Why Remote Working Will Die (or More Likely Won’t)

After two years of remote work, 50% of employers are hoping for a full-time return to the office. The question is: Will remote working die?

It’s highly unlikely.

In fact, it’s strange that it’s taken us so long to get to this point at all, since we’ve had the means to work from home for years now – not to mention there are plenty of perks to doing so. But because humans like to take the path of least resistance, society at large resisted making the shift until the pandemic forced a change.

Thanks to this same aversion to change, I believe remote work is here to stay.

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Why remote work is better – and not just for employees

There are plenty of reasons why remote working is likely to be the future in 2022 and beyond.

Here are just a few of the pros of remote work:

• It lends itself to a flexible schedule. Thanks to remote work, many people now have the luxury of planning their jobs around their lives instead of the other way around.

• It saves time and money spent commuting. With the gas prices where they are, this is no small thing.

• For instance, in 2018, the average person spent 9.5 full days per year commuting to and from work. Not only does remote work save money, it also benefits the environment.

• It provides a way for some people with mental and physical disabilities to earn an income.

• It has proven benefits for employers. Leading research institutions have done studies showing that teleworkers are 35-40% more productive, on average, than their office-based colleagues.

Why remote work is (sometimes) bad

Of course, remote work isn’t all roses. Although the downsides of remote gigs are fewer than the perks – in my opinion, at least – there are a few cons of remote work that deserve special consideration:

• The social aspect is lacking. It’s too early in the game to know for certain the long-term effects of working from home on our collective social health. In a world full of chatbots, online delivery services, and smartphones, we probably need more human interactions, not less. Are we creating a society of asocial hermits who don’t know how to interact face-to-face with other humans, save through a Zoom “Touch up my appearance” filter? It’s a scary thought.

• Some people find that they’re not as productive working from home. Many others find that they tend to work too much unpaid overtime and struggle to find work-life balance. Remote work tends to blur the line between our work and personal lives.

• For employers, a remote work scenario carries the risk that employees will abuse the system and lose them money – for instance, by spending time on social media during working hours. Finding ways to track employee productivity can be a hassle (and, for employees, can feel like an invasion of privacy).

Despite these downsides, people are quickly finding ways to adapt. For instance, some employers are combating the work-life balance problem with no-email policies after hours and during vacations. (In fact, as labor laws adapt to the “new normal,” contacting employees outside of working hours may even become illegal in some places.)

In addition, employers are finding creative ways to incentivize remote employees to deliver better results, such as through gamified software platforms.

Will remote work continue?

It’s been over two years since the pandemic changed the world forever, and the trend shows that remote work opportunities will continue to increase, with 25% of all professional North America-based jobs going remote by the end of 2022.

The people have spoken, and they want to work from home – with workers globally stating they would take a 5% pay cut to stay remote, and many saying they’d look elsewhere for a job if forced to return to the office. Companies will need to offer some kind of remote work scenario (or at least hybrid remote) to recruit competitively.

Certain industries and occupations, such as frontline work, will take longer to make the transition. However, as technology advances and employers warm to the concept, it’s likely that even many traditionally frontline jobs will find ways to become at least partly flexible and/or remote.

Future of remote work: It’s looking up

To sum up, here are the reasons why I believe remote working is the future in 2022 and beyond:

• Recent changes in the world of work, such as the explosion of the gig economy, are changing our society’s attitudes about work. Today’s young people are increasingly pursuing location-independent freelance careers and digital nomad lifestyles.

• For many companies, remote work translates to less overhead. After the initial shock of transitioning to a remote workforce subsides, employers will come to embrace the ultimate impact on the bottom line.

• As more companies go global, employers are recognizing the value of hiring distributed teams to provide support and services around the clock.

• Remote work applications, such as videoconferencing platforms and time tracking software, are exploding. Websites and job boards dedicated to telecommuting, flexible, and location-independent jobs, such as FlexJobs (get 30% off with my link), are more popular than ever.

• As noted above, studies have shown that people prefer working remotely and would consider taking a new job if forced to return to the office.

In short, now that the remote work ball is picking up momentum, it would take a greater effort to stop it in its tracks than to embrace the brave new world of WFH. Employers who are wondering if and when remote working will die are going to be waiting for a very long time.

Who knows what the future of remote work will look like. Within a few years, work parties are likely to be held in the metaverse amongst avatars of our colleagues in a simulated Hawaiian resort. And in just a few more years, perhaps performance reviews will be conducted by holograms of our bosses in our own living rooms.

Do you think remote work is here to stay? What are your predictions about how it will look in the near future? Leave a comment!