As a remote worker all my life--starting in 1974 -- I've watched the conceptual terms evolve from telework to telecommuting to now Remote Working. For me "remote" work was calling in the highlights of a pro-lacrosse game to media from The Spectrum's press box or from a game on the road. It was compiling the stats on a plane so we had them the next game or working from a hotel room. Telecopiers were how we sent documents back then. Today you call that faxing. Regardless of the term, a telecopier and portable typewriter were how in the 70s we worked remotely.
How times have changed.
Given that, I thought it would be good to provide some perspective around the terms floating around today as nearly everyone is finding some way to be working this way. One of the terms over used is "virtual" which I feel has been misapplied. Remote is a much better term, much like "mobile" is better than "cellular" to describe smartphones.
Over the years my two agencies, COMUNICANO, and now Brand Communication Design, have been Remote Native with a mix of Remote First when we had people working in my house during the day, while I was a often being Road Warrior which is how Working Anywhere came to be.
So here goes:
RemoteWork-this is best described as working away from the "office" or company HQ. It does not apply to a satellite office or another location within an office campus.
Remote Native-are workers who have been working away from the office from the start. Natives are also gig-economy types who work as shared ride drivers, delivery person, field force workers, truck drivers, and often regional sales people who have worked on the road, from hotel rooms, at home and even at client site offices. Route managers for beer and soda companies have been doing this for years, with their only interaction at the warehouse being loading up the truck. Technology has always been a factor, but often it the Natives are more people who can work alone, have great communication skills, are able to motivate themselves and are early adopters. These are the teams that are using a UCaaS provider, Google's GSuite, UberConference, Dialpad, Zoom, Slack, Figma, Dropbox and more.
Remote First-these are companies that have recognized that their company can function with people away from the office or HQ and have created an environment where they now can have staff working away from the office, all or most of the time. They are often companies which have started with staff working from home a day or two a week, and have gone to full week working away from the office. They look for proven technology, and likely deploy more established legacy brands such as Quickbooks vs. XERO, Microsoft vs. Google, WebEx vs. Zoom.
Remote Ready-these are the businesses and organizations that are still "office" or HQ based and know they are going to have to make the jump to remote work. Banks, insurance companies, call centers, pharmacies, any place where a worker punches a clock, has regular shifts, and where technology can support and enable the staff to be working remotely, and still satisfying the needs of the organization and its customers. Often companies in the "ready" category are still operating with on-premise gear, software on a LAN and are not cloud centric. They likely have a big IT department or an outsourced team on speed dial.
Next comes the concept I coined in 2004 or so. Working Anywhere.
In today's era it's good to break down the concept of "Anywhere" into three locations also. They are "Office," "Home" and "Elsewhere." Let's put some simple ground rules around these terms in the "working" concept of today:
Office-this is pretty self explanatory. It's the usual idea of the workplace. Multiple people in the location, and working together, supporting one another. It could be a store-front, in a low to mid rise office park, a retail location, gym, ice rink, hotel, resort, hospital, university. Basically it's a physical location where the people who work there, travel to on a daily or regular basis, and your interactions are in person, may be electronic, but there's regular interaction with others like you inside the workplace. Usually there are set hours of the business, though workers may have flexible start and end times.
Home-here's a simple one. It's working where you live. It could be your house, apartment, dorm (if you never leave to go to class). You have a permanent set up of broadband internet, computer, mobile phone. Often your interactions are based on using software that supports chat, voice, video, file sharing, screen sharing and collaboration. Work hours are more flexible, and its often more about getting things done, though some jobs like customer support, sales support or training are more scheduled for workers.
Elsewhere-this is where digital nomads, people who can work literally from any place fall. They are comfortable in co-working facility like WeWork or Regus (I've had my own Regus card since 2005 or so). The "Elsewhere" crowd are always connected. They work in cafes, hunt out restaurants where you can hold court, know where great internet connectivity is, or in the case of ex-Nokia PR guru Mark Squires, have broadband installed in local pubs so they can work from there. Often they will fly on planes with broadband supplied by ViaSat, GoGo or Panasonic. They know about Boingo and FON, are able to cross borders and still work as easily as some people cross streets. They are usually packing a mobile hotspot of their own and possibly a Google Chromecast to be able to use the hotel's big screen TV as a monitor. Their lives are in the cloud and the can literally accomplish things as well or better from an island or big city, without anyone knowing they've switched locations.
The best workers are those who can morph between these personas...and know how to take a "WorkCation"....but that's a story for another time.
For some visuals that explain this, I prepared a PDF. Download Remote Work
