The Remote Work Formula: Flexibility, Autonomy, and Team Responsibility

A simple way to think about remote work that balances individual flexibility with responsibility to the group.

“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.”

A team member we’d hired six months earlier posted this in our Teams chat. He informed us of his plans without asking permission.

I was pleased that he could make the arrangement himself and knew to keep the team informed.

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:

1. We don’t care where you work
2. Make sure the team knows when you’re working and be available when you need to work together on something
3. 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

Our core network team designed and implemented the firm’s global network and keeps it online. Failures are rare, but require a quick response.

The core team works closely and has little turnover; its newest member has been with us almost ten years. Team members take the network’s operation personally and developed a protocol for coordinating on short notice.

Team members give one another weeks of notice before becoming unreachable by phone. No more than one person is offline 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.

After six months, the new team member was applying those principles when he announced his schedule.

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.

The article addresses employee interests. I agree that flexibility and autonomy are critical for employees to choose their ideal way of working. It leaves out what is good for the team.

Real-time collaboration requires team members to know when others are working. Individual autonomy needs that consideration for the group.

The Formula

Individual Flexibility and Autonomy + Group Consideration = Team Success

The arrangement is working for us.