{"id":530,"date":"2021-06-16T10:21:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T04:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/?p=530"},"modified":"2021-06-16T10:21:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T04:51:54","slug":"work-from-home-is-dead-long-live-work-from-anywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/work-from-home-is-dead-long-live-work-from-anywhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Work From Home is dead, long live Work From Anywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My colleagues and I published a couple of different views<\/a> on the future of \u201cwork from home\u201d and remote work last Friday \u2014 a story that, if analytics is any sign, really struck a nerve with many of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That shouldn\u2019t be surprising particularly in the tech industry, where knowledge work fundamentally means we spend the vast majority of our time in an \u201coffice.\u201d Everything from minor annoyances (they cut down the size of the Klondike bars in the mini-kitchen!) to massive complaints (I am trying to think through a complex ML algorithm as my open-office colleagues are having a Nerf war!) is magnified given the time we spend in these environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understandably, the mandatory Work From Home situation that many of us find ourselves in is not ideal. Schools are closed, kids are home, internet is wonky since everyone else is home, the dog sitter isn\u2019t coming and there are no caf\u00e9s to find sojourn. It\u2019s not surprising then that there is something of a popular revulsion and revolt to the whole WFH notion, even as\u00a0large tech companies like Twitter say they will permanently offer Work From Home<\/a>\u00a0as an option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s selling short what is really taking place though. \u201cWork From Home\u201d is terrible branding, precisely because it fails to communicate the fundamental freedom that comes with these new policies. It\u2019s not about further imprisoning us in our homes \u2014 it\u2019s about empowering us to think and work exactly where we are personally most productive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I know that most of us are sequestered in our humble abodes due to COVID-19, but long-term, the whole point of the flexibility that \u201cWork From Home\u201d provides is precisely that you can work from anywhere<\/em>. It may be your home \u2014 but it may as well be a caf\u00e9, the hospital where a sick family member is located, a beach, a friend\u2019s house, a hotel. The point of flexibility here is to untether our schedules and the stress associated with them and allow our work to happen where we want it to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us will choose to work from home<\/a>, and many of us will habitually return to the same working environment each day even if it isn\u2019t our home. That\u2019s fine. Flexibility doesn\u2019t mean constantly changing everything up \u2014 it means we can change things when we want and need to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One big question that has loomed over \u201cWork From Home\u201d policies is this: What if I like my office and the social life of meeting with colleagues? Again, we see the narrowness of the language. \u201cWork From Anywhere\u201d literally means anywhere<\/em>, including the very office we would normally commute to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flexibility means adapting our schedules and our locations for the kinds of knowledge work we are trying to do. Some days are all meetings as we try to coordinate a number of projects. Some days we need to shut out the world and just dive down into writing our novels, or developing a new algorithm, or putting together that big presentation for the all-hands meeting next week. Some days we need a mix of both. Some days we need the comfort of home, while other days we need the comfort of colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, \u201cWork From Anywhere\u201d perfectly encapsulates that freedom and dynamism our schedules deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For companies, the challenge is how to empower a true Work From Anywhere culture, which is way more than the binary of \u201cin office\u201d or \u201cat home.\u201d Many companies already have expense policies that allow employees to buy key equipment for their homes (a monitor, bringing a computer home, etc.) as well as subsidizing home internet access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in Work From Anywhere, should companies subsidize coffee purchases or Wi-Fi passes for employees at a nearby caf\u00e9? What about a day pass at a coworking facility? Should the company underwrite employee travel to different cities or places to freshen themselves up with new experiences? How should companies offer mechanisms for distant employees to connect in real life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, much of the discussion among executives today is about cost (surprise!). Offices are expensive. Office space per employee has declined over the past five decades under cost pressure, which is one reason for the forced usage of open offices compared to offices with doors that close. There is more collaboration \u2014 and a nice savings to the bottom line. Work From Home itself got more popular as broadband internet expanded and companies were looking for new ways to minimize their expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work From Anywhere may not save a company any money whatsoever. What was once large office complexes may be a handful of smaller venues, with travel and food budgets that will more than make up for any real estate cost savings. This new workplace flexibility is not about saving money, nor long-term social distancing. In the end, it\u2019s an investment in employee well-being, productivity, and ultimately, profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally published at Techcrunch and written by Danny Crichton<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>

https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2020\/05\/18\/work-from-home-is-dead-long-live-work-from-anywhere<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My colleagues and I published a couple of different views on the future of \u201cwork from home\u201d and remote work last Friday \u2014 a story that, if analytics is any sign, really struck a nerve with many of you. That shouldn\u2019t be surprising particularly in the tech industry, where knowledge work fundamentally means we spend the vast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,24,2,9,6,3,7,27,5,8,4],"tags":[18,21,22,20,23,16,19,11,14,13,17,12,10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":532,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.remotebharat.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}