Why Are Some Companies Refusing to Talk About Distributed Work?

The end of lockdown around the world is prompting a much-needed debate: the possibility, taking advantage of the experience developed over the last year, to improve the working conditions of many people, once and for all.

It’s long been known that large numbers of us do work in offices that we could carry out from anywhere. A study by the European Commission shows that 37% of jobs among EU member states could be carried out remotely, ranging from 27% in Romania to 54% in Luxembourg and 34% in Spain. However, the automatic response by a huge number of companies has been to return to pre-March 2020 working conditions once the restrictions are over, thus eliminating a debate about the future of work that puts those companies at a clear disadvantage, while showing a willingness to put their workers at risk in order to retain control over them.

If your company is silencing that debate, then you are missing out on something very important, that will greatly affect its future and its chances of attracting and retaining talent. Don’t believe me, believe my links. Ask yourself why this debate hasn’t happened: why, while other companies are already making progress in what will be the future of labor relations, yours is still obsessed with ideas such as “people need to see each other every day to innovate” (false) or “if people work from home I can’t control what they are doing”. Ask yourself what drives you, as a manager, to invent concerns that trap your workers in an absurd situation which means they have to endure the rush hour each, wasting time and work under much less comfortable conditions than they would enjoy if they worked from home or wherever they choose.

Distributed work may not be for everyone, which is why we should see the situation as exploratory: people’s personal situation, circumstances and training vary greatly, so that while some of us will be very comfortable and appreciate the freedom of being able to work from anywhere or not having to go to the office more than occasionally, others won’t. But the time is now, and you will never find a better time to consider what work and labor relations will look like in the future, which will be very different to now, and that look suspiciously similar to those of our parents’ generation.

Think about it: read about the unfounded fears of distributed work and the five Cs, about the fundamental rights of workers in distributed environments, or about the important debates taking place in those companies open-minded enough to consider this transition. Don’t let simple inertia and aversion to change block a necessary change whose time has come. Tomorrow’s world of work will have nothing to do with traffic jams or people sitting in a chair for eight hours or more to prove they are doing something. By silencing any debate about the future of work, you will only put your company at a disadvantage to your more open-minded competitors. As long as you refuse to think about it, as long as you are not able to offer the option to your workforce based on fair and reasonable terms, your team will feel as though they’re working for a company from the last century. And when they see the opportunity, they’ll leave to work for the competition.

Distributed work has nothing to do with being anti-social or feeling isolated. Instead, it has to do with the logical allocation of resources, with well-being, with a more reasonable work-life balance, and with the productivity that derives from it. It has to do with working relationships governed by trust and not by authority. If you haven’t figured that out yet, you’re in trouble. Believe it or not. If you’re unable to step outside your comfort zone, you’ll end up being kicked out of it.

Distributed work’s moment has arrived. It will take time to plan and optimize it, but those companies that delay it with myths and fear-mongering are only planting the seeds of failure for themselves.

—

This post was previously published on Medium.

***

You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project

Compliments Men Want to Hear More Often

Relationships Aren’t Easy, But They’re Worth It

The One Thing Men Want More Than Sex

..A Man’s Kiss Tells You Everything

—

Photo credit: mohamed_hassan / Pixabay