It’s 8:15pm and having cleared away dinner I’m sitting down to watch a movie and enjoy my well earned time off… well that’s what I thought until once again I give in to temptation and check the emails on my iPhone. Three minutes later I’m on a call to a client in China who’s having issues with one of our products with another two emails to be replied to when I finish with the call… Some might think this is not normal behaviour, but for many this is becoming just another average Tuesday night.
But while more and more people are complaining about not having privacy (Sharwood 2012) or stringent working hours, a select group are instead discovering a new kind of freedom not previously possible without the extended connectivity mobile devices and social media networks are offering them.
Welcome to the world of the remote worker…
Mobile Devices + Undefined Working Hours = Remote Workers
With easy access to the internet and social websites through phones, tablets and laptops the remote worker is able to keep in touch with employers, co-workers and clients from anywhere. Whether this means being able to stay at home with their children, travel the world while working or living in a cheap economy while working in a richer one these workers are trading defined working hours for freedom of location. Something that would not have been possible without the immediate connections these mobile devices allow us to have through social media.
With work responsibilities becoming more and more fragmented a recent survey showed 54% of business owners believe the majority of their workforce will be working online by 2017 (Orsini 2012). Which means mobile devices are only going to become more important and integral to daily tasks.
But one major issue companies currently have with remote employees is the difficulty in managing an employee you rarely see (Ewbank 2009). To work around this issue we may see in the near future a shift towards more video style conferencing in mobile devices. With iPhones facetime feature now working with a WiFi connection (Apple 2012) meetings can be held face-to-face (though still through a screen) on a regular basis, and other devices are quickly following suit with their own conferencing applications.
Is It Time To Change?
Whether you already have the ability to work remotely or are currently sitting in an office booth it may be time to re-evaluate the way in which you communicate with clients. For me that means being available in the evening to work through problems with overseas clients, but on the other hand I’m now able to watch my nephews karate class on a weekday morning. With mobile devices continually becoming more evasive in our lives you too may soon be in the position where your working hours become more diverse and unattached to an office environment.
Now grab your phone, kick back on the couch and go check those emails…
Ewbank, K 2009, ‘Remote Working’, SoftwareKnowHow.info, 2 January, viewed 2 December 2012, <http://www.softwareknowhow.info/Buyers-Guide/Remote-working/103>.
iOS: Using Facetime, Apple, viewed 2 December 2012, <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4319>.
Orsini, P 2012, ‘The Great Shrinking Office? More Companies Hire Remote Workers: Survey’, CNBC, 14 June, viewed 2 December 2012, <http://www.cnbc.com/id/47815587/The_Great_Shrinking_Office_More_Companies_Hire_Remote_Workers_Survey>.
Sharwood, A 2012, ’10 Ways Smartphones Are Destroying Our Lives’, News.com.au, 19 November, viewed 2 December 2012, <http://www.news.com.au/technology/smartphones/ways-smartphones-are-destroying-our-lives/story-fn6vihic-1226519813913>.
Love the point you make about working hours becoming more diverse and unattached to an office environment - something I can relate with! I find Smartphones make it difficult to be able to separate work from just your normal down time as like you said; it's so easy to just check an email. This definitely does make it harder to switch off.
ReplyDeleteYeh, it's nearly become natural to move between Angry Birds (or equivalent) and email continuously.
DeleteA great little article there Matt.
ReplyDeleteI like that you have directed this at the remote worker- I may find some of these thoughts helpful myself.
Personally, I hope technology doesn't get too extreme too fast! I am content with a decent laptop and a smartphone. I have to see the necessity in these devices before purchasing what's 'the latest'. For me, I find that multiple devices and too much mobility can sometimes have a negative impact on things like efficiency and organisation.
Hey, glad you liked it.
DeleteI agree about technology, but one thing I have seen with remote workers and organisation is they tend to have a stricter routine than other non-remote professionals. The advantage being though, they get to pick the best time for them to do certain things. For example if they know they work best early in the morning, work hours may be from 7am-1pm followed by... well whatever it is these people get up to.
I can definitely relate to 'remote worker'. When did my work day end and my home life start - the line was very blurred and I seemed to be spending more and more hometime on work issues all through my digital devices. Thankfully I have now set boundaries where my mobile is set to silent and I can be blissfully unaware of those things.
ReplyDelete