‘Run toward the crisis’: Some employers balk at letting employees work remotely

I have a friend who works as an analyst at a company that discourages remote work, even though there is nothing stopping them from doing it other than a "butts-in-seats" mentality, and because of this, when they are finally forced to have everyone work from home because of the pandemic, productivity really does plummet because everyone was trained up until then to think "work from home" meant a free vacation day, and are having a hard time adjusting. I would imagine this would be the case for a lot of places that do not have a good remote culture.

Contrast that with mine, who strongly encourages us to spend at least a few days a week in-office, but by the same token has a good remote culture otherwise. Going full remote wasn't much of a big deal for us.

Lesson here is that even if you do as an organization have a strong preference for in-person interactions (and personally I like having an office to go to), enabling a part-time remote culture can make your organization much more resilient, not to mention one with happier employees.

Another anecdote, a few years ago I suffered an injury that kept me more or less on the couch and unable to drive. Without an effective remote culture it would have been very tough on both me and my employer to keep the relationship going, but fortunately it worked out just fine.

Remote life is a reality as we move more and more to a tech-focused economy. Hopefully this is a catalyst for more employers to rethink their outdated attitudes.

>“It is soul-stealing and debilitating to embrace the notion of social distancing and economic hibernation.”

While I agree with this on a personal level, this is not something that should be pushed down from people in a position of authority.

I appreciate my employer's stance on things. "We want you to feel completely comfortable working from home. We aren't going to enforce it, but we do encourage it, and if there is anything you need to make it easier for you to do so, let us know."

Some may disagree and think that the employer should "enforce" WFH, but I find this approach to be extremely respectful to the employees' agency as individuals. And it seemed to work very well. A couple people stuck around in the office for a few days, and now everyone is working from home.

A good friend of mine is commuting 2 hours a day to a job he's beginning to hate. And he doesn't even need to be there. His tools are Word, Powerpoint, and Excel. And as we chat and drink I keep broaching the idea of telecommuting. The bosses don't want to hear it. If your butt isn't in a seat at a desk they can watch you may as well not be working at all. There are so many PHBs who think like this, it's going to take a lot of momentum to move that needle. I hope this self-quarantine is what pushes it over the tipping point.

Unfortunately Costco has been one of the Seattle-area employers who've resisted remote work even after it was obvious the area was experiencing community spread. One of their HQ employees has since died of COVID-19 and others are beginning to test positive.

https://www.businessinsider.com/two-costco-employees-at-corp...

I find that the companies who do not allow work from home are the ones who have a poor management system.

They are also aware of that and hope that having someone at the office means less slacking.

This is not a stupid approach. Fixing management wild obviously ne the right solution, but it is also much harder to do.

Good luck hiring after this!

Are people going to vote with their wallets?