Some of the biggest criticism of the remote work movement is that people aren’t actually doing work. There are several flavors of this: working in your pajamas, not doing real work, or, the most sinister, that the company culture will suffer. This fails closer inspection immediately.
All of these are a euphamisms for “I can’t see you working so work isn’t happening”. Unfortunately, this is a common fallacy, particularly for managers that need a sense of control. This position reveals a major failure of management—lack of trust.
Tell me you micro manage your employees without telling me you micro manage your employees.
All working arrangements require trust regardless of whether it is in-person or not. Remote work exacerbates this problem and forces managers to confront their parochial errors about how work actually happens and how to measure progress. Remote teams need to be more deliberate about everything, not the least of which because managers can’t rely on surveillance.
Links to this note
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A global survey that attempts to measure the extent to which people trust or distrust institutions in their country and in other countries.
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Businesses Are More Trusted Than Government
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, people trust businesses more than they trust government, media, and NGOs. In the US, there is a 13 point gap between businesses and government.
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Remote Work and the Principal-Agent Problem
Does remote work make the principal-agent problem worse? If so, why?