The Remote Working Blueprint

Whilst some people swear they remote worked before it was cool, this is commonly new to a large portion of the world. Therefore, humanity is currently evolving this concept and creating the blueprint for this. With that in mind, we should remain conscious that if we aren’t careful about how this gets brought into the world, we will lose the opportunity to evolve working culture in a way that could be unreeeeal for the world. Business still needs to thrive but humans need to be, well, human!

For the remote working advocates of the world, the facts speak for themselves. Remote working is the future and it opens up countless opportunities for international collaboration.

Personally, I’ve been advocating this for years. When I lived in Australia a good while back, I saw that they were very open to remote working, relaxed in fact. By 2015, it seemed that Sydney was very much on the way to achieving work-life balance by incorporating remote work. It worked well -literally and figuratively. After my time there, I felt confident that work-life balance could be achieved through flexible working.

Saying that, remote working definitely comes with its challenges (its own unique set if digital-nomading too like me) and it does involve a proactive, organised mindset. It also requires businesses to be open and inquisitive about learning how to carry this out well.

This is widely a new concept for everyone as the generation above us just didn’t really get it. It’s confusing for them to be like hang on. Let me get this straight, you work from home, but home is home! What!?

Understandably, no one would encourage remote working to us as we were growing up. Alternatively, we were taught a weird formula to a happy life that, I frankly felt uncomfortable with from a young age.

Technology wasn’t really a thing for me until around 13 years old. I think that is around the time that I got my first phone, a house brick-sized Orange mobile phone. I didn’t really know what to do with it. To be honest, I’m not sure anyone did.

Back then, we were raised in a school system that trained us be an obedient worker and it still very much does now. We sit in our seats, raise our hands to speak, register to move around a building, and even ask for permission to pee when nature has called.

Undoubtedly, this issue can be looked at from a variety of different perspectives. For the sake of the organisation of this article, I’ve broken this down into positives and challenges for 3 main areas affected -business, employees, and the world. It should be noted that I am a freelance remote worker that runs my own remote online business – not sure how my twisted biases will affect this, but here goes!

Business

Positives:

Remote work is an opportunity to bring a variety of skills, intellect, education, and culture together in one co-creating space AKA your business. Businesses have the opportunity to leverage different characteristics and norms to excel their projects.  A realm where anything is achievable and with diversity at its all-time high, what is possible is immeasurable.

And honestly, businesses save money by embracing remote work. With employees working from home, companies save countless money on overhead costs including rent, utilities, technology, paper, coffee, and even stationary! Not only that, if you hire remote employees across time zones, you can keep your business going 24/7. It would cost a fortune to do that physically!

Challenges:

During the pandemic, we were all thrown into this new way of working and a lot of us learned how to do this on the go whilst managing the underlying shaken-up feelings about what was transpiring. I understand that it was, and still can be tough to keep workers engaged, motivated, and focused in a remote environment. Without in-person interactions, it can be hard to create the same team spirit.

Running a remote company is an art for sure with businesses still learning how to do this well. That is completely logical and we shouldn’t shy away from it. Like other obstacles in life, strategies can be found to fix them.

Hiring the right staff to begin with is also a challenge for businesses in the new remote world. Attracting, identifying, securing, implementing, and retaining top talent could be the difference between success and failure I think. Some companies, able to hire talent, find keeping them is the issue! I find it is different for everyone!

Employees

Positives:

Flexible working means that remote workers can individualise their working schedules. As a result, they can plan their work around other priorities in their life. It’s a game-changer in all elements of my life being able to balance the stuff I love to do and work too. This in turn creates higher job satisfaction as working feels more relaxed.

Eradicating long commutes and office chit-chat is a weight off remote worker’s minds. Instead, gaining time back to spend with friends & family, exercising or investing in a hobby, and even doing the mundane but necessary life tasks. Being able to get little things done like the laundry within a work day may sound a little pathetic, but it changes a lot. Weekends then remain free for recharging, instead of being eaten away by the dull but necessary adulting! This means they can bring their best-rejuvenated self to work. Besides, less burnout and overwhelm = less time off. It’s win-win for everyone!

Challenges:

There’s no doubt that we’ve all seen those perfectly edited photos of people with their laptop on the beach loving the remote working life. But let’s be real, that ain’t it! Remote working definitely is less glamorous than that, well definitely for me anyway… and I love it this way!

As well as the obvious challenges of assuring sufficient wifi and quiet space, remote workers have actually been facing more complex issues.

Workers have mentioned challenges surrounding boundaries as well as confusion knowing when they are actually at work – because we all have phones now so when is it ok for a manager to just message them and expect an instant reply?

I have also heard stories of businesses wanting to haggle so low with rates because someone is choosing to live in a “cheaper country” despite the fact that someone has a vast amount of good experience. So workers need to ensure they agree on fair terms before taking on work.

Finding a job with a fair company can be a struggle for remote workers but definitely not impossible. As this idea strengthens, there are more exciting remote opportunities developing.

The World

Positives:

Working remotely offers an opportunity for humans to take better care of themselves, their time, and their energy. Taking 20 minutes after your morning meeting for a quick yoga stretch or rearranging your schedule to make time for the gym are perks that come with working from home. I think this could promote a happier, healthier work culture globally.

Remote work also opens up work opportunities to a lot more people worldwide too!

More opportunities for people all over the world, international flexible living, and human working conditions. Goodbye to the days of long commutes, relentless micro-management, and no work-life balance. Whilst remote working could change this, I do think it needs to be established and executed early in a healthy, fair, and professional way.

Challenges:

I’m just going to throw this out there. We could all turn into robots!

The AI era is here. Robots and machines are being built every day to do weird stuff. Other than the buzz around Chat GPR, I’ve seen robot military dogs, robot waiters in restaurants, and most recently, babies being created using AI to tailor their characteristics. Before long, a lot of our everyday activities will be taken care of by machines. Whilst this could be very cool, I feel cautious that this will get so quickly engrained into us that it may not cause the best outcomes for humans. If executed effectively, if we can build robots to carry out all tasks that no one actually wants to do but are necessary to help the world go around, I’m keen. I love to imagine a future world where we focus on the arts, health, living life, and community.

No, but really, the world needs to find a healthy balance between being human whilst embracing and leveraging technology.

Whatever way you look at it, it doesn’t seem like remote work is going away or slowing down.

Collaborating with mutual respect, integrity, and compassion solidifys this movement for the positive. Communicating and sharing best practices, opening conversations about this is definitely a great foundation for this too. So let’s start there?