Prior to Covid, with some notable exceptions, organisational leaders were not planning on leveraging technology to ensure an ideal balance between work that is 'best' done remotely and that which is best done in person. Much less, were managers working out how they could enable their teams to be close to 100% remote because 'people do their best work at home'. This inconvenient truth is important to keep in mind when thinking about remote working policies.
This is because while some business models—GitHub most readily springs to mind—revolved around getting the best people no matter where in the world they lived, most organisations recruited local people who lived within a reasonable commute of a central office. Laptops and remote work were largely confined to field sales managers or other people who held a role that militated against being in an office. For those who could be assigned to a desk and kept in a central location, desktop computers and a strict 'you may not work from home' policy applied.
Covid did not change this mindset. Perhaps more importantly, Covid did not change the fundamental nature of human interaction and the work employees do. What Covid brought were hitherto unimaginable circumstances—at least for democratic western countries—with governments issuing laws effectively locking people in their homes. While few governments had a formal zero Covid policy, many—Australia and New Zealand among the most notable—treated even single digit transmission numbers as a near extinction level event. This wrought a problem for organisations, how to maintain output, and this is the key word here, among a staff base that were now restricted from coming into a central place of work.
The technology for remote work had long been available, but as many who previously made requests found, it was not innovation that opened remote working possibilities. Rather, it was the reality of businesses shutting down if they could not adopt and adapt. The remote work policies which flowed enabled many to migrate to an essentially 100% remote setup. The trouble, which I will deal with in this piece, is that many (85% according to some surveys) assumed this environment would remain a permanent 'new normal' of office life—53% of all people surveyed thought remote opportunities would increase.
