Here’s to the Women Who Pioneered Today’s Remote-Working Model
The COVID-19 pandemic has done much to change the way many of us conduct our daily lives. Wary of situations that force close personal proximity, many of us have chosen to use services like Instacart for grocery home delivery or favor restaurant take-out or delivery services, like GrubHub and Uber Eats when we don’t feel like cooking. We also stream our movies instead of going to theaters, and have made Amazon, not the local mall, our preferred retail destination.
For many professionals, telecommuting, otherwise known as “working from home”, has also become standard operating procedure. Those for whom direct, person-to-person interaction is not an operational necessity have discovered the joys—and challenges—of Zoom meetings. (This list spans attorneys, accountants, architects, designers, consultants, and virtually anyone in the technology and creative fields.) On the plus side: it’s easier to attend a networking meeting virtually. The downside? Zoom fatigue, anyone?
According to many business observers, this model of working from home may be one of those COVID-triggered societal changes that becomes permanent. Too many people have discovered the time and money saved by eliminating physical commutes. They’ve also recognized the benefits of avoiding daily roundtrips on crowded freeways or public transportation systems more than outweigh the presumed “benefits” of crowding workers into workspaces. It’s also forced many to examine just how much time they were spending on planes and in airports, away from those they love. (And companies have enjoyed no longer having to rent expensive office space.)
But guess what? Working from home whilst juggling domestic responsibilities is nothing new for many of the women who now constitute more than 57 percent of the American workforce. Many females in business have been using the remote model for years. Tasked with tending to infants and children too young to attend school, they had no other choice but to find a way to stay home and earn an income. And even when children are old enough to spend most of the day in the classroom, when they’re sick, it’s typically been the mothers who were expected to stay home and tend to them.
So now that it’s been socially acceptable—heck, downright patriotic!—to work from home, our brothers-in-business are finally experiencing what many women have been doing for decades. They’re learning the trick of designating a formal home “workspace” and trying to stay focused while kids, pets, leaking faucets, weed-choked gardens, empty refrigerators, doctors’ appointments, after-school sports, and noisy neighbors all clamor for your attention. They’re also learning how to compartmentalize their day and their brains to switch quickly back and forth between professional and parental roles.
Fortunately, because we’re all in the same boat now, many in corporate America are becoming more attuned to the dual roles females have played for years to be successful in both their personal and professional lives. (And I suspect this shift in the work culture will endure even after COVID-19 is well into our rear mirror.) A blessing in disguise, this new mentality is bound to breed greater compassion, fantastic boons to companies everywhere.
As a result, a realignment of business expectations is likely to include:
A greater focus on task or project results rather than adherence to a strict eight-to-five, five-day-a-week work schedule (while hourly employees still need to adhere to assigned work hours and overtime considerations).
Conversely, with strict eight-to-five working hours no longer in force for exempt employees, look for work activities and professional availability to slip well into evening and weekend hours.
The shared understanding there will be times that employees simply will not be available to conference in due to domestic demands.
An ongoing need to provide emotional support for workers, both male and female, who occasionally become “overwhelmed” by the crush of tasks for which they are responsible.
Full Disclosure: I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge my own related experiences to this topic. I’ve had a home office since I started my consulting business over 25 years ago. Yes, I’ve also done the dance with respect to work, kids, and trying to establish “space” between them. Possessing direct experience with the “brave new world” in which we all now find ourselves in, I have a wealth of insights I am eager to share with my fellow professionals, beginning with the need to emphasize the importance of all individuals in the workforce.
As the saying (continues to go) people are a company’s most important asset. Those organizations who prioritize a people-first mentality will continue to be more productive and maintain their position as employers of choice. A longtime proponent of this belief, I was recently interviewed on just this subject for Forbes. If you would like to learn more about how to keep your organization’s culture strong and attractive to top talent, please reach out to me at laura@conoverconsulting.com.
Like you, I’ll be right here at home to get your message.