Remote Work Isn't The Problem Of Poor Productivity; This Is & How To Make It Work
Leaders who blame remote work for struggling businesses are incompetent.
They identify a single source to use as a scapegoat for poor productivity instead of looking at the deeper, core issues plaguing their company. It's gone as far as blaming remote work for Twitter losing $4,000,000 daily.
Four-million-dollars-a day!
Scapegoating is flawed and poor thinking.
Leaders blame execution problems on remote work because it's easy.
It's right there, the perfect scapegoat to target and butcher because looking in the mirror and blaming yourself is difficult. The scapegoat mechanism thrives in instability.
Over the past fifteen years, I've made great hires who have been a part of my team's mission the entire time—people who are crucial to my life. But, unfortunately, I've also made some stupid hires—like, really stupid.
One year, I approved multiple hires for our supply chain team, which led to a massive cultural decline.
The office became full of gossip, backstabbing, and ugliness, which bled into other departments.
It was a mess.
Nothing can help you recover from this, in the office or remotely, besides amputating the infection, caring for the wound, and giving it time to heal.
And since 2021, I've built a remote team for various roles, which has been a success, but it still has its struggles.
The point is, I'm no Elon Musk, Chamath Palihapitiya, or Tim Cook, but blanket blaming remote work is the wrong approach, as the core problem is deeper than that.
The problems with remote work.
Remote work cuts off human physical interaction.
As I've hired a remote team and given my local teams the option to come into the office or work from home (hybrid), the biggest issue we face is remote disconnects people from our mission and values as a company. Sure, we can do this in video calls, individually, or a group, but it's not as effective.
Meeting in person for meaningful conversations is essential for the best execution.
Being in the physical presence of others, you get to pick up on non-verbal communication; it builds a deeper connection among peers.
Physical interaction is crucial to be your best self. Without it, we're not as human.
Chamath Palihapitiya feels that in this era of remote work,
"there is even less opportunity to mentor and to coach and to talk one on one. And people think that this is a boon, and it's not."
But remote work isn't the problem—management is.
Big corporations are massively laying off people because they hired wrong.
It's not because remote work doesn't work or because of the scary monster under their corporate bed.
It's the people they hired.
They got the people wrong.
How and where people decide to work is irrelevant.
"Work isn't a place you go; it's something you do," as Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson say in Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It. Management is about ensuring "each and every person is absolutely clear about what they were hired to do—and then making sure they do it."
If people aren't doing their job, they get fired—simple.
But, people rather cite Twitter's massive daily losses on remote work instead of looking a little deeper. Looking at how many irrelevant people were hired for useless roles. Evaluating how managers are holding direct reports accountable for the core responsibilities they were hired to produce. And reviewing how hiring decisions were made in the first place.
Remote work won't work if you're hiring a bunch of lazy, unfocused people.
Remote workers need to be self-accountable. They need to understand work isn't somewhere you go; it's something you do.
Accountability and reporting on what matters are crucial to a successful remote work strategy (even if it's hybrid).
Leaders are afraid of how to remote work effectively because it doesn't fit their narrative.
They claim they want to get back to normal, but normal to them is with selfish intent.
They like a busy office and being surrounded by their teams. But what they do is blame remote work for their desire to connect.
They say remote work deteriorates company culture, and people have Zoom fatigue. Other leaders say virtual collaboration is difficult, and holding teams accountable is impossible.
First, why are you having so many Zoom meetings? Second, with some ingenuity, the complaints about remote work are an easy fix, especially for small businesses.
What's challenging is getting beyond mental limitations.
Leaders who can't accept a new, dare I say better way of hybrid work has fallen victim to these four biases:
1. Status quo bias: when leaders desire to maintain a certain way of doing things. They're terrified of change.
2. Anchoring bias: where leaders feel anchored to past experiences or information.
3. Confirmation bias: the bias Peter Diamandis tells leaders to avoid. It's when we only look at the information that confirms what we believe.
4. False consensus bias: when leaders believe their teams are much more like them in their beliefs than is true.
The advantages of remote work.
If you hired a salesperson who proved she will 5x her quota, but her only demand was she work from a cave on Mt. Olympus, would you let her?
Of course, you would!
She's a damn producer. It's not just about where she works but the results she produces. That's all that matters.
The pros of remote work, or a hybrid strategy, far outweigh the bad—as long as you can accept and address the bad.
Less time wasted commuting
Access to global talent
Personalized work environments
Improved productivity and focus
Fewer office politics
Lower costs
Increased employee satisfaction and better employee retention
Happier people
The benefits of remote work are undeniable.
Work-life balance is a myth. Life is life, no matter how hard you try to slice and dice it. Spending time commuting or listening to your obnoxious cubicle neighbor complain isn't the best way to spend it.
It just takes a little ingenuity.
7 key tactics on how to make remote work, work in any business.
Have a cadence for every team and clearly articulate what matters.
A cadence is an operating tempo that breaks down a year into its core functions and priorities.
With the right tempo, teams focus on what matters the most by building discipline in their day, focus in their weeks, and execution in their quarter.
You don't need to do more; you must do better on what matters.
Hire right.
If you don't hire right, nothing else matters.
People are hired to produce results. Therefore, a company must work hard to find the right people who are the best fit for the responsibilities.
Getting hiring right is crucial, which is why, when hiring, you must always avoid these four Rs:
Rushing out the job ad.
Rushing into an interview unprepared.
Rushing to make an offer.
Rushing through the onboard stage.
Develop a Mentorship Model.
Mentorship is when team members learn from people who have or are currently succeeding in the company.
Here's how it works:
Classify grow players.
Assign company mentors (not their direct managers).
Schedule regular conversations with company Subject Matter Experts.
Schedule ongoing cross-training.
Assign quarterly skill development.
When you build a mentorship model, you're giving the team access to critical company knowledge from which they can learn and grow.
Establish self-accountability.
If you hire people who aren't self-accountable, remote work and even work in an office will fail.
People have to champion their responsibilities, or they won't be motivated to achieve the results you hired them to produce.
Self-accountability must be a part of your ideal candidate profile and an active part of your interview process.
If people don't own the results they were hired to produce:
Fire fast
The large companies blaming remote work for layoffs and poor productivity failed here.
Wasteful, toxic, or unproductive employees should be fired as fast as possible.
One of the leaders' core responsibilities is to protect their good employees from the bad ones.
Execute random bumps with other team members.
Art Markman, a professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, has said:
"When you observe the actions of other people, you often adopt their same goals. Being around a group of people who are working toward a common mission reinforces that goal in everyone in the workplace."
This is a push to say; this can only happen in the office. But, virtually, you can get close to this with some creativity:
Schedule in-personal yearly kickoffs
Setup a daily virtual water cooler
Assign mentors
Schedule random team members in different departments to introduce themselves in a video chat
In team meetings, add some time for group breakouts
The goal is to find ways employees can "bump" into each other virtually.
Trap institutional knowledge.
It's not hard to transfer institutional knowledge virtually—another core objection about remote work.
In fact, it's easier. Leadership must develop simple systems to ensure critical information is trapped inside the company.
This happens by:
Retaining the best people
Mentoring future leaders
Constantly updating Standard Operating Procedures and best practices
Recording all training and coaching sessions for future use
Developing an FAQ log
To say remote work doesn't work is a scapegoat for a more significant problem—hiring the wrong people.
Instead of looking at it as an enemy, see it as a core advantage, if not solely to allow people to live a better life and to help produce the best results in the process.
Remote work isn't the problem; management is.
