A PERSPECTIVE ON REMOTE WORK
OVERVIEW
Workforces are evolving in response to global dynamics and organizational realignment with worker cultural shifts. The yesterday memes of Remote and On-Site are inadequate descriptors at best. Explore my vision of how the concept of work is morphing into an entirely new dynamic.

BACKGROUND
When I reflect on my work experiences, the developer in me likes to deconstruct and examine the individual components that define work. This practice of reducing work to its basic components helps me to better understand the nature of work. For example, consider some of the ways we collectively tend to define work. In physics, work is quantified with the formula:

Where:

• W = work done
• F = magnitude of the force applied
• d = magnitude of the displacement in the direction of the force
• θ = angle between the force and displacement

Surprisingly, this physics work (W) formula can correlate well with many of our daily work activities. Let me show you these two examples of how this formula applies to me IRL.

Amid the COVID pandemic, I was tasked with building a data app for comparing COVID vaccination rates with per-capita income for selected countries in South America (See the adjacent interactive Chart.). To accomplish this work, I first created a code template as a container for my app code. I then applied three different magnitudes of experiential force (F_e) to my app code container from three separate code repository 'angles' (θ_c):

• database force (F_e1) — angle (θ_c1)
• javascript force (F_e2) — angle (θ_c2)
• HTML code force (F_e3) — angle (θ_c3)

Combined, each of these different forces (F_e) acting from distinct repositories 'angles' (θ_c) contributed to the transformational displacement (d_t) of my code from a formless code template into a functional app. The work (W) I performed for this task was completely independent of time zone or location. Much of the work occurred in multiple locations, once even onboard a trans-Atlantic flight, as I built this app on my SurfacePro notebook. I call this my work hybrid (W_Hy) dynamic.

For my second work example, I was once again tasked with another work project; this time painting the exterior of my house. And before you ask, the answer is yes. My life is primarily a never-ending series of all sorts of tasks, rarely of my choosing, yet frequently of my doing. Anyhow, the work formula (W) for my house-painting chore well fits the physics work definition. The force (F) applied to my paint-soaked brush at the variable angle θ (where brush meets house) results in the frictional spreading (d) of liquid paint across the house surface.

The apparent difference in my work examples should be obvious. My app work is decoupled from any location or time zone. With few exceptions, app work can occur anywhere at any time. In contrast, my house painting is tightly coupled with location and time zone. My painting work cannot commence until I am physically on the premises (on-prem) and all conditions are met (temperature, equipment, weather, light, etc.). The work stops upon unmet conditions or upon my departure from the premises. I like to call this my on-prem (W_Op) dynamic.

My two real-life work experience stories occupy different positions on the work spectrum. And just as a spectrum represents a continuous gradation from one value to another, I like to consider work in similar gradational terms. Sometimes the work tasks may be in the vicinity of the on-prem portion of the spectrum. Other times the work tasks may be in the vicinity of the hybrid portion of the spectrum. There are even times when on-prem is not a specific brick-and-mortar office but rather a random, even temporary, co-location where on-prem work tasks can commence. In my industry, this is happening more routinely, where colleagues can collaborate in the same physical space (brick-and-mortar or not) for a finite (generally short) block of time. This gradational view of the workforce is still new for most organizations. The current paradigm is to categorize workers as either remote or in-office; hence the current RTO (return to office) trend. Sometimes I chuckle at this RTO notion. My office is literally in my hands, "not only am I at the office, I am the office," I often proclaim to my colleagues.

Why is this important, and is it even relevant to talk about this at all? Well, let me try to answer. First, I tend to observe push-back more frequently from the C-suite in terms of "The corporate goals and bottom line govern our decisions first and foremost, not necessarily the convenience of remote work for our employees" I generally like to reply, "I hear you. Do these goals and employee working environments need to be binary decisions? Can there be solutions that benefit the corporate goals and workforce?" Given my experience as a worker — a business owner —a leader (I like to think), to obtain the best work product possible, we have to "value people where they are." Some will be hybrid, some will be on-prem, and some will be at various gradations on the work spectrum. Above all, I constantly remind myself that work in its basic form is merely a time lease agreement for compensation. Consider that the time lease is an immutable constant, and that compensation is highly variable. It is the shared interest of both workers and organizations to maximize the value of the time lease agreement. Do I value time spent commuting or unnecessary idle 'filler' time in a communal office setting, or do I value a highly-focused collaborative workforce? Does an underperforming employee become better in an office setting or is performance more nuanced? Can I leverage software to help mentor, improve, and track underperforming human assets? Personally, I have had some of my best moments in solitary environments where my thought processes were unincumbered as well as some of my best moments huddled together with teams of developers, designers, and marketers in noisy offices. Occasionally, spending time with a customer and performing the routine tasks a customer performs can be more valuable than any office experience. As a business, it's critical to understand, target, and implement these dynamics to support and retain viable workforces and remain relevant, productive, and profitable. It's not so much a corporate choice of Remote or On-prem but rather a decision of how well your business will move forward implementing and adjusting to this evolving paradigm.

My adherence to this work dynamic stems from a career as a business owner and a developer managing people and living this type of work balance. Read below to learn about one of my real-world hybrid work experiences.

STORY
In the early 2000s, I served as a project leader and chief developer for a sizeable federally-sponsored web portal. This portal was a collaboration among U.S. federal agencies, state and local governments, and non-profit organizations. For more than a year, I worked tirelessly to bring the project vision to reality. And now that it was a success, my long-awaited planned month of vacation was about to start.

The day before I was scheduled to board my flight to start my vacation, my federal government project manager delivered some late-breaking news. Our project had appeared on the radar of a White House special projects team, and they now wanted to merge their own initiative together with our portal. They also invited lead project team members (including me) to a special White House ceremony where the recently elected then-president would unveil the new collaboration. My federal project manager had the contractual authority to compel me to remain on-site and complete the new initiative. Yet, he understood how important this vacation time was for me. Most notably, he placed genuine trust in me. He asked me, "Keith, how long would it take you to add the new features requested by the White House?" I estimated about 3-4 days of uninterrupted work. My manager agreed that I would be allowed to proceed with my vacation and complete the new features for the collaboration by working remotely. We both breathed that collective breath of shared relief.

Within the hour, I received a call on my mobile. It was an assistant secretary (political appointee) at the federal Department I was contracted with; my project managers boss several levels up the hierarchy. I was familiar with this assistant secretary as I had demonstrated numerous software applications to him. He was always very impressed and supportive of my work; however, we rarely conversed outside of scheduled work events. I knew this call was not random. He had been appraised of my "remote work agreement." He said, "Keith, I understand you will be working on this White House initiative on vacation; thank you. And I also understand you are scheduled to be back in Washington three days before the ceremony. I know you realize how important and visible this is for the Department. By the way, where are you going on vacation?" I replied, "I am completely aware of the importance. I will be on a jungle trek in the northwestern part of Malaysian Borneo." There was a long pause of silence, I could hear him inhale a long slow breath, and then he said, "Sounds exciting. If you are not back in DC at least three days before the event, I am sending a team to retrieve you." Silent pause, then we both chuckled, although his was a chuckle of "don't even think of f'ing this up for me the Department, my team will hunt you down and drop you back in DC". My chuckle was one of "no question he would send the black helicopters and a team to rendition me back to DC, zip-tied wrists, blindfolded and gaged, notebook shrink-wrapped to my body, and a delivery note in big red font 'Target Enclosed' duck taped to the shrink-wrap as I am pushed out of the fast-moving unmarked black van onto the steps of my federal agency HQ." Just to be sure, I glanced at my return ticket to triple-confirm my arrival date back in the US.

After more than 24 hours of connecting flights, finally, my transport van eased into the lush jungle entrance to the Damai Beach Resort, perched on a remote patch of dense rainforest where mountain and beach meet at the South China Sea. My vacation had started.


I set up my remote working environment with a lounge chair and side table next to the jungle-waterfall swimming pool. The gracious Damai Resort staff extended a long network cable from the adjacent pool-patio bar to my lounge chair office for my internet connection; my remote office was complete. As each code block was completed, I transferred the finished block to the project server for testing. Amazingly, the serene tropical environment, warm Malaysian sun, attentive staff, and occasional dip in the waterfall pool made my "work" efforts seem like a vacation. Being in a comfortable environment, with all my necessary tools, allowed for a hyper-focused uninterrupted work effort. My original several-day work estimate was completed in one afternoon plus the following morning. From a remote location in Borneo, I could seamlessly create and easily upload software application components to a secure client-server cluster (now called the cloud) anywhere on the globe. The possibilities of this type of remote work would soon become a key measure of success for my new software company.

At the end of my vacation, I returned to Washington, DC, on schedule and attended the White House ceremony. For more than 20 years, the government portal I created and remotely enhanced is still thriving and serving the public.

SUMMARY
In the following years, my software company built many unique apps leveraging hybrid teams across the globe. My work philosophy has never been about outsourcing; instead, it has always been about finding the best match between people, skills, and needs. We set the example of sustainability, productivity, and balance by using hybrid working environments. For organizations large and small, I see a future where success is determined by how effectively participants navigate the spectrum of hybrid and on-prem work environments. Ever remembering that your workforce is what makes your company thrive is always a key to success.

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