Remote work will get better because of human behaviour, not software

My experience

Right now, I have been doing university lectures for a few months now. With that, I have been in a few video calls. Like many people during the pandemic. When taking video calls I’m starting to notice that adapting to remote work. Is mostly related to dealing with human behaviour, not software.

For example, in my video calls. Almost all the students don’t use our cameras. And many people use the chat. To communicate with each other and the teacher. This is very different from many places. I know companies that all their employees. Have their camera on. And predominately use the microphone to speak.

The Need for Structured Communication

So even with the same software. People are using the software very differently. This has to do with remote work in general. Not just video calls. I had to do some group work. While it was good. The work was done over an ad-hoc fashion over WhatsApp. This means I was always on tab. Ready to read a message in the group chat. One time I was eating my food and I had to interrupt it. So I can complete some work.

Now I understand the stuff I hear about in Cal Newport’s podcast. Talking about the danger of using instant messengers like slack and email. For work communication. And the need to have more structured communication. There is popular software for project management, Like Notion and Asana. But its just matter of getting people to use them. As the status quo is easier, in the moment. Moving to a new system has a high activation cost. The team will need to ask important questions like, how to do transfer your tasks? How do you get everyone up and running with the software? It's lots of questions to answer.

New Systems of Working

As we are all new to this. People will eventually work out new systems. To get the most out of remote work. Some companies can use remote work to their advantage. Gumroad and other small tech companies. Can use asynchronous communication. Which means people don’t need to be at the same time or place to receive or send messages.

Sahil Lavingia, the founder of gumroad mentions that asynchronous communication:

All communication is thoughtful. Because nothing is urgent (unless the site is down), comments are made after mindful processing and never in real-time. There's no drama

Because everyone is always effectively "blocked," everyone plans ahead. It also means anyone can disappear for an hour, a day, or a week and not feel like they are holding the company back. Even me!

I think this is a thing of times to come. Because it is creating new working styles when remote work is possible. With this text-based style. No meetings are needed. And plans are well thought through.

Sahil also mentions that:

People build their work around their life, not the other way around. This is especially great for new parents, but everyone benefits from being able to structure their days to maximize their happiness and productivity.

This allows us to spend more time on things we love like our family or other hobbies. Remote work can make living without following the traditional 9-5 structure. Or the Hustle minded 80-hour workweek. Also, remote work people be more location independent. In many cities around the world. House prices are skyrocketing. Due to a lack of housing. People buy shoeboxes going for half a million dollars. Now with that same money, they can buy a whole acreage in Nebraska. Allowing them to have more space for their family and themselves. And depending on their lifestyle to have a more enjoyable time.

I remember many times in college. I wondered why I’m I need to the classroom. A lot of this work can be done at home. I guess a lot of people in the workplace think about the same thing.

With Asynchronous communication and remote work. We can allow employees to become time and location independent. The time independence within reason. Employees still need to get work done, that goes without saying.

Software is still very helpful

Even software itself can help people transition into remote work easier. NVIDIA has showcased awesome technology using GANs. That creates an artificial version of a person's face. Using key points on a person’s face. Allowing a person to use a video feed. With little bandwidth. So people in rural areas. And other places with a bad internet connection. Can join video calls. With that, they can fully be location Independent. As location independence implies that you have a good internet connection. So choppy video will become a thing of the past.

Like mentioned earlier they are a lot of project management tools out there. People just need to use them. People will need to get used to structured communication. People will need to get used using video calls. People are quickly designing etiquette on the fly. Like muting your microphone when you enter the call. Messaging before wanting to speak. Some companies have a culture of using video calls to get closer to the team. So employees will talk briefly about their lives once a week. In a hands-on meeting. And used it to get updates with the rest of the team.

The Potential of remote work

With remote work, people can have time to take walks around the neighbourhood or maybe cook lunch for themselves. Not just staying in an office all day. Granted people still need to get used to this as lots people including myself stay at home all day. Like I mentioned before it's not a problem of software but human behaviour.

So, employees on a personal level will start to get the most out of remote work by improving their overall being and productivity. During the summertime, I was able to take walks almost every single day enjoying the local scenery and parks (now it's winter is looking a bit more difficult.) On NHK world I watching a program talking about people moving to the suburbs. In which the town, Atami. Had a nice beachfront. And people wanted to move away from the hustle and bustle life of Tokyo. I can now imagine with remote work during your lunch break you can take walks along the beach and have seafood for lunch.

I think remote work is something that going to stay. There are lots of improvements still need to be made.