The Slacks in the Cradle (Friday Remote Roundup)
When you done with Zoom calls? I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then.
Last week, Indianapolis got hit by a snow storm… It wasn’t that big and bad, but it shut down the roads, schools, and daycares. My guess is that in an average year, this is going to happen to me and my family somewhere between one and three times.
Fortunately for my wife and I, we both have a lot of flexibility. We can both work from home and can pivot to more asynchronous communication, but this hasn’t been the case for a lot of remote workers.
Many parents have spent the past few years drowning. Despite the “flexibility” of working from home, they’ve been stuck in back-to-back Zoom calls all day while their kids are home because of a snow day, a COVID shutdown, or a run-of-the-mill RSV outbreak. Meanwhile, their leadership is completely blind to their pain and refuses to adjust their working style to be more asynchronous and flexible.
We’re currently at the beginning, not the end, of a massive transformation in how we work, and the organizations that prioritize families are going to win outsized rewards in this new economy. The organizations that force parents to choose and juggle will lose.
I believe that we can drive results for businesses without sacrificing snow days with our kids, but it requires change.
Recommended Reads
“Remote work is the best thing to happen to families in decades” from The Intrinsic Perspective by Erik Hoel.
Hoel’s perspective on remote work is fascinating to me. He brings a far more societal lens to the pains and opportunities of remote work than many of the thinkers I’ve cited in previous articles.
While LinkedIn and business publications are filled with executives clamoring about going back to the office and remote work advocates insisting that we’ll never return, Hoel takes a third road. His contention is that the lack of clear evidence in either direction on remote work productivity is a clear sign that both sides are missing the point.
“Regardless, if the effect were huge either way, I’d expect it to be a lot more obvious. Instead, where you end up on this question is essentially a Rorschach test for how you view work in general.”
The truth is, we can make arguments in either direction for how effective remote work is and we’ll all be right. I can argue that productivity and profitability goes up, an executive can argue that team cohesion and employee retention goes down. Evoking the image of a Rorschach test resonated strongly with me, but it enabled Hoel to move past all this bullshit posturing and get to the real root of remote work in our modern society.
Remote work is amazing for families.
This reflects my experience. My wife and I had our first child in May of 2020, meaning I’ve never known what it means to work with a family in a non-COVID world. Over the past two and a half years, we’ve navigated daycare closures, taking care of a sick kid, taking care of a sick spouse (thanks, daycare germs!) and trying to maintain two demanding tech jobs. While it’s been a challenge, we never would have been able to navigate it without both of our roles being fully remote.
Do we miss seeing coworkers everyday? Eh, maybe a little. Some days I want to be around people, so I meet up with someone at a coffee shop after daycare drop off, or I grab lunch with a local colleague. Would I trade the experiences I’ve had caring for my child over the past two and a half years to spend 8-10 hours in an office with my colleagues? Hell no. Not even close.
Over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my purpose and the role my professional life plays in my purpose as a human… Rather than waxing poetic on my perspective, I want to share an excerpt from David Heinemeier Hansson.
“The best companies aren’t families. They’re supporters of families. Allies of families. There to provide healthy, fulfilling work environments so when workers shut their laptops at a reasonable hour, they’re the best husbands, wives, parents, siblings, and children they can be.”
Remote or not, companies in the next decade will be judged by how well they support families, and I can’t imagine supporting my family without a remote-friendly option.
Other Insights From This Read
I thought this data from Vox was interesting… I had never considered a partisan breakdown of perspectives on remote work.
He also cited a read from Freddie deBoer that I’m going to dive into more next week that analogizes the societal side effects of remote work to the book Bowling Alone. If that title sounds familiar, it’s because your annoying friend who majored in Sociology recommended it to you 10 times and you promised you’d read it.
“The Digital Workplace Is Designed to Bring You Down” from The New York Times by David Marchese
If you’re not familiar with the work of Cal Newport, this interview is a great primer. As the author of books including A World Without Email, Deep Work, and Digital Minimalism, Newport is one of the preeminent thinkers about the future of work.
In this conversation, Newport addresses one of the biggest paradoxes of remote work… We all want to be less distracted and do deeper, more focused work, but as individuals, we’re often stuck in an “always-on” culture that we can’t opt-out of.
“The only way to get out of that suboptimal equilibrium is to completely change the way the organization collaborates. We have to replace the hyperactive hive-mind work flow with explicit alternatives for the assignment and organization of work, and individuals can’t do that on their own.”
His description of the “hyperactive hive-mind work flow” is the perfect phrase to
“Now you have this tension of: If I spend less time with my family, I could do more work, but I don’t want to spend less time with my family. And individuals have to figure out this tension internally, which is a hard thing to place on people. So we have to change the way we work at the organizational level.”
The more I study this issue, the clearer this paradox becomes to me and the more obvious it is that this falls on leadership. Unfortunately, most of our executive leaders have spent 20-40 years learning how to lead teams in an office and remote-first leadership is truly a different paradigm that few of them understand.
The past decade has been filled with takes about how we need to re-train our workforce for the modern economy… Teach truckers to code and whatnot… How will executives respond to that same focus being turned on them? Will they re-train and learn how to lead in this new era of business, or will they be wiped away by the next generation who embraced this transition sooner?
Only time will tell.
Things I Wish Were Real
Tim Hickle is a marketing leader who helps high-growth startups and scale-ups get unstuck and hit their goals while embracing AI and the future of work. To learn more about how Tim can help your organization grow, visit TimHickle.com