Remote control – not the electronic device kind.

Remote work has increased in the last two years, largely due to the covid-19 pandemic. An estimated 1 in 4 Americans, 26% of the work force, worked remotely in 2021, and is expected to go up to 36.2 million in 2025.

But is working remotely a new thing? And what about the control by employers have expressed with a growing number of remote workers? Here, control also the refers to the control over one’s own time and space, uninhibited by physical proximity to one’s workplace.

How we perform work has also changed. Communal workspaces have popped up worldwide, with WeWork leading the way, and many more copying the popular format. With this growth, it has become apparent that many desk jobs can be managed remotely, from a computer on the kitchen counter, the chair at the airport or hotel, or – bliss! – from a beach chair at a sunny location.

Little did I know when I got my first dial-up device in 1993 (!) to connect me to the internet, that I would spend a lot of my future time connected. I was working as an adjunct professor for a course in Sociology at Lund University, Sweden – from San Francisco. The professor was in Lund, but the rest of us were spread out around the globe. It was a pioneering initiative, also in Sweden at that time. I had had a Mac since 1987 so I was already used to computers, but this kind of communicating was exciting, and most of all, provided insights into new ways of student interaction and learning.

Specifically, the class format offered interactive features not available in a classroom. With students sitting side by side, looking forward at the teacher, the online class created circles of sorts, that changed and offered communication between the students. Class assignments included working in teams and submitting drafts and final papers for review by fellow students. That would not happen in a traditional class format. This way, students could both discuss topics, questions, read each other’s formulations and arguments and provide feedback. All online, no less.

At the end of that course, I recommended that all undergraduate students complete at least one online course as part of their B.A.

Another important aspect of remote working is to be inclusive of a range of workers, promote equity in the workplace based on living conditions or other reasons, and promote diversity where otherwise you would have been depending on a work pool’s proximity. Team diversity is a huge positive effect of working remotely.

I have worked on a partly remote basis for almost 30 years, with an office at home, as well as an ‘official’ office space, and bringing my computer almost everywhere I go, maintaining connection with individuals I work with. This has been the case across the globe as well as working with people in the same building. To me, working remotely is to have control over one’s work, and to share and collaborate while also being flexible to adapt to circumstance of the people you work with.

It is still true that nothing really beats experiencing the same thing in the same place at the same time. Meaning, sitting in the same physical room, at the same time and hearing the same things. But there is an argument for that we let go a bit of control over the remote, meaning that we can have both. Constantly being in close proximity have shown to inhibit creativity and time to think; likewise, being alone has shown to hamper collaboration and teamwork.

I have many, many examples of the inability by entities and people to manage a remote work force, which unfortunately often happens in the nonprofit world where funds to manage HR and staff are always far down on the agenda even without remote working conditions. This is curious, since a remote workforce clearly saves money. And believe it or not, there are many organizations that don’t pay or reimburse for phones or internet connections for their staff – even though that is the only way for them to connect to and perform their work.

Taking the next step in the remote-control world is twofold: to allow for losing control over a lot of things in our working environment and in our personal lives (it’s not all that scary, try it!), which we really don’t have a lot of control over anyway; and, to hire a ‘Head of Remote’ to ensure that remote workers are managed properly. In particular, to guarantee that communications is flowing and that everyone is included.

Once you’ve gained control over your remote working conditions, it is hard to go back.

Photo by Dmitry Demidov