Remote Work - Is This The Future?

[etech0]

Consider If employees' work (and for fair comparison, we're talking about the types of jobs that could be done remotely vs. stocking a warehouse etc.) is boring to the point that employees can't be trusted to perform remotely without employer monitoring, they probably can't be trusted in the office either. Plenty workers in boring jobs waste away hours in the physical office.

I recomend two resources on point:

The book "Remote": https://www.amazon.com/Remote-Office-Required-Jason-Fried/dp/0804137501

Great Hidden Brain podcast on "BS" jobs https://www.npr.org/2018/08/28/642706138/bs-jobs-how-meaningless-work-wears-us-down

Physically monitoring employees is old fashioned. Businesses should pivot to monitoring their work based on output, not based on how many hours they sit in the chair.

[aygart]

Physically monitoring employees is old fashioned. Businesses should pivot to monitoring their work based on output, not based on how many hours they sit in the chair.

Sort of. That will leave out items with complexity and understanding whether the complexity justifies the time spent.

[etech0]

Sort of. That will leave out items with complexity and understanding whether the complexity justifies the time spent.

Yes and no, it can get complicated, especially when managers don't necessarily understand what/how their employees are doing. But weekly reviews of "what did you accomplish this week" could go a long way. It means restructuring things.

Otherwise you can have employees sitting at their desks shopping online and doing who knows what and spending a fraction of their work hours working. Even when they are on-site.

[yesitsme]

Physically monitoring employees is old fashioned. Businesses should pivot to monitoring their work based on output, not based on how many hours they sit in the chair.

some prioritize old fashioned over output

[etech0]

some prioritize old fashioned over output

yup

[aygart]

Yes and no, it can get complicated, especially when managers don't necessarily understand what/how their employees are doing. But weekly reviews of "what did you accomplish this week" could go a long way. It means restructuring things.

Otherwise you can have employees sitting at their desks shopping online and doing who knows what and spending a fraction of their work hours working. Even when they are on-site.

Sort of.

I guess we are in agreement
There are many ways to monitor employees.

[etech0]

I guess we are in agreement
There are many ways to monitor employees.

yup

[farmbochur]

Great Hidden Brain podcast on "BS" jobs https://www.npr.org/2018/08/28/642706138/bs-jobs-how-meaningless-work-wears-us-down

Great listen! Thanks for sharing.

[yesitsme]

any ideas how to keep logs of how you spent your day?

[ExGingi]

+infiniti

IINM that's mathematically impossible (or meaningless).

[etech0]

any ideas how to keep logs of how you spent your day?

This is supposed to be good https://toggl.com/

[pbf]

I've found it difficult to monitor, train, and help the employees that work under me. What would normally be just 10 minutes of me sitting next to them and going through some things, has turned into an hour of frustrating screen sharing etc.
I also had one employee that was clocked in over 8 hours a day but producing almost nothing. I'm quite certain he was not working.

I have one employee that just started right before COVID hit and training has been extremely difficult. I normally would have the trainee sit by my desk and watch me work for a while to get the hang of things, explain what I'm doing while I'm doing it, and have them listen in on calls.

I myself can work from home with practically the same productivity, but it's hard to train, monitor, and guide remotely.

[JMHO]

I myself can work from home with practically the same productivity, but it's hard to train, monitor, and guide remotely.

Agree 100%

[chff]

JetBlue's phone agents work from home, but go in person for training and meetings

[yelped]

JetBlue's phone agents work from home, but go in person for training and meetings

It's been like that since they founded JetBlue.

[AussieMan]

A balance of some days home and others in the office, with employees sharing space in the office is the way of the future.
I'm just waiting for the employee to be able write off home office for tax like self employed.

[AsherO]

I've found it difficult to monitor, train, and help the employees that work under me. What would normally be just 10 minutes of me sitting next to them and going through some things, has turned into an hour of frustrating screen sharing etc.
I also had one employee that was clocked in over 8 hours a day but producing almost nothing. I'm quite certain he was not working.

I have one employee that just started right before COVID hit and training has been extremely difficult. I normally would have the trainee sit by my desk and watch me work for a while to get the hang of things, explain what I'm doing while I'm doing it, and have them listen in on calls.

I myself can work from home with practically the same productivity, but it's hard to train, monitor, and guide remotely.

This is less of an issue for proactive workers with intuition who typically find themselves in management roles. The uninitiated base-salary low-level employees usually need more hand-holding which is hard to do remotely. In some business models it makes sense to hire better qualified employees, but that doesn’t work for everyone.

[chff]

It's been like that since they founded JetBlue.

Correct. Just to reference the above post that training is difficult remotely

[pbf]

This is less of an issue for proactive workers with intuition who typically find themselves in management roles. The uninitiated base-salary low-level employees usually need more hand-holding which is hard to do remotely. In some business models it makes sense to hire better qualified employees, but that doesn’t work for everyone.

Correct. But we have a need for low level employees so...
And even for motivated mid-level employees, if we're putting new processes into place or adding to their workload, it's hard to train and give guidance remotely (not to mention that most people are at half capacity either way because their kids are home)

[AsherO]

Correct. But we have a need for low level employees so...
And even for motivated mid-level employees, if we're putting new processes into place or adding to their workload, it's hard to train and give guidance remotely (not to mention that most people are at half capacity either way because their kids are home)

I’m all in favor of colocated teams, and see the benefits of managing employees onsite. I mentioned this upthread and got some pushback, so I’m pointing out that what’s being discussed now supports my position.