Winners and Losers in a world of Distributed Work

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Remote employees – You probably know one of these slackers by now.  Their office is listed in the address book as “remote” or and you don’t see them in the office much.  You are pretty sure they are doing anything but working because you can’t given them your patented “case of the Mondays” nod in the elevator every day.  Well, this is your glimpse into the future. Imagine if 50% of your workforce today wasn’t in the office – what would change? In this future there will be winners and losers…

Winners

  1. India, Tennessee, and Suburban Sprawl – If it doesn’t matter where your employees are located then you can find the best or cheapest talent match for each open position.  Outsourcing doesn’t have to mean out of the country, but that the same technologies that empower remote work enable traditional outsourcing as well so that will continue to be part of the answer.  It could mean you find those wonderfully talented and strange people that just don’t want to leave their home town in rural Tennessee or Arkansas.  Having the right tools and process in place also means that more work could simply be done at home even if your employees live within “commute” distance of the office.
  2. Coffee Shops & Shared Office spaces that embrace “remoters” – I have two coffee shops near me and it breaks my heart that I can’t go to the local one that has better coffee in the afternoons. As coffee snobs they view people on laptops as pests instead of a money making opportunity.  People are social in nature and it most of us can’t work in 100% isolation from (in person) humanity all day every day.  We don’t want to commute 2 hours a day, but we do want the social experience.   The people at my local Starbucks seem to get this.  I get free wi-fi for using my starbucks gift card once a month and they sell me treats by offering me free samples while I’m working. 
  3. Collaborative Software Vendors – If the amount of geo-distributed work increases then money that was once spent on the square footage to hold whiteboards, hallways, cubicles, and water coolers will go towards alternative solutions.  If you can replace the meeting rooms, hallway conversations, and water cooler chit chat and you are poised to capture some of this money.  I think the buzz-word is “real time”, but I think I’ve been living in it too long to not just see it all as complimentary to asynchronous communication.
  4. Geo-Location Services – I’m not sure why I separated this from collaborative software, but it’s also great to know where your co-workers are and why. Foursquare is not just a game. There is business potential there.
  5. Airlines – There is truth to the fact that face to face collaboration can’t be thrown out the window altogether so remote workers are also going to be hoping on airplanes more frequently. Hopefully, one day, to meet in neutral locations for irreplaceable face time.
  6. The environment – Less people stuck in traffic for an hour a day is a good thing.
  7. Free Time – If a remote employee wants to work an 8 hour day… it only takes 8 hours.  No one gets more money for more travel time in most salaried positions. You get rewarded on work done and not the time spent getting there. 

Losers

  1. Geo Centered Companies – If a company is not exploring the potential of remote work and their competition is then that company is in trouble.  They are artificially limiting their hiring pool… which can be a very bad thing if the hiring pool in your area is either expensive (Silicon Valley) or talent limited like it might be for tech employees in other cities. 
  2. Drive Through Coffee Shops – These places serve commuters… less commuters = less drive through coffee.  Of course I imagine these venders will find other ways to expand their business.
  3. Micro-Managers – If your idea of being a manager is to be constantly looking over your employees shoulders then you are going to find this practice increasingly more difficult when half of your employees aren’t within eyeshot. If your company creates a vision of success, sets great goals, and can measure effectiveness then you’ll be much better off managing remote employees.  But these things are always the case anyway right?  🙂
  4. Poor Performers & Bad Communicators – If your idea of being a good employee is to wait for something to happen or your micro-managing boss to tell you want to do then you will not thrive in this environment.  Good employees will communicate well regardless of their environment.  Working remotely stresses the importance of mastering all aspects of good communication and self direction in a way that most poor performing employees will fail completely.  So the weight here is on the employee as much as the management.

What do you think?  Who will benefit the most and least from this world?