·
Working from home is only possible
for some people – primarily professional class workers.
·
And for those whose occupations do
allow remote work, there are still risks.
·
Remote work is neither the first
step towards utopia nor a surefire negative outcome for workers.
·
George Pearkes is the global macro
strategist for Bespoke
Investment Group.
·
This is an opinion column. The
thoughts expressed are those of the author.
COVID-19 has driven a
major reconsideration of how professional and managerial
("white-collar") Americans work.
With centralized,
high-density open office floor plans presenting a major risk of mass spreading
events, knowledge workers have been logging in from home.
Large social changes
like the end of the office carry costs, benefits and risks which are not evenly
shared by all the stakeholders involved. Before declaring a post-pandemic
revolution toward remote work, workers, employers, and anyone else impacted by such
a shift should think carefully about all of its implications.
The benefits to working from home
Back in 2016, the
love of my life decided she was going to attend law school in North Carolina,
so I approached my employer about the possibility of working remotely. After
implementing a few technological tools, the transition went smoothly, and I
haven't looked back.
Remote work has been
a wonderful experience. Gone are hours of commutes, replaced with more
comfortable attire, canine friends beside my desk,
and the chance to make a real lunch at home instead of trying my luck at the
deli.
Flexibility to
quickly duck out to the grocery store, get a workout in, and sleep a bit later
is helped along by being productive at night or on weekends when that better
fits my schedule. Communication is easy with instant messages and cloud tools
for our shared work output.
Add in relaxing trees
out the window of my house (something I and most of my peers would have a hard
time affording in New York or San Francisco) and I'm very happy and many others
would be too.
Even for workers that
take a pay cut to work remotely (as Facebook proposed last week),
equivalent salaries in different cities may leave an employee better off
because what they want to spend their salary on isn't available near the office
but is remotely. Housing (and those trees out my window) is definitely the best
example of this.
Working for home doesn't work for
everyone
It's important to
acknowledge that being able to work at home is a privilege mostly reserved for
the relatively educated and those in specific occupations. Black or Latino
workers are also much less likely to work remotely.
George Pearkes
For those whose
occupations do allow remote work, there are still risks.
A shift away from
offices could be yet another way for businesses to crush labor. For instance,
if Facebook decides to claw back more than the "fair" adjustment to a
lower cost of living outside of the Bay Area, workers might pay a penalty.
For workers that
already have a lot of bargaining power due to special skills, high degrees of
responsibility, or lots of demand for their capabilities, any change will
always be easier to manage than for workers who have less bargaining power. The
way remote work impacts workers is in no small part a function of the status
quo.
Venture capitalist
Jeff Morris Jr argued last
week that remote workers may face a penalty in terms of perception, with folks
who choose not to show up at the office in person signalling they are less
willing to "do what it takes" for advancement.
There are also
concerns that once workers aren't tied to physical locations anymore, they will
effectively be competing in a global market where they are relatively expensive
versus workers in other countries, Higher-prerequisite jobs that shift remote
within the US might shift remote outside of it. This process played out in the
1990s through 2010s with manufacturing jobs; does remote work open the door to
a similar effect in remote work-enabled occupations?
Employees working
remotely also may struggle to network, both inside and outside their companies,
which hurts both their bargaining power with employers and productivity within
their firms. That's especially true for young workers at the start of their
career.
As a related issue,
unless whole industries go remote, it may prove hard to find a new role if
you're fired as a remote worker outside a major center for your industry than
if you had stayed in a big, expensive city.
Finally, family and
gender need consideration. With persistent gender inequity in
terms of household chores and childcare, there's reason to worry that remote
work will free up time for fathers and mothers alike, but women will have that
dividend taken up by expectations of non-career work, whether it's chores,
childcare, or other gendered tasks.
The challenge with
most of these problems is that they are not directly caused by remote work as a
new concept, but exacerbate or focus existing conflicts within society. On the
other hand, that opens the door to avoiding some of the worst outcomes.
How to make remote work work
I have no grand
pronouncements about what needs to be done to make remote work a viable option
for all workers or employers, but I can draw on personal experience to
highlight some factors that have made my experience not just viable, but
optimal.
First, I had already
worked for my employer for years before approaching them about the idea of
remote work. Those years had built up trust and rapport in-person, and the fit
I had with my team before taking the leap made it all much easier. Workers and
businesses who launch into remote work as the starting point may have a harder
time.
Second, I had a
professional network in the financial industry developed through years spent
living in New York City. My specific line of work makes remote professional
networking very easy, so my Twitter presence and other professional
communication tools meant there wasn't a big networking penalty leaving the
city I had lived in.
Third, my work is not
very dependent on collaboration. While any written work needs editing, and any
team needs to get on the same page from time-to-time, it's rare that I need to
sit down with the rest of my firm to discuss something. Roles that are more
dependent on that sort of meeting may not find a permanent switch to Zoom calls
or webinars as easy.
Fourth and finally,
my firm is small. That limits the cross-organization interactions which can be
eased significantly by in-person meetings, happy hours, or lunches. Firms that
have a more developed "office politics" that comes with bigger, more
siloed teams may penalize workers that are remote and less able to participate
in struggles for promotion or new responsibility.
Best practices, or at least a start
It's unlikely we'll
see a policy solution for the question of how employers shift to remote work,
leaving decisions in those employers' hands.
Some of the loudest
voices advocating for remote work within an organization may be those least
exposed to its costs or risks, and employers should think carefully about who
they listen to in that conversation. Over-weighting the voices of the wrong
stakeholders raises the risks of botching the transition and leaving everyone
worse-off.
For employees, there
might not be a decision to make, but opting-in to remote work arrangements has
big risks as well as big opportunities. I've tried to lay out as many as I can
and hope that workers can use that perspective making their own decision.
One thing I'm sure
about: remote work is neither the first step towards utopia nor a surefire
negative outcome for workers. The details, approach, and tools used for remote
work are incredibly important, and suitability also varies dramatically across
society.
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This is an opinion
column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author(s).
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