Remote work, Home office or Telework?
Remote work existed before 2020, but it gained its fame in between lockdowns and zoom calls.
As the months went by, more people are forgetting about the pandemic experience and companies are talking about which next steps they should take.
Should we continue with everyone at home? Maybe we should do 3 days at the office only? Or everything should be the way it was?
Ultimately companies will start using expressions like “remote work” or “hybrid model”.
They weight in pros and cons based on definitions that are not accurate. Also, experiences vary from people to people, therefore one company may work better with one policy than the other.
Don’t get me wrong: these are very important questions, and more importantly, people should know key concepts that are part of the discussion. Before talking about that’s good and what’s bad, they should first distinguish different types of work.
Let’s talk about: remote work, home office, telework and hybrid model.
Remote work is any type of work that can be done at distance
Remote work means any type of work that can be done regardless of location, at a distance. It usually is made through a laptop and a connection to the internet, therefore the work — the value it produces — can be achieved without being in a pre-defined physical location. Any location will do, if you have internet and a laptop.
With this model, there has to be changes to the way we work.
Gonçalo Hall, a specialist in digital nomadism and founder of Remote Portugal, explains that remote work “envolves more asynchronous communication, a bigger necessity of creating documentation to support processes and decision, and a different transparent company structure in measuring productivity and value”.
Remote work is not just about where you work — it is about the processes, mindset, tools and structures used.
Home office
Most people during the pandemic were sent home so they started to say they work from home.
Once they stayed at home, they now say they work “remotely” or they want to switch jobs to “remote-friendly companies”.
It is important to distinguish that remote work doesn’t mean you work from home. If you can work from anywhere, you can work in a coffee shop, in your parents’ beach house, in a Airbnb in Bangkok, in a ski resort, in the kitchen of your best friend.
If you are working for a company and you set your home office as the place where you will work more than 90% of the time, it means you work at your home office. There is a routine, a place you go every single day to do it.
So maybe, when working from home, you are actually teleworking
You probably have been using the wrong expression. What you did during the pandemic was telework.
Telework observes an office space and allows employees to carry out responsibilities from an offsite location. That means “you work at the office but you can also work in another office of the same company, a bookstore, etc”.
A “teleworker” has some in-person office attendance required, or they can actually work at the office from time to time if they desire. Therefore, teleworking means you definitely.
Hybrid model
The hybrid model is, by definition, teleworking. When companies adopt the hybrid model, they are deciding that in some days the people should work in a specific office, where they can take collaborative tasks and meetings; and in some days they can work outside of the office, like home, a coffee shop, as long as they keep connected and online during business hours.
What’s the future for companies?
When deciding what to go for, managers shouldn’t just look into “where” people work. Each model has its own processes, structures and culture. Therefore, concepts should be clarified to promote a better discussion.
TL:DR
- Remote work: can be performed anywhere and should obey to a serious of practises and protocols that promote asynchronous communication, flexible location, documentation to support decisions. You can have a contract with a company and still do remote work or be self-employed.
- Home office: someone who works primarily at their home. They can work for a company or be self-employed. They can work in sync with other people in the same timezone, usually.
- Telework: someone who works in an office and has the flexibility to work in different locations set by the employer, like an office in a different city, your own home, etc
- Hybrid model can be a form of telework, where the companies decides when people should gather in the main office.
- Companies should have in mind these definitions so that a more meaningful dialogue appears about the way we work
