Skip to main content

Five Reasons I'm Not Convinced Teleworking is the Future


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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five Undergrad Courses I Wish I Could Retake

Education is a tricky thing. Many jobs require you to learn things prior to you getting on the job, but sometimes, that education is more valued in retrospect. What is and what isn't valuable gets especially lost in four year degrees that mandate something like 130 credit hours for graduation. A college isn't going to tell you, "These classes are important, and these classes... not so much." To be fair to colleges, value is a subjective thing. What I might have found valuable might be different to somebody else. This is especially true for a more general major like mine, Business Administration. I took courses in macroeconomics, marketing, communications, finance, accounting, HR management, and more. If you go ask my fellow graduates which courses they valued the most, I bet every one of them would give you different answers. Anyway, I was reflecting back on my own undergraduate education and thinking about the classes I wish I could go retake. It's not that I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Redeeming Rob Bell

Well, that's probably a name you heard in a while! For those of you not familiar with that name, Rob Bell was (and kind of still is?) a big name in the Christian community. He is the former megachurch founder and pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, wrote widely read books Sex God  and Velvet Elvis , and is probably most widely known for his NOOMA video series. In 2011, Rob Bell had a big falling out with the Christian community following the release of his book, Love Wins . In that book, he contended that people would be able to accept Jesus and enter heaven after death in addition to before death, which many people misconstrued as universalism. (Which is not particularly right... but I can see why people would draw that conclusion.) Having attended a Christian school at the time, I was right in the thick of the controversy. People freaked out. Having been looked at as a Christian hero in the community for the longest time, people were floored with the sentiments shared in Love...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: FRAMES Part 1 - 20 and Something

It should come as no surprise to you that I'm struggling to see how the church (or faith) as a whole can do a better job at connecting with our postmodern society. In an attempt to eliminate the word "can't" from my vocabulary, I am doing what I can to contribute to a new movement to help re-integrate or re-introduce faith to folks. To that end, I reached out to some people in the church about literature regarding this, and there sadly isn't much. However, there is still some. In particular, I was recommended to check out this series of books called FRAMES. This series of nine books analyzes different topics regarding modern society in short, concise books. Books that contain a lot of information portrayed in neat graphical forms.
Post a Comment
Read more

God's "Plan" for You

One of the things I hear most often in the Christian community is about “God’s plan”. Stuff like… This went well because it was in God’s plan. I’m not doing this or that because I’m waiting for God to reveal his plan for my life. My parent getting cancer and dying must fit into God’s plan. We act as if God has laid out a single track for our lives that we are supposed to follow. That, somehow, he will divinely inspire us to follow this single track, and we will live happily ever after. The end. But how right is that thinking?
Post a Comment
Read more

Key Competency #10: Respectful Straightforwardness

I don't know what it is these days, but people have the tendency to beat around the bush before getting to a point. Maybe it's that they're unsure if what's on their mind is right or wrong. Maybe they don't want to offend somebody. Or maybe it's simply that the person doesn't want to come across as brash or cocky. This is an issue I've encountered a lot, both in the past and in the present. It's a huge time waste, and it can be detrimental to productivity. For example, when a group is asked to provide feedback on something that is quietly not well received, the room usually goes dead silent for a little while until somebody finally speaks up offering some vague compliment. The compliment, of course, serves as a means to remain respectful to the presenter, but the presenter usually takes it and runs with it. After all, they only heard "good things" about it! In reality, nobody liked the idea.
Post a Comment
Read more