Please, I’m just genuinely curious.
But I’ll like to help anyone wanting to answer by categorizing the reasons into like 4: You can choose any, or come up with your own reasons.
- You believe remote work is just a trend, and will die soon
- You think it’s just a bubble waiting to burst
- You think remote work will never be successful
- You believe remote work is still in its infancy/ (it’s early) and you don’t want to jump on the train just yet
- You’re just uncertain about the whole remote work thing
I’m thinking of using your reasons to work on a bigger content (ebook) for my long piece here.
People play in the margins. Working remotely, there’s less environmental feedback for self awareness.
Focused work that could have taken the day without distractions takes weeks. Small talk in remote conference calls explodes. People make very different decisions about what to act on when they can be pulled into a “burning” need with very little context from a chat thread or invisible threat.
As an employer it’s quite baffling to watch. Suddenly it’s as if leadership have “no idea what we do” and only people in the trenches “truly know”. But when you get fed up after weeks, and bring them into an in-person workshop it gets done that day. All without anyone acknowledging that maybe they weren’t on focus or on scope, but instead continuing to claim there is so much that needs attending to.
In an office setting, there’s an immediate feedback loop. If you’re over indulging in small talk or playing in too many conversations, there’s social proof. Few people want to be known as a busy body or a slacker. But remotely those same people become the self-appointed town hero by being an octopus on roller skates - A lot going on but no-ones getting anywhere soon.
With all the good people flustering, finding those who are genuinely exploiting the situation beyond that is even harder again. You have your suspicions by day 10, but there’s so much room to play in the margins that it takes 6-9 months to pin it down.