Don’t work “remotely”

I recently stumbled across this article, and ever since I saw it I've been thinking about the meaning of remote work.

The article is somewhat just arguing about verbiage, but it definitely makes some good points. I think, when it comes to remote work, the important thing is mindset. If you are a manager who works with remote (or distributed, as the article would have it) employees, then you need to have the right mindset.

You Can’t Control Your Employees #

I think one of the biggest myths the dominates the workplace is that watching over someone's shoulder makes them work faster. There's a term for this type of management: it's called micro-management, and it's almost never effective.

I'm not sure where this idea came from, because in my experience I have not once found it to be true. Watching over someone's shoulder almost always makes them self-conscious and more liable to make errors.

And yet managers continue to make this error every time they deny an employee the ability to work remotely. The boss is essentially telling the employee that they aren't trusted enough to get the job done without micro-management, which frankly is a bit of a slap in the face.

It's time to wake up and realize that you can't control your employees, even if they are in the same building, or even the same room with you. Even the most diligent of employees simply won't be as effective without the space to do their work.

This isn't to say that an office doesn't have perks: it certainly does. There's something about a busy buzzing office that helps people focus. But that is not the only way to focus, and if you think that it is, then you're missing out on a whole world of opportunities for more fulfilling and life-giving work.

Don't believe me? Try working next to a lake on a nice spring day, or on top of a mountain as a fog rolls in. There are plenty of environments that spur on productivity in a person, and the only way to know what works for you is to try lots of things, and find what sticks.

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