Headline, October 30 2022/ ''' '' REMOTE WORK REWIND '' '''

''' '' REMOTE WORK

 REWIND '' '''

 

REMOTE WORK IS HERE TO STAY. LEAN IN - EMPLOYERS. There are a million other pressures relieved by eliminating a mandatory daily commute, including the costs, which can be worse now because of inflation.

And then not having to lug expressed milk all over town if you're a nursing parent and the time back in your day to have more meals with your family - something we're told is pivotal for our children's well being.

THE DESIRE FOR REMOTE AND FLEXIBLE WORK is echoed in a recent report from Future Forum, an initiative of the Slack messaging app. [ Slack, of course, is one of the tools that make remote work easier. ]

THE REPORT, which describes itself as a ''quarterly survey of more than 10,000 knowledge workers in the U.S., Australia, France, Germany, Japan and the U.K.'' found that ''83 percent of working moms now want location flexibility,'' while 60 percent of working moms and 50 percent of working dads '' want to work remotely 3 to 5 days a week.''

The report found that '' fully in-office workers are the least satisfied with their working arrangements : they report significantly worse experience scores compared to hybrid and full-time remote employees, most notably for work-life balance and work-related stress and anxiety.''

The economists Edward Glaeser and David Cutler, more skeptical of remote work, argue that permanent remote work will hurt relationships, innovation and productivity. Writing for The Washington Post last year, they said ''People who shift to working from home can temporarily increase the amount of work they get done in a given day.

But over the medium to long term, long distance employment can't deliver key benefits - including learning and new friendships - that come from face-to-face contact.''

Their view seems to reflect an established view of workplace dynamics, one that predates the all-day electronic communication that is the backdrop to our modern lives.

I worked a remote job when I was 25, and I wonder if these esteemed economists have ever formed an instant-message-based friendship - I've kept friends from that workplace to this day. A great deal of connection and mentorship can happen remotely; it just takes intentional arrangement and encouragement from management to make that happen.

And working remotely doesn't mean you can never, ever see co-workers IRL. It just means that the  cadence of in-person work might be different.

In various ways, the old way of face-time-obsessed office work wasn't working particularly well for mothers, who sometimes lost out on in-person mentorship and networking opportunities anyway; we still do the majority of childcare, and can't always schmooze at after-work drinks because caregiving demands intervene.

Companies of all types could stand to be much intentional about how mentorship opportunities are doled out, and a great percentage of remote workers might force companies to go in that direction.

The complaints that remote work destroys company culture and prevents mentorship directly relate to the fact that the pandemic shift of remote work was crisis-driven and not a thoughtful, intentional implementation,'' Ms.Yost, a flexible work-place strategist and the author of 'Work + Life : Finding the Fit That's Right for You', said.

''A well-executed flexible work strategy addresses upfront, 'what do we need to do to build culture and mentor talent?' then determines 'how, when and where do we do that best based on the realities of our jobs and lives?' That's not left to chance.''

The point is that there's something wrong with working from an office. It's that there's something right about working from home.

It's important to acknowledge that workers who can do their jobs remotely are a privileged group. Some jobs have to be client facing, and some jobs really need that in-person component to function properly.

It will also probably take years for the pro-remote work argument to fully sink in with the people who have the power to make it the new normal. And giving workers with caregiving responsibilities the flexibility to manage their lives is a drop in the bucket in terms of what the world or America would need to do to make the world truly family friendly.

But it's a very necessary start.

The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on the State-of-the-World and Practices, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Jessica Grose.

With respectful dedication to the Working Mothers, Working Parents, and then Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society - the exclusive ownership of every student in the world : wssciw.blogspot.com and ........... Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless