Grow Remote Dublin: pondering remote working
Here is an irony I always find amusing in the Telecoms industry. They put in place the networks that enable remote working, my experience with these companies is they do not enable remote working actively: a surprising gap and opportunity to ‘eat their own dog food’ you would think (amusingly teased in the tweet above around the unfortunate cancellation of Mobile World Congress, the massive annual telecoms event, due to the Coronavirus outbreak)!
I was lucky enough to attend the Grow Remote Dublin chapter kick-off on 13th February 2019 in DogPatch Labs, and after promising myself I’d make all the monthly conference calls going forward - and failing! - I promised I’d start afresh in 2020 by making these calls part of my wish list for the year. Luckily enough, the stars aligned and two events occurred in the same week: the Grow Remote conference call and the talk "The Hard Part of Remote". I’m not going to delve deeply into exact notes from the event, however only to highlight how great the speakers were at the latter: a mix of pure-remote companies to those making the transition to those who are only becoming aware of what the term ‘remote working’ even is.
What I did appreciate was one of the speakers refer to the terms ‘mobility working’ and ‘remote working’. As I write this, the definitions online are:
Mobile Working: Describes a method of working that isn't tied to a physical location. Dependent on technology to connect the employee to the services and networks required to do their job effectively.
Remote Working: a situation in which an employee works mainly from home and communicates with the company by email and telephone
So Mobile working was picturing the salesperson being able to take calls while out on the road, whereas the latter describes someone physically based in one location (although potentially that physical location can move also, of course). My own experience of remote working largely comes from self-influenced activities: my original blog started and was actively ‘worked on’ from what would now be called co-working offices, but in the mid-2000s were called Internet Cafes. In the intervening years, I’ve worked remotely on a few occasions although, again of my own initiative: organisations I’ve worked for have not actively promoted it and therefore I’ve had to be creative to make it happen.
What was evident was that a lot of people are now actively pushing for this work situation. As described by the speaker during the week, the response rate to the Government survey on remote working was one of the highest ever seen, with a 50/50 mix of respondees from those who are already remote working, and those who want to be. There’s a storm brewing here, and it’s unclear that organisations are ready, the same way I wonder if they’re ready for the influx of individuals who have grown up in a smartphone/mobile-only world (individuals leaving university in the past year would have been the first). This post decrying new chat tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams show there is a mismatch between those used to one paradigm and those seeing another.
As recognised, there’s pros and cons to remote working, and the social aspect is a real topic for discussion: how to deal with the more intimate/human elements when everyone is based in different locations and multiple timezones? None of these sounds like real deal-breakers however, and the influx of new VR devices may reduce this even more as an issue.
What I think going forward will be a few things? There’s a gap in the mindset of certain leaders around its benefits, even though numerous studies now show open-plan offices are not working as hoped. The usual fears also exist around whether individuals are working at home also, however, if the employees are motivated and believe in their work, that will reflect too. Many people also perceive that many jobs couldn’t be done remotely: I’d beg to differ that a lot more than you think can (try reflect on your own, on whether you really need to be in the company office, or whether you’d be more productive in a remote workspace). As alluded to by many of the speakers also, making sure individuals have a proper workspace is critical also: it was fantastic to hear that some companies are asking prospective employees to visually show their workspace to ensure they’re not just working from their kitchen table, or lying on their bed.
Personally, I believe there’s a range of opportunities here around remote working. In many parts of the world, congestion is robbing citizens of 1-2 hours per day, ironically negating the reduced number of hours citizens now work in comparison to the early 1900s. Something has to change here: it’s absurd from a time-wasted perspective and also absurd from all the energy used in all those vehicles driving. Governments have dropped the ball in producing the right sort of vision for cities (I’m looking at you, Dublin, as an example). Looking at Dublin, the equivalent population of the Aran Islands is going to move to Dublin EVERY WEEK FOR THE NEXT TWENTY TO THIRTY YEARS. Where is the solution to this around tranportation and changes to density?
the ‘remote office’ while based in Spain, December 2019.
What Tools will enable?
Asynchronous communication is the regular topic that comes up in recent times, enabled by various tools such as Slack and, more recently, Microsoft Teams (being pushed hard onto organisations).
What comes next is always something that has been within reach for eons, however, still isn’t clear how close it is to coming to fruition. In this, it’s the the ‘virtual conference’. Video quality has gone up for most video chat tools be it dedicated VC units, or software-based (although you would be hard pressed to tell in some organisations due to the poor quality of laptop/tools supplied to employees). As ever, the detachment of a separate video monitor off to the side of a meeting doesn’t lead to a perfectly optimal setup (unless all are remote!).
The dark is, of course, Virtual Reality and VR-meeting rooms. I’m yet to try one myself, however as I look at the recent developments such as the Oculus Go, I idly wonder if what we’re look at here is the Archos 604 of the Virtual Reality space? I purchased the Archos in November 2006, and traveled for the year of 2007 on it as my dedicated device, playing music, watching movies, browsing the web, even writing some blog posts on it! Sound familiar to what the iPhone made mainstream. I’d seen what the future was in 2006 and jumped in wholesale. I’m wondering if the Oculus Go is the Archos, and we’re not waiting for the Big Tech version, even more friendly and usable for individuals to kick off the adoption curve?
Lastly, if you’re interested in learning and supporting the concept of Remote Working, I highly recommend signing up to the Grow Remote community (if you’re Dublin-based, here’s the link to the Dublin chapter). Jonny Cosgrave of Meetingroom.io deserves a lot of credit for driving the Dublin pieces for now, I’ll look forward to inputting myself in time also!