Remote working is facing an uncertain future

What has happened to remote working? It was once the hero, celebrated by all. When Covid struck, it was the solution to a lot of problems. All the talk was of which platform was best: Zoom; Teams, Google Meet. Everyone scrambled to get an account. Attics were repurposed, spare bedrooms reallocated, the shed was converted. The ‘home office’ became a thing. It took a while to get the hang of it, but we figured it out.

It was really only the video calls that were new. Email certainly was not. A shared folder or portal for work stuff was no innovation. To me, it was old school. I remember back in 2009 using a website that allowed me to access my work PC remotely. I had ambiguous feelings about that as it cost me a day playing in the snow when the white blanket on the ground meant I couldn’t go into the office.

Back in 2009, remote working was space-age stuff. By 2020, it was manageable, even if it was foisted on us. Along with it, we all embraced a new age of informality. Smartness and a smooth shave were once essentials for any fella going out to work. Remote working did many a thing, but it didn’t do much for the share price of Gillette.

Back in 2020, there were confident predictions that remote working was going to change the world of work forever. I may have written a few of those words myself. Among the points made back then were that a new work/life balance could be achieved; that much that was pointless or tiresome about the world of work could be left behind; that long commutes were a thing of the past; that there would be more time to eat well and take exercise; and that there would be an end to restrictions on where you could live because of the need to be close to work.

That last factor was especially important for this part of the world. It made many ears prick up. Many of us hoped that remote working could change the West of Ireland forever. Western natives exiled in Dublin had their eyes on the possibility. Work from home meant work from the West.

Now all is changed: remote working has seen the workplace turn into a battle place as firms all over the world push back against it. Many are doing so bluntly. Managers and business leaders are trying to reduce the length of time employees spend working from home. Some say they want to reduce it but you get the sense they actually want to abolish it. Come into work every day or get another job is the less than subtle message. In respect of the West, many now wonder about the impact of remote working on pushing up house prices. You get the definite sense that remote working both as a practice and as a fashion is on borrowed time.

Given that background, it might be good to take stock, to set out the arguments for and against it.

Those who defend it say it is great for work/life balance – that much is obvious, even if employers worry about where that balance lies.

Its proponents also point to the obvious benefits of less commuting. There is a lot in that. Dublin is so busy traffic-wise these days that it is hard to imagine what it would be like if everyone returned to in-person work. You can certainly see the difference between a Thursday when most come into the office and a Friday when many still work from home.

Those in favour will also point to how remote working helps anyone trying to balance caring and work responsibilities to maintain their career. Remote working provides a greater opportunity to stay in work or even get promoted in those few years when caring is most needed. If we mean all we say about the importance of inclusion, this is a very important factor.

But notwithstanding all that, the other side of the argument is pushing back hard. Those opponents of remote working say it reduces efficiency; they say it reduces output; they say it is bad for teamwork and stifles creativity. In simple terms, the argument is that people work harder, more collectively and produce solutions quicker if they are in the same place while they do it. Whatever is said in public, many managers and business leaders simply don’t believe that their employees work the 9-5 they are paid for – or anything like it – when they work from home.

Leaving aside the views of employers, many small businesses say it has been destroying the economy that had built up around the workplace. There are certainly fewer lunches eaten during the week or after-work pints drunk on a Friday in Dublin. Not being around much during the week, I wonder how true that is in Castlebar, Ballina, Westport or any of our other towns?

Another argument that can be made against remote working relates to young people. When you are young and starting in a job, would you be better off in the actual workplace for this is where you learn to engage with the world of work and with other workmates? It is often also the first time in your life when – outside your family – you had to work on something with a group of people of all ages, experiences and perspectives. 

One thing that is surely true is that working from home when you are young narrows your range of experiences. And when it is so important for young people to learn how to engage with people, to be able to look them in the eye and talk through a disagreement, not being physically present is surely not a good thing.

One mate of mine also said that going into work every day after school or college provides what he described as the vital social function of adjusting people to the reality of working life. Going to work every day is just one of those staging posts from youth to being grown up – and it isn’t all roses.

It also strikes me that in a world where artificial intelligence threatens to take over many of the functions of the workplace, it may not be that wise for employees to absent themselves from the office. Maybe that won’t matter a damn when the time comes to be replaced by the machine, but it is worth thinking about.

So maybe like so many things, this is a question of degree. Working five days a week remotely brings a lot of downsides, but maybe continuing with a day or two remotely might work longer term. For the West, that latter suggestion is certainly important, for it would provide for some families making their life in rural Ireland, with one partner working for three or four days a week in one of the cities. That admittedly is more remote living than remote working, but that isn’t all that new for us, and if it works, it works.