Most everyone today has read or heard about Yahoo reversing a trend seen across the country: specifically now requiring its entire staff to work in the office and cancelling any remote office arrangement. There have been many thoughts expressed as to what caused this from more effective collaboration of teams to a ploy to trim the ranks by gambling some staff just wouldn’t be able or willing to make that change in lifestyle.
With more than 10% of working Americans enjoying some aspect of remote office work it seems a pretty bold move to buck the trend that has gained its popularity among working parents—especially single working parents. What does that say to those parents that have lower salaries and single parents with other restraints? Does this mean we slide back to an era where this was never an issue because of course, both parents weren’t working out of the home as much and certainly, the technology wasn’t available to support remote capabilities…
Without answering that question, I will ask another: What does this shift in remote office philosophy mean for AMC’s? Actually, successful AMC’s have been pretty much into the flexible remote schedule forever. When you think about it—without the ability to work remotely we could not take care of our clients as well as we do. Yes, that remote location is usually from a hotel room but is that really any different from a staff person’s home? Our Executive Directors typically manage two or even three clients and travel is a normal part of the business. So being able to work from remote locations is critical.
Of course the most critical aspect of this remote success is communication. How well does the team communicate will ultimately drive the success of the client. In fact, I have one Executive Director that lives more than 1,000 miles away from our headquarters office and her teams are some of the most coordinated and successful that we have. Conversely, I have had a team sitting in the same work area that wasn’t nearly as successful because they couldn’t communicate well which led to more dysfunction than any empty parking spot…
Regardless of distance and location, remote office capability is essential to the success of our business. It is good for our clients, it is good for our staff, and it is aligned with our family orientated mission. Next blog I will take on the tricky topic of dress code for the remote worker…Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
