The Future of Work: Is Remote Here to Stay?

Good morning, Lew... I don't know about remote being here to stay. There will be jobs that will be done remotely. But I see more and more companies requiring their people to come back to the office at least part-time if not full-time. I have numerous clients who were fully remote until the last year and most are now back in the office at least three days a week.

Hello Lew - well, any discussion of the future can lead to additional conversation, right?  And when the topic includes life at work and the impact that the activity can play roles in countless ways.  And once again when it comes to forecasting, we shall see.  

I think it is, allows companies to reduce brick and mortar costs. Thanks for sharing, enjoy your weekend, and here's a GOOD LUCK to your favorite Football Team! Bill

Bill Salvatore / Arizona Elite Properties

Good morning Lew. Remote may work in some instances but not in others. The jury of reality is still out while the jury of opinion has gone both ways. Enjoy your day.

Good morning Lew,

Remote work might be good for some situations but there is nothing more stimulating than human interaction, creativity and bouncing ideas off each other while being physically present in the same setting and not in your PJ's sitting at home on the computer!

Lew Corcoran when COVID hit the company my wife worked for went remote.  My wife did not like it the first couple of months, but then adjusted, and now you could not get her to commute back to the office.  The biggest challenge I see for employers is how to monitor employees who are working remotely to make sure they are truly working.  In my wife's case she was part of a call center, so it was easy to monitor her, but that is not as easy for other jobs.

It will be expanding for sure by humans or AI. Someone once said about the future, machines will do all of the work. Factories will have machines and dogs to protect the machines. Humans stop once in a while to feed the dogs. Jeff

Lew, I enjoyed your blog.  I think that there are some jobs that can easily be a fit for remote work. I tried teaching remote. At first, I thought it was the best thing ever, but after a while I begin to miss the face to face interaction. I think a hybrid, as you mentioned in your post, is a good mixture.

HI Lew- there are benefits to remote working and it depends on the job. I think a few years ago a large company did a study and found that a large majority of their remote workers were not putting in the time they would have were they at work in a brick and mortar office. And to Dorie Dillard Austin TX's point, from a societal standpoint, we are generating and encouraging a lack of socialization. For me, when I was younger, I'm glad I worked in an office with people of all ages around me. 

Lew, Obviously a lot has to do with the job function and what is essential.  My engineering job had no direct reports, and as long as I was willing to adjust my schedule to match the needs of my coworkers and manager, I could have been anywhere in the world with a high speed internet connection and printer capability.  I did not meet my last manager of several years in person until the day before my last day in the office.  She was in MA, another team member in NJ, and another in PA along with one more here in Ohio.  We zoomed, Teams, emailed, texted, chatted, whatever format worked best for the team.  During Covid, we went about 9 months of 100% remote work, then back in the office 2-3 days a week.

Personally, I loved the flexibility of remote work, and getting to avoid the daily commute and the ease of grabbing my laptop any time of day (or night) probably meant I put in MORE work for the company than I did when adhered to a daily into the office at X time and back home at Y time.

Now I'm 100% remote (since I'm now retired).  Bill