2022 Highlight Show

The pandemic ushered in a new era of remote work. And there was a huge disparity between how different companies adapted to the change. In this episode, Rob and Topher dive into their experiences with all types of in person hybrid and remote office settings. they discuss the best settings for managing remote teams, how the sudden shift to remote work has affect how we live, and if we should push for an all-remote future.

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Monet Davenport:

The pandemic ushered in a new era of remote work. And there was a huge disparity between how different companies adapted to the change. In this episode, Rob and Topher dive into their experiences with all types of in person hybrid and remote office settings. they discuss the best settings for managing remote teams, how the sudden shift to remote work has affect how we live, and if we should push for an all-remote future.

Topher DeRosia: Hey, Rob.

Rob Howard: Hey, Topher. How’s it going?

Topher DeRosia: It’s going great. Today we’re going to talk about the future of remote work, and I have some really good questions for you to kick it right off with.

Rob Howard: Excellent. We have been doing remote work for a long time, so hopefully I’ll have some good answers for you.

Topher DeRosia: Yeah, let me ask you that. I’ve been doing it for 12 years now, almost 13. How long have you been remote?

Rob Howard: So I started freelancing from a home office in 2005, so it’s been a long time. It’s been basically my whole career. I had very few office type jobs early on, so I’ve always by nature enjoyed the home office life, and I’ve even had chances to do the big office thing and chosen not to over the years with different business partnerships and stuff like that. I’ve always liked it, and of course, the world changed very rapidly a couple years ago and work from home became a thing that everybody was doing, whether they were experienced or not, or whether they liked it or not.

Topher DeRosia: Yeah. I did about 13 years at a desk in an office at some point in my career.

Rob Howard: Nice.

Topher DeRosia: So we all know COVID pushed many into remote work abruptly, and many people individually are finding it to be a better work style. They’re like, “This is better than me at the office.” But I know some corporations are saying now we need to get everybody, get everybody back in the office. What would make a company choose that? Why would they choose not to keep their people remote if they already are because of COVID?

Rob Howard: So I think there are some benefits obviously, to the company, and I think there are some drawbacks, especially if you are just not used to managing people who are not physically in front of you. So I think that’s the majority of where CEOs and other leaders are saying, “Hey, I don’t feel like we’re as productive. We got to get back to in-person.” I think what they’re saying in large part is, “I can’t tell what you’re doing and it’s harder to manage this group of people because we’re not in the same room together.”

For me, I’ve always been operating and working that way, so it wasn’t really a change. I can get in their heads and be like, “Yeah, that would be hard.” But that was not a change for us, so in a way, the companies who were already remote actually ended up being light years ahead in terms of their management skills because there is a very different management style and set of behaviors and mindsets that you need to manage people who are not in the same room or even in the same city as you.

And then of course, we have companies that manage remote workers who are all over the world in Asia and South America, and Europe and North America. So there’s a lot of different skills and techniques for that.

I think the first people I heard saying it were the JP Morgan, Wall Street folks who were like, “We got to get back into the office and crush it with our investment banking work, and that has to be done in person.”

It reminds me of the movies where everybody is in a room and they’re screaming on their phones and they’re selling stocks, and...