collegiality and collaboration, but the reality is we\u2019ve proved we\u2019re okay without nine hours on-site.<\/p>\n Offer office time to those extroverts who need it. Have weekly rotations so people can meet up and bond or whatever. But, don\u2019t insist on a return to the old ways. Those weren\u2019t working out so well for many people.<\/p>\n I do prefer meeting people face-to-face versus video chats. Absolutely. I\u2019d love to never use Zoom, Skype, of Meet again. Seeing faces was not helpful in the least. I\u2019d rather use voice-only if I have to communicate in real-time remotely.<\/p>\n My actual preference remains email. Let me read messages, think about them, and then respond. Time to think proved quite valuable while teaching remotely.<\/p>\n I do use Slack and Teams. The problem with instant threaded text messages is that they feel urgent. Whenever Slack chimes, it feels like an emergency, something too urgent to ignore.<\/p>\n Overall, that sense of \u201cyou must reply, now!\u201d is my only complaint with remote work. I\u2019ve had to set \u201cdo not disturb\u201d times on Slack just so I don\u2019t rush to respond at all hours of the night when a student messages me.<\/p>\n What I\u2019ve loved about higher education is that I teach, hold office hours, and then I can work from home. University teaching has proven to me that I you can have some set times on site and flexibility.<\/p>\n My wife and I want to be able to take our daughters to medical appointments whoever the doctors are available. We want to be able to visit with teachers without juggling a work schedule.\u00a0We\u2019ll make up the hours, although hours are a stupid way to measure employee value.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re company is posting jobs that declare employees must be in the office, every day, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Frida\u2026 I\u2019m not interested. Nope. During interviews, that\u2019ll now be a question I ask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No Remote Employment. Onsite Only. Remote During COVID-19 Only. Anticipating Return to Offices. Didn\u2019t COVID-19 teach us that tech-related jobs, and many other white-collar jobs,…<\/p>\n