Remote work pitfalls

Peter du ToitI'm the founder of FutureWork IQ where I spend my time assisting businesses to improve their climate literacy so as to understand the projected impacts from the expanding climate crisis and how to adapt their workplaces in the face of these impacts.

This data from South Africa.

This snapshot gives a glimpse into how traditional in-person teams are struggling with remote work.

First up is the discovery that email is terrible for communication and collaboration. So ditching that is a good move!

However, what is it being replaced with?

According to this survey:

74% took to instant messaging
55% video calls and
62% telephone calls.

Note: All of the above is indicative of teams trying to copy and past *synchronous* in-office working into an online environment.

We call this Level 2 Synchronous Remote

This way of working at distance is inefficient and exhausting. Individuals in this situation are heard to say “I am on Teams calls all day!” or “I have Zoom fatigue!” or managers say “How can we ensure people are working? Can we track time spent on their computers?”

However, you MUST understand that there are other levels of remote work beyond Level 2 and you must attain those levels if your remote work arrangements are going to be sustainable long term.

The next step up is to *design* a #digitalworkplace and culture that has at its core *asynchronous* working, communication and collaboration.

This will require unlearning the way you worked in a physical office.