We've come a long way with technology; it's truly amazing. Things like teleconferencing, simultaneous document editing, and virtual whiteboarding have made cross-country business a reality. Companies have begun to recognize this and now regularly hire full time teleworkers. It's weird to think that I have worked with people for years that I may never meet in person.
Here's the thing, though: I'm just not convinced teleworking is the future. Where I think people are experimenting in this space now, I don't think even think advances in technology will cause teleworking to be a mainstream thing. In fact, I think we're going to see more of a swing back to collocated teams over virtual teams.
Let's explore the five reasons why I think the future does not lie in teleworking.
1. People struggle to properly use the technology. Not everybody is tech savvy. Even with how far we've come in putting out great teleworking software, people still constantly struggle to use it. Conference calls are often dropped or interrupted, collaborative software is misaligned or misused, and more. Even as simple as people are attempting to make technology work, people still struggle to use it. And it only takes one person struggling to mess it up for everybody else.
2. Technology won't replace physical collaboration tools. In 1968, a special device was created that allowed people to capture information and move that information at will in a physical environment. It was revolutionary at the time, and it remains a staple in our modern work environment. That device? The Post-it note. Okay, if it sounds like I'm being facetious, I kind of am. But seriously, I just don't see technology replacing the usefulness and versatility of things like sticky notes and whiteboards. And I'm a guy who loves technology! At almost any given moment, I have a smartphone in my pocket, a smartwatch on my wrist, and Bluetooth headphones somewhere on my person. As much as I love technology, I cannot denounce the value of physical collaboration tools. I think they will remain top dog for collaboration even as technology continues to evolve.
3. There is no way to tell if a person is working or not. I struggle to put this reason on here because I like to hope for the best in people, but we have to deal with reality on reality's terms. Where I have worked with people who do just fine in a virtual space, I also have worked with people who seemingly get little to nothing done when not working in a collocated space. Again, I wish we could trust people to do the right thing at all times, but that's just not the world we live in.
4. The constantly looming risk of an information or data leak. As much as we can continue to refine our technologies with better security, even things like remote desktop usage is limited. What's to stop a person from copying down sensitive information by hand and manually re-uploading it to some malicious source? Granted, you could say the same thing about somebody working in an office location, but I think that gets tamped down quite a bit by social accountability.
5. THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON: Virtual spaces lose the human element of interaction in collocated spaces. There's just something about interacting face-to-face that cannot be replicated by technology, in both subtle and more overt ways. From the subtle perspective, there's body language, reassuring (or non-reassuring) sounds, and more that is just not captured all that well by technology. From the more overt perspective, there are those little regarded but precious few minutes before or after a meeting where a person shares about how their day is going. Unknowingly, those people are building camaraderie, and it could be that that camaraderie becomes even more important in the future beyond the scope of your interactions.
What do you think about this list? Do you agree or disagree that companies will continue to use teleworkers in the future? I honestly don't see it going fully away, but I do see it diminishing for most audiences. That last reason alone should suffice what you're losing when moving to teleworking environments. Give these reasons a thought if you ever get to provide feedback on whether or not to help a company segue to a teleworking environment.
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