Krug: Working Remotely, Not a One-Size-Fits-All Deal

Technology provides the freedom to perform an infinite number of tasks remotely. To wit: I may be writing this column at 33,000 feet above Cleveland (a safe distance, for certain), at the glass table on my patio with cigar burning nearby or – of all the crazy places – at the desk in my office high above the snooty River North section of Chicago. Upon completion of the work, the reader likely never would know the difference. And what I had to say hardly would be influenced by my surroundings. (Unless, of course, I was sitting in first class with the option of all-you-can-sip Dewar’s.) But not all tasks are the same, and most should not be completed in absolute isolation. In fact, much of what we do in our workplace connects our people and is the product of teamwork. We learn from each other. Less experienced associates develop from seeing more experienced workers’ approach to their tasks. Nonetheless, not a day passes in our workplaces when a request to perform work remotely is brought forward. For some, it’s a plea to spend part of a day outside the office to accommodate a doctor’s appointment or to participate in a special event with their child that they’d likely miss if they had to perform their daily commute home from the office. For others, working remotely is part of an all-out ultimatum to perform their entire job from home. And, often, these requests come with a ransom note – that if the company can’t find its way to let them work from home, they’ll have to find another situation. The motivation for that knows no bounds. And, of course, there is a middle ground. Lives change, and we risk losing key associates whose circumstances dictate that they spend more time at home.

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As an entrepreneur that is trying to build a business, you want to surround yourself with talented and qualified people. Fact is, people like that typically have a few worthwhile things going on in their lives. They are multi-dimensional talents with families and interests and obligations that pull them away from the office at inopportune moments every so often. They are people who have (or strive to have) work-life balance. And to be successful, you need these talented folks to be with you for the long haul.

But how exactly do you make the call on who can work from home and who cannot? If there is a more challenging question for today’s workplace, I’m not sure what it might be. Whether you have four employees or 40,000, be ready for the question. If it hasn’t been asked yet, it’s not far off in the distance. When Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer recalled all of her company’s remote workers earlier this year, some viewed her as a tyrant and others as a morale killer. But she was responding to the dysfunction of her company, which had suffered from a lack of continuity and teamwork. Too many people in the company had been working on their own things and in their own worlds and that was hurting Yahoo. Mayer needed to rebuild that company by restoring some continuity to the work environment. Yahoo Chief Development Officer Jackie Reses, as part of the memo breaking the news about the Mayer’s policy on working remotely, wrote: “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.”

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Yahoo had to fix what had been broken. So the recall of its workforce seemed drastic. Most business leaders aren’t facing an all-out recall of their workforce.

For them, it might seem simple to create a standard policy with regard to working remotely, and to slip a few lines about it into our policy manuals. But policies rarely stand the test of a growing company. It’s far better to have a practice that is created in real time.

And by that, I mean exactly what you think I mean: Make these decisions on a case-by-case basis – predicated on the merits of the individuals. Some workers are mature enough to work from home. They have proven over time that they are committed to the cause and have the wherewithal to be trusted to complete tasks in real time while wearing their fuzzy slippers. You can be somewhat confident that they are not working on their projects with one eye on their laptop and the other on Rachel Ray. And with these folks, the thought should be that working from home is a temporary measure – perhaps for a predetermined period of time so that they can properly balance their home and life responsibilities. These deals need not be forever, and should include a regular number of days in the office as a means of ensuring that they are connected to the office dynamic. And anyone who holds you hostage to a decision about working from home in an or-else scenario, well, you don’t need them – even if you think you might need them. The greatest challenge of building an organization that scales in attracting and keeping talented people and ensuring that they remain engaged in your company’s journey. You know who your best performers are. You know who are the most deeply committed, and the most sincerely talented. Some of them may need a mulligan every so often. Most of them won’t. To some, that may seem like you are playing favorites. Welcome to life as a grown up. Fact is, you are. Your favorites are the ones who make your business grow. And great leaders find creative ways to keep their best and brightest in the fold for as long as possible. Might that not sit well with everyone in the office? That shouldn't matter – at least not to you. Consider this: If all workers were created equal, you wouldn't need a workplace policy manual in the first place. Stay classy. Chris Krug is president of the progressive media communications firm No Limit Agency* in Chicago. No Limit is a full-service agency whose practice focuses on strategy, brand management, creative campaigns and delivering unparalleled placement in the media. No Limit Agency works with some of the best-known brands in the United States, and that’s not a coincidence. Contact Krug by calling 312-526-3996 or via email at [email protected].