It will soon be 4 years since the world changed and remote working became more popular. Initially adopted as a way of limiting social contact, it was a very effective instrument. We distanced ourselves socially but at the same time we were able to continue working and being productive (sometimes even more productive), without the world coming to a standstill. Suddenly we went from spending up to 2 hours commuting to the office to being able to wake up ten minutes before the start of the working day and start work in our pyjamas, or at least in a pyjama shirt and trousers. And this in turn opened up a whole range of possibilities: we could work for companies in other geographies, have meetings with clients without having to travel, receive packages from Amazon and the washing machine technician and so on. What’s more, we suddenly had more time that we could spend on going to the gym, leisure, hobbies, enjoying time with friends and family, or even working more.
Teleworking had many advantages, however, after almost 4 years in which I have practically always teleworked, I can say that not everything is as good as it seems. If I look back and try to remember days when I have teleworked, it is quite difficult. I can remember some meeting, some important project milestone, but these memories are much fuzzier than earlier memories, when I used to go to the office. That my memory works worse for remembering telework days than days in the office is interesting to me and may have a deeper meaning.
I remember that the first time I had a face-to-face meeting, after almost a year of working remotely, I really enjoyed it, and not because of the content of the meeting, but because of all the sensations I felt, which I had not felt for a year, but the most curious thing is that I was not aware of it either. Looking at people without a screen in between, feeling the energy of the room and the people, seeing the non-verbal language and not having to make artificial pauses, the conversations before and after, were things that had become strange. All this simply does not exist when working remotely. And the funny thing (or not) is that my memory remembers these face-to-face meetings much better.
On the other hand, there are all those things that happen around work when we go to the office: having breakfast with colleagues, going out for lunch, afterworks, talking about what you did at the weekend, in other words, socialising. With total teleworking, all this disappears. I think that remote work makes work even more mental, if that’s possible. After all, we are locked in a room, probably alone, looking at the world through a screen which, when it comes to interacting with other people, serves to deliver the verbal messages but makes it much more complicated to access all the non-verbal and emotional communication that is going on. Some might argue that making work more mental, especially for certain office jobs, can be a good thing, as it allows us to abstract from much of the personal and emotional conflicts and problems that are so difficult to manage, which can lead to increased productivity. This view from the perspective of the industrial age is perfect, because we can function better within the system of which we are a part. However, this way of looking at the world is outdated, even if many still use it.
Psychology has shown the great importance of emotions in decision-making, in involvement with a project and team, and in mobilisation for action. Emotions make us want to work and commit to a vision, to connect with our colleagues and feel part of the team. And I personally believe that teleworking makes it much more difficult to establish an emotional connection with a project, and with the people in it. If the chats we have with our colleagues are reduced to work chats about the current project, if we don’t know our leaders more than in their executive side, it will be more difficult for us to connect and get involved with a project and at the first change, when we see something that we don’t like or that is not as we expect, we can open linkedin and look at how the market is. After all, changing company is as easy as connecting to a new Zoom link.
This is not to say that teleworking does not have its positive aspects – it does, and there are many of them. But total teleworking and the emotional disconnection that comes with it should not be overlooked. It is worth asking to what extent many of the problems we are having with increased turnover in companies, lack of motivation and involvement, even loneliness and mental disorders, may be to a greater or lesser extent related to the increase in 100% remote work. I believe that hybrid options that combine teleworking days with face-to-face days can be a better way of working, allowing us to be productive, to concentrate, to finish projects, to reconcile personal and professional life, while building relationships and communicating without screens in between. And this is interesting for companies but I would say it is equally or more interesting for people, if we do not want to live in an eternal groundhog day.
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