The Remote Work Formula
Individual flexibility and autonomy matter. But so does group consideration. The formula isn't complicated.
This essay may be revised as my thinking develops. The version here is authoritative.
“Hey guys, just so you know, I’ll be +7 hours from Pacific time for the next six weeks or so. I’ll mostly be working in Pacific time but some days I’ll be cutting out early. I’ll make sure you know when that is.”
This was posted in our Teams chat by a team member we’d hired six months earlier. He didn’t ask. He told us.
That’s what success looks like for me.
Remote Work Isn’t New Here
Our IT team has been effectively remote for over ten years. I first moved three hours away from the office in 2004. One key member of the team moved a ferry ride away in 2008 and spent six months in Europe with his family a few years ago. Remote work wasn’t so much a “transition” as an obvious extension of how we’ve always operated. We’re a global group with team members scattered across continents.
In 2021, we started a new team focused on delivery to our firm’s clients. It was always intended as a remote workforce, COVID notwithstanding. We wanted to be able to hire talent in any location, so one team member ended up in Taiwan while a new employee was in Calgary.
When we brought people on remotely, I emphasized three things:
- We don’t care where you work
- Make sure the team knows when you’re working and be available when you need to work together on something
- When you’re working, make sure you can work—if you don’t have good Internet, you’re on vacation
Where These Principles Came From
These principles arose naturally from how we’ve operated for many years. Our core network team is the backbone of the firm’s global network. We designed it, we implemented it, and we make sure it’s online. Things rarely go wrong, but when they do, we need to act quickly.
The core team has always maintained extremely close working relationships and we have very low turnover. The “new guy” in the core IT group has been with us for almost ten years. Like a lot of high-functioning IT teams, they take the proper function of “our” network personally. So they’ve evolved a protocol to ensure they can act in concert on short notice.
It’s simple really: when any member of that core IT group will not be reachable on the phone, the others know about it weeks in advance. And no more than one offline resource at a time.
That has resulted in 24/7/365 coverage for fifteen years. They even tell each other when they’ll be unable to work due to, well, temporary recreational disability.
I didn’t ask them to do that. I didn’t even know about it for a long time. I know how fortunate I am to have this group.
From Protocol to Principles
Those demonstrably effective collaboration methods have become the model for our new client-focused team’s principles: Make sure you can work. Be able to work together when you need to.
When the new team member, after only six months, announced his schedule—didn’t ask, told us—that was success.
An October 2021 article in the Harvard Business Review ("Forget Flexibility. Your Employees Want Autonomy") describes a hierarchy of common work arrangements, including a variety of options related to flexibility and autonomy.
That article talks about what is good for the employee—and I agree that both flexibility and autonomy are critical for the employee to choose their ideal way of working. But it leaves out what is good for the team.
Sometimes the team needs real-time collaboration. That means knowing when the others are working is also critical. That’s being considerate.
The Formula
Individual Flexibility and Autonomy + Group Consideration = Team Success
It’s not a complex formula but it’s working.