A state of remote work
Tags: methodology, remote, productivity
Published: 2024-03-12 16:05:07

These days, some professions require people to work in person, others, like office workers, can do their work remotely with an internet connection.
As a software engineer, I'm going to explore with you the path that led me to be effective in remote work.

## A little story

The culture and tools weren't ready for remote working for a long time. I don't know if this is the case in other countries, but in France, until the 2010s, it was quite difficult, as an employee, to negotiate remote working. Even though conditions were becoming increasingly favorable, employers didn't want to deal with the complexities involved. The most common argument was that it would give the idea to others, which they preferred to avoid.

Then one day, the Covid19 pandemic struck. Suddenly, there was no choice : if we wanted the economy to continue, office workers had to work remotely, from one day to the next.

Today, time has passed, the pandemic is behind us (for now) and teleworking is becoming widespread. 

Some love it, others hate it. The current norm seems to be hybrid teleworking.
Some employers would like their employees to return to the office as before, but habits have changed and we now live in a more flexible world.

## Remote work benefits

### Avoid the disadvantages of open spaces

For people who need to concentrate on a computer to produce something, open spaces can be an obstacle : too much noise around, laughter… We don't want that when we need to be productive. People have strategies for that, they put on big headphones with sound insulation, but we can't say it's really comfortable.
Similarly, if we need to organise a meeting (remote or face-to-face), it's often difficult to find a free room.
Working remotely, by its very nature, solves these two common problems - it's more comfortable.
If we really feel like having a coffee break, talking about anything and everything, there's nothing to stop us giving a call to a few colleagues we like (and we can enjoy a good cup of coffee from our personal coffee machine).

### Avoid presenteeism

One of the most common behaviors that can develop in the office is [presenteeism](https://recruitee.com/articles/presenteeism-in-the-workplace), this climate where employers stay for a certain length of time even though they have nothing left to do, afraid of what the people around them might think.
With remote working, it's easier to get organised to simply achieve objectives, while still respecting working hours.
But beware of digital presenteeism : it's possible to reproduce the same behavior by staying connected more than necessary, personal organization is the key to avoid that.

### Avoid transport over-saturation

The population is growing and transport (car or public transport) is becoming increasingly saturated.
In my region, the average time taken to get to work is between 40 minutes and 1 hour, just to get to work. That's between 1 hour 20 minutes and 2 hours wasted on transport every day (in stressful conditions).
It's not just time that's wasted, but also energy and sometimes good mood.

Where the situation gets ridiculous is when you arrive at the office, only to log on to Teams and work with people in other regions or countries all day (let's not forget that today, many people work remotely and are not located in the same place).

### Healthy habits

One of the problems in offices is having the opportunity to eat healthily. Every lunchtime, the question is asked, we have the choice between canteens and restaurants that are most of the time totally unhealthy.
If you work from home, you can prepare healthy meals for lunch.
It's also very easy to do sport at lunchtime when you're at home, you can go for a run (gym or other) and take a shower.

### Personal needs management

When you stay at home, you save the time you didn't waste on transport, and you're available for personal things :
receiving parcels, doing the washing, food shopping, taking the children to school, dealing with administrative formalities, and so on.

### Ecology

When we go to the office, we consume energy for transport and we have to count the energy in the office : overall heating and electricity.
At home, we only consume heating and electricity for our accommodation.
In the end, [the energy footprint turns out to be lower overall when we stay at home](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/working-remotely-can-more-than-halve-an-office-employees-carbon-footprint/). But bear in mind that sustainability is a never-ending battle and can always be improved, wherever we live.

### Resilience to pandemics and other disasters

Let's not forget that we have just withstood a global pandemic, and that we are probably not immune to another one. It's a good idea to keep up the habit of teleworking, so that we're ready if it happens again.
This means creating the right conditions at home, as far as possible : a good office, a good working environment, and a satisfactory place to live.

### (Full-remote only) Digital-nomadism

Provided you have an internet connection and a full-remote job, you can envisage being a [digital nomad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad), visiting your parents in a beautiful region for a few days, or even travelling to other countries on the other side of the planet.

### (Full-remote only) Choose another living environment

Provided you have an internet connection and a full-remote job, you can also consider keeping your job in a big city and moving to work in the countryside, to enjoy a better quality of life, away from offices and pollution. It's an understandable lifestyle choice, and can even help to repopulate less densely populated areas.

## Personal skills for working remotely

### Keep the rhythm

Working remotely is a great freedom, but it also involves duties and skills.
The first is the rigor of dressing every morning as if you were going to the office, which affects your state of mind and is even felt in the intonation of your voice.
It also means setting limits on working hours, to maintain a balance between professional and personal life.

When you're in hybrid teleworking, it's best to define specific days of the week when you're on site and at home, so that you have a rhythm and don't have an overly complicated diary.

### Keep moving

When you're at home all day, the disadvantage is that you don't move around very much, that's a fact. So it may be a good idea to find ways of maintaining a healthy lifestyle : walking 10,000 steps a day is a good recommendation.
You can also do sport (of your choice, running is a good solution, for example).
You might even consider getting some equipment that allows you to exercise at home or at least limit the amount of time you spend sitting (standing desks are becoming increasingly popular, for example).

### Productivity

There are a lot of distractions at home and to be productive you need [focus techniques to be efficient and productive](https://dev.to/jdxlabs/improve-your-mental-focus-in-a-so-distracted-world-4ja2).
If your home office is clean, that's a great advantage in itself.
Sometimes a trick that isn't necessarily intuitive is to work on your laptop in the cafe next door, because as long as the environment is quiet, the fact that other people are around you is conducive to concentration.

### Social life

The last downside is that you don't meet many people if you stay at home. It becomes more necessary to have social activities outside of work (such as group sports, music or whatever).
Sometimes you can also go to work-related events to meet people.

## Challenges for companies

### Corporate culture

As a company, we must have an identity and share certain values.
One of the risks of a completely remote culture is that no one knows each other and only works alongside them.
We need to facilitate exchanges between employees and have the opportunity to see them and sometimes share a meal. It's an opportunity to learn things that are not shared on the intranet or LinkedIn and to get the point of view of different people, on different topics and maybe even share a common interests outside of the work.

### Property management

In a hybrid remote model, businesses may wonder how much office space they should maintain and how they can manage attendance.
Some days no one is there (as is often the case on Mondays and Fridays), and some days everyone can potentially come.
One solution, for example, is to define different days, for different teams, in order to avoid saturation if everyone comes at the same time.

### Attractiveness of offices

To encourage people to come to the office, it is a good strategy to care about the quality of life in the offices.
Without falling into the caricature of table football or the fruit basket, it is wise to create clean environments and places to share a coffee, a meal, to rest, etc.
All initiatives promoting well-being for employees are welcome and can represent motivation for them.
Employees must find meaning and good motivation to come to the offices : there are advantages to face-to-face work, such as having a structuring environment to concentrate or to simply share time with people you like.

### Recruitment and onboarding

Remote work requires processes for hiring new people. This is a crucial point because it defines the people who make up the company.
For recruitment, videoconferencing is the least we can do to evaluate the people we hire, and face-to-face is better (to the extent that it is possible).
For onboarding, it is important to have a well-established process : to provide the new computer, access and providing good support to welcome the new person.

## Some caveats

Remote working isn't for everyone, it requires a certain amount of personal discipline and the relative luxury of having a decent working environment at home. This is why it is important to give employees the choice to come or not.
However, forced RTO (Return To the Office) for everybody turns out to be a bad idea because it doesn't value the benefits of remote work.
It is rather desirable to move towards more flexibility corresponding to the preferences of employees, to improve their quality of life and at the same time their quality of work (as a win-win agreement).

## The final word

Remote working represents great benefits for employees, facilitating a good lifestyle while being productive, which is ultimately beneficial for businesses.
Companies face challenges in creating a flexible environment that gives employees the choice to organize themselves according to their preferences.
Hybrid remote working is a good compromise which favors more flexibility, without imposing full remote on everyone.
Full remote is also a great option for people comfortable with it and aspiring to a different living environment.
Either way, **a world without teleworking possibilities is behind us** and we must face the complexities it represents, but also **appreciate the opportunities it offers**.