{"id":82,"date":"2016-12-11T10:21:36","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T16:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/?p=82"},"modified":"2016-12-11T10:30:59","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T16:30:59","slug":"distance-disengagement-the-telecommuting-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/11\/distance-disengagement-the-telecommuting-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"Distance = Disengagement: The telecommuting myth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Telecommuting\/working remotely is one of those old yet new things. I\u2019ve worked remotely for years doing freelancing, and on top of that I\u2019ve been working with remote staff – both managing & just working with – for over 5 years now (I’m lucky enough that I have an employer\u00a0that chooses people over location).
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\nBut to a lot of people it falls under\u00a0the ‘new’ category. \u00a0And therefore is slightly frightening.<\/p>\n

I admit it has both pros and cons. However for all the legitimate reasons for and against it, there\u2019s one myth that truly drives me nuts when it comes to that \u2018fear of remote work\u2019 – and it\u2019s the idea that remote staff automatically equals less engagement. That\u00a0being remote removes that level of attachment, of passion, purely because you\u2019re not there in person.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s like saying that a long distance relationship will never work because it\u2019s long distance. \u00a0That a friendship I have that\u2019s online will never be the same as a friendship in person. \u00a0I generally call bullshit on that.<\/p>\n

Of course, when I do I get the \u2018buts\u2019:<\/p>\n

But I can\u2019t see them! How do I know what they’re doing & that they’re truly engaged?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, first, if that\u2019s the level of trust you have in your employees, then you\u2019ve got other problems.<\/p>\n

Being able to see them though – what does that really mean? \u00a0Because\u00a0I have sat in offices where we knew one of our colleagues spent more time on Facebook then they did on work. Their office was right across from the boss – didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

So what was the problem? It was the level of investment, the relationship\u00a0with their\u00a0management. \u00a0Their manager didn\u2019t care about what they were doing enough to pay attention, so why should they make the effort to care themselves? (And their disengagement getting little to no response? Led to more and more of the office following. \u00a0Why am I working so hard and they\u2019re doing nothing and still here<\/i>\u00a0I was told by a colleague \u00a0– as they left early).<\/p>\n

Pretty well everyone I know has a story about a physical\u00a0workplace and \u2018that person\u2019. \u00a0If\u00a0your employees aren’t engaged, it doesn’t matter where they’re sitting. \u00a0It\u2019s not about \u2018seeing\u2019 them physically, it\u2019s about truly \u2018seeing\u2019 them & paying attention.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s so much more work!\u00a0I can\u2019t just spontaneously drop by their desk!<\/strong><\/p>\n

True, you can\u2019t. \u00a0But unless every text message, phone call, & social media post you\u2019ve ever made to someone else was fully scheduled and planned out, you can\u2019t say \u2018spontaneous\u2019 is impossible virtually.<\/p>\n

And to be honest,\u00a0if your whole plan for how you check in, engage, and work with your staff is the spontaneous occasional drop by, then again, you\u2019ve got more problems then just remote staff.<\/p>\n

Engagement as a manager\u00a0is not this magical thing. It requires work. It requires planning. Leaving it only to spontaneity only works til you don\u2019t have enough time, or you have enough people, and then spontaneity gets dropped and 2 months later you\u2019ve lost them. \u00a0Planning doesn\u2019t destroy the \u2018magic\u2019 or make it less \u2018caring\u2019 – it’s the same logic as setting aside time for family things. \u00a0 It\u2019s making sure what matters gets attention.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a reason long distance relationships never work! You just can\u2019t have that connection without being in person!<\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, if your relationship to your colleagues requires the same connection<\/i> as your long distance relationships \u2026 you may want to rethink that before HR does.<\/p>\n

I joke, but\u00a0this is the ‘but’ that usually, after everything, it falls back on. \u00a0That mythical connection that trumps everything (and that yet they still can’t truly define). \u00a0Oh no, they will\u00a0declare, this job couldn\u2019t be done the same way remotely. To build a team, to build the relationships? To have a connection?<\/p>\n

But\u00a0people will build community if you give them reasons to. \u00a0Things to care about, things to be passionate about – that\u2019s what drives community. \u00a0We wouldn\u2019t have the internet we have today if people at a distance from each other sharing interests hadn’t created true engagement. \u00a0Odds are, if you sit back and actually figure out what ‘connection’ you are truly worried about, you will either realize that the fear doesn’t have any grounding (is just the myth), or be able to properly define a true concern and come up with a workaround.<\/p>\n

Is it easier to have everyone in a room, to be able to hand out cookies without thought and clap someone on the back physically? Yes, because it\u2019s the default, fallback behaviour that we\u2019re used to. \u00a0I won\u2019t deny that and think companies that work on incredibly supportive workplaces and engaging workspaces are doing great work.<\/p>\n

But forgoing opportunity and possibilities\u00a0in this day and age where the tools to do virtual collaboration and work at a distance are so strong, just because of your belief in the myth that distance = disengagement is doing yourself, and the people who could<\/strong><\/em> be your staff, a disservice.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Telecommuting\/working remotely is one of those old yet new things. I\u2019ve worked remotely for years doing freelancing, and on top of that I\u2019ve been working with remote staff – both managing & just working with – for over 5 years now (I’m lucky enough that I have an employer\u00a0that chooses people over location).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[18,17],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/telecommute-1.png","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p86peW-1k","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/96"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialnerdism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}