How to spot a badly designed remote workplace

Peter du ToitI'm the founder of FutureWork IQ where I spend my time assisting businesses to design digital workplaces or “offices in the cloud.” These environments enable companies to allow flexible and remote working for their teams. I also teach the digital literacy, fluency, communication and collaboration skills needed to work in these modern technology-rich workplaces.

People are now sharing their experiences of what it’s like to work remotely after being forced to start doing so at very short notice, with no time prepare:

For example:

“I don’t miss going to the office everyday but do miss being there sometimes. There is more energy when collaborating with colleagues—do you know how difficult it is to white board on video?! I also miss the side chats, walking to get a coffee and so forth.” (Working from home is making a lot of people miserable)

When a remote workplace is DESIGNED the above challenges are solved intentionally. You only need to look at companies that have successfully been working office-less for years prior to covid to see that this is possible. Here is a hint from Sid Sijbrandij CEO of GitLab a 1,200+ fully-remote, office-less company:

So if you want to have a flawless collaboration experience or feel connected to work colleagues at distance you need to DESIGN for this. It does NOT happen by chance.