The era of self-organization: how remote work has affected people’s lives

Many of us have had to telecommute due to the pandemic. The Consciousness of Change project tried to figure out what people had to face when working from home and what discoveries they made along the way.

“Udalenka” may become the word of 2020 in our country (along with “self-isolation”). In a phenomenally short time, it has turned from an obscure term into reality, and for a significant part of those employed in the labor market, our country has become the only opportunity to continue working.

Before the real encounter with “remote work”, people had mostly vague and stereotypical ideas about this form of employment. Many did not even think about the possibility of such work: the remote mode seemed impossible in their line of work. In the spring of 2020, about a third of the entire working population of our country, and these are tens of millions of people, received their first experience of working remotely.

In the process of adapting to the regime, a completely new reality opened up to people, which turned out to be much deeper and more contradictory than it seemed to them before.

People have fallen out of the well-oiled office system that structured their working day. In the new conditions, it has become more difficult to build a balance between work and leisure and maintain efficiency – now much depends on the discipline of a person, his ability to self-organize.

For those whose self-organization was already at a high level, remote work has become a source of additional time and new opportunities, namely:

• shift work tasks to a convenient time of the day and develop your own regimen;
• pay more attention to household and personal affairs: get enough sleep, cook breakfast, clean the apartment, read, play with children, etc.

But for many, the transition to remote work has caused “exacerbation” of procrastination and decreased productivity.

Not everyone manages to competently manage their time, especially now, when the usual mechanisms that regulate work and rest have ceased to operate.

1. The usual morning rituals have become simpler or completely disappeared.

They helped me to tune in to work, to “turn on” (fees, the way to the office). It became much easier to start work, but it turned out to be many times more difficult to switch to the “working” mode.

2. Breaks during the day have also changed.

At home, they began to pass and be perceived differently.

• There are fewer breaks – in the flow of tasks, many simply forget to look away from the monitor.
• Gone are the usual work breaks: for lunch, for coffee with colleagues. There is no longer a need to leave the workplace for a smoke break or a meal.

• In the office, even during breaks, people remained inside the working environment. At home, free time during the day is often devoted to household chores or personal matters, and instead of a temporary “reboot”, there is often a complete switch to other things, after which it can be difficult to return to work.

3. Finally, the absence of a formal end of the working day and rituals associated with it (turning off the computer, saying goodbye to colleagues, leaving the office) leads to the fact that switching from work mode can be as difficult as entering it in the morning.

The working day is often delayed, many can repeatedly return to work issues during the evening.

People have fallen out of their familiar environment and found that the home space, unlike the office space, is not set up for work either functionally or emotionally, in any way. Now you have to build processes and the corresponding atmosphere on your own.

In the basic perception, the house is a stronghold of reliability, tranquility and comfort. A place where you can hide from the worries and anxieties of the outside world, including from work. But in the new reality, these worlds are forced to coexist in the same space.

Representatives of the “home world” (relatives, pets) can suddenly invade the “working world”, where their appearance is unexpected, unusual and completely unsettling.

Home space was not ready for the invasion of the “working world”.

Many employees simply did not have a comfortable area for work, and people have to go to tricks, using any horizontal surface: kitchen table, coffee table, dressing table. Such spontaneous workplaces are not designed for long-term use: an uncomfortable chair, a small work surface, poor lighting – all this causes physical discomfort.

Sometimes the necessary equipment is missing: printer, scanner, landline phone.

Few people during the remote work mode specifically bought something to equip their workplace – there is either no desire to invest in a purchase (since everything is perceived as a temporary measure), or an opportunity (I would like to buy an office chair, but there is no place for it in the apartment) .

Also, the lack of secluded space causes discomfort, especially in small apartments. The need for silence and solitude becomes much higher than in the office – contact with the “home world” and its inhabitants distracts from the work process much more than contact with colleagues representing the “working world”.

There is a conflict of roles, in which the role of “worker” is often defeated.

Roommates and loved ones now see a person not only in the usual domestic role, but also in a new role – an employee, and it is often difficult for them to accept and adapt to it.

The physical presence of a loved one at home leads to the fact that the usual domestic role is nevertheless perceived as the main one and gradually begins to displace the role of the worker in the minds of the household.

An employee working remotely lacks ease of communication in work matters.

• Some of them are more familiar and faster to solve in a personal conversation, when there is an opportunity to additionally show something on the screen or in a printed document. Many have not yet adapted to daily communication in the format of written messages or phone calls as the main way of working communication.
• When you try to contact a colleague virtually, doubts often arise: is he free, can he devote his time right now.

• In a number of areas, the lack of live interaction with clients or audiences has affected the responsibilities of people: their circle has narrowed, and their character has changed.

• Work becomes more complicated, which directly depends on direct contact with customers: it is more difficult to establish emotional contact and build trust over video calls or by phone.

There is a lack of lively response and emotional support from colleagues.

Communication in the office is a familiar part of the work routine, which diversifies everyday life and enlivens them. Moreover, for lonely people, the team often makes up a significant part of the social circle and serves as a key source of emotional support. Presence in the office allows you to share doubts and worries, throw out emotions associated with working moments, and receive live support and feedback.

But being outside the office provides a valuable opportunity to regulate the flow of incoming information in return.

The number of distractions is reduced – there is no need to maintain “empty” conversations, there are fewer requests and questions from colleagues, and it becomes possible to answer them in a more comfortable mode. Some of the irritants are eliminated – for example, it is not necessary to contact unpleasant people every day (if there were any in the team). Formalities are filtered, hence part of the time is freed up, which was previously occupied by numerous meetings that did not require your active participation (now at the video conferences that replaced them, you can simultaneously do other tasks by turning off the video and microphone).

When moving to a remote mode, many companies have not been able to organize an adequate system of access to individual programs and data, which has complicated workflows and increased the amount of time to perform previously simple tasks.

Increased control over the activities of employees has led to the emergence of new and sometimes very bizarre mechanisms: from additional reporting documentation and an increase in the number of meetings to the need to constantly be online and counting the number of mouse clicks.

All this leads to an increase in the level of stress and fatigue of people from work.

Nevertheless, remote work was able to set in motion new mechanisms, “shatter” the usual foundations of organizations:

• in many companies, the remote mode has become a trigger for long-awaited changes that were previously postponed, for the modernization of work processes: for example, the introduction of a digital signature;
• some owners or managers have become more involved in work processes, as their concern for the business and their workplace has increased;
• the fear of losing a job contributed to the inclusion of a “self-preservation mode” not only among managers, but also among employees (especially if part of their duties in the remote mode was abolished), which led to an increase in working zeal and independent improvement of work processes.

According to quantitative data, despite the difficulties, people are generally satisfied with the experience, only 16% of those surveyed were disappointed with remote work:

For many, this period has become not just an experience, but a very real goal in further development. Only half of those surveyed at the second, quantitative stage of our study want to return to their usual working mode.

The mass transition to remote work that happened to us this year can be called a controversial, but still beneficial experience, both for each person individually and for the business as a whole. It remains only to observe what will come of this: someone will prefer to return to their usual office life, and someone will defend their right to “remote work”.

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