My Feelings on Remote Work

Disclaimer: I revised this post because the last version felt too rigid and stiff. Felt more like an academic paper on the pros and cons of remote work than my own thoughts and feelings. I also wanted to reference a recent sentiment shared by a well known CEO regarding their feelings on remote work. So yeah, this is me, completely unfiltered.

Here it was, 2017. I found myself at a crossroads. Do I continue working at a spot where, what I felt at the time at least, was going nowhere? I had spent the better part of the previous ten years as a technical trainer on a few government contracts. I felt good about things at first but started to grow weary of my future prospects. So when one of my former colleagues reached out to share news about an opening as a technical trainer for a cybersecurity company, I was hype! I went through several rounds of interviews, including an in-person with the Director of Training at the time. I was happy as hell when they came back with an offer, which I happily accepted. I started sharing the news of my departure and heard everything from "Oh, you about to be out here shamming, huh?" to "I wish I could work from home."

It became clear that there were misconceptions regarding remote work. Hell, I, too, had my own thoughts and feelings about it. I was under the impression that I could just log on, look busy, and clock out without any repercussions. I thought that every day was gonna be a holiday filled with playing games and running around town to take care of things that I normally wouldn't be able to because I was stuck in a cubicle. You know what I've found after working from home for the past eight years? None of those things were true, for me at least. It boiled down to two things: either you're getting shit done, or you're not.

And yeah, some folks milk the system. They might be holding down multiple jobs and seemingly getting away with "murder." But that's not exclusive to remote work; office workers fake productivity too. Walking around with a clipboard, pretending to be deep in thought; having impromptu meetings rather than putting things in an email; folks cooking their books to make things seem more productive than they actually are. It's the same damn game. Only thing that changes are the players. Remote workers can't hide behind the illusion of looking busy. Again, either you're getting shit done, or you're not. It really is that freaking simple.

So of course, when 45/47 came out and said:

"I don’t think you can work from a home. Nobody is gonna work from home. They are gonna be out, they’re gonna play tennis, they’re gonna play golf, they’re gonna do a lot of things. They’re not working."

I was thinking to myself, "Bruh."

This man, who played nearly 300 rounds of golf while in office—mostly at his own damn resorts—burning through over $140 million in taxpayer money, has the nerve to talk about people not working? There are plenty of sources out there that corroborate this claim about 45/47 and his activities in his first term, including reports from the GAO.

And if that wasn’t enough, now we got Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, throwing a whole tantrum about remote work. There was leaked audio from an internal meeting where the dude raged on about remote workers. But here’s the kicker—JPMorgan made record profits while people were working remotely. There was a petition signed by 1,300 employees that opposed the forced return-to-office policy. You'd think that if the people that were on the grind to help the company acheive said profits were to tell their leadership, that they would be more receptive, right? Nah. Dimon said “Don’t waste time on it.” So, essentially he said "fuck your feelings and make me my money." 

He also claims that remote work creates inefficiencies, but let’s not act like corporate bureaucracy wasn’t already a nightmare when everyone was in the office. He complains about people being unavailable on Fridays, but wasn’t it executives who introduced ‘Summer Fridays’ and half-days for themselves? I guess what's good for the goose isn't necessarily what's good for the gander. So wait... If JPMorgan made record profits when they had a favorable work from home policy, what changed? Clearly people were very productive if there were record profits. The tides didn't shift that damn much. Again, what the hell changed?

At the end of the day, these CEOs don’t hate remote work because of productivity issues. They hate it because it shifts power back to employees. When people can work from anywhere, they have options. They can negotiate better pay. They can live wherever they want. And if their company sucks? They can leave. And corporate America hates that.

People just love to hate on remote workers. "How do we know they're really working?" Cool, how do we know you aren't just clicking around on spreadsheets in an office pretending to be busy? I've seen that too. Shit, I've played that game as well.

Oh, I love the whole "company culture" argument too. People swear if you're not physically in the office, you're missing some magical team-building experience. I remember the dog and pony shows and the "water cooler" convos. I remember folks needing to "curb their conversation" because so and so was around. I remember the factions and cliques and all that shit. I don't experience much of that when I'm out of the house working. So yeah, I'm good.

Productivity? Stanford ran a whole study on this—remote workers were 13% more productive and took fewer sick days. That sounds like a person would be more likely to actually be at work more often. But sure, let's ignore that because Karen from Accounting thinks Zoom meetings don't count as work, or Ken can't fathom that his team was able to get all of their work done in less than the eight hours allocated for the day. Granted, there are sources that counter the idea that remote workers are more productive, but there's a sense that the tide might be shifting as companies figure out the "right" balance.

And fuck a study, I KNOW I am far more productive working from home than sitting in an office. I'm less likely to be interrupted by someone walking in my office to strike up a conversation. If someone Slacks me or sends a Teams message, I can act like I never saw it and not disrupt my workflow.

So what are we really talking about? Control. Companies hate remote work because it gives power back to the employees. When people can work from anywhere, they have options. They can negotiate better pay. They can live wherever they want. And if their company sucks? They can leave. And corporations hate that. This ain't like back in the day where folks were loyal to a company. Nope. People are slowly realizing that they are the ones that have the actual power. They are realizing that they have a voice and should use it as they see fit. All my opinion, though.

Anyway, even after it has been proven that remote work is viable, companies are now pushing for RTO policies. Not for productivity. Not for business needs. But because they lost the upper hand. There are CEOs that have shared this dangerous way of thinking that working seven days a week is something to aspire to. Yeah, if you don't have a fucking life and all that you do revolves around making money. Or if you don't care about your mental health or your social relationships, family, etc.

At the end of the day, good employees get the job done—no matter where they are. And the ones who don't? They weren't doing much in the office either. So the real question isn't whether remote work works, it's whether these companies are ready to admit they've lost control—or if they're just salty about it.