Thoughts On Remote Work -- How Virtuality Leads to the Decline of the Physical Environment

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Article Synopsis by Mr. Chris Kingsley and Co.

The article "Thoughts On Remote Work: How Virtuality Leads to the Decline of the Physical Environment" explores the benefits and implications of remote work in modern society. It emphasizes the advantages of flexibility, autonomy, commuting reduction, mitigation of office politics, and personal reflections.

The article highlights the benefits of remote work, such as increased job satisfaction and productivity, reduced commuting time and costs, and lessened environmental impact. It also highlights the potential for remote work to mitigate office politics, which can be a significant source of stress and distraction in traditional work environments.

In conclusion, the article provides a thoughtful exploration of remote work and its benefits, offering a balanced perspective that includes potential challenges and a wider range of implications. The personal reflections and practical examples make the content relatable and persuasive, encouraging readers to consider the broader potential of remote work in their own lives.  

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Part I: How Private Computers Revolutionized Work

For those able to work by solely using a computer, remote work could arguably be the future of many employees and freelancers. If so, then there will be less of a need to drive to a specific location every day, privately or publicly. And, there will less a need to share a space with other people, just to fulfill a job you can do anywhere as long as your computer has an internet connection.

Remote work is arguably the best way to work because it means that your work hours will be very flexible if you're able to finish your job for the week. Imagine working intensively for a few days in a week, to the point that you are left with no work for the time being. Then, you could do whatever you want until another series of tasks comes your way (or look for those yourself, with no binding contract).

Why work 5-6 days a week when you can condense the work to a smaller number of days and take extra days off? Why not take longer breaks and divide your work time in a way that will bring you more comfort and less potential exhaustion? That way, you might even become more productive!

The Restraints of Real Life

If you're easily bored by being in one place, why not work in one or more cafes while enjoying coffee? During a vacation abroad? Or even in your own bed, next to your partner or pet? If the work is done remotely, it doesn't have to matter if you're a freelancer or an employee of a specific company. The freedom of choosing a location and time will be on your own shoulders, as long as the task at hand is done.

As more and more people become licensed drivers, the roads will only get more and more filled with traffic. In turn, an increasing number of traffic jams will require you to either use public transportation or simply wake up earlier than you should. Furthermore, the popular trend of going to work via car is costing you money, of course.

The typical U.S. driver lost 51 hours to congestion in 2022, about an hour each week. That's 15 more hours lost to congestion than in 2021, and all that time wasted in traffic jams hit pocketbooks hard, costing the average American driver $869 in lost time, according to 2022 Global Traffic Scorecard by the mobility analytics firm Inrix. -- David Schaper.

And, it's all just to get to work on time. A specific position you don't necessarily need to waste so much of your time, money and your health, just to perform it.

The Value of Unconventionality

When you work remotely, you can wake up whenever you want. It's of course under the obvious condition that you'll actually work, not slack off, or degrade into incompetency.

The problem with "orthodox" work, AKA work that requires you to be in a certain place exclusively, is that it might require you to be confined to a certain area or even country, limiting your freedom of movement.

Now that we have the internet, we can hire the services of people across the world without needing them to be local to our own office or any other physical location. We don't even have to meet them in person ever, and as such, won't have to find ourselves so much in office politics. They occur less in virtual spaces than in physical offices. Much of it causes unhappiness, resorting workers to protect their mental health from it.

Therefore, unless you also seek to make friends in the office, is there much point advocating this orthodox way of work when we could encourage more remote working? ALso, due to increased rate of office rent, there is also an increased rate of office vacancy, at least in the U.S.

Part II: Personal Reflections

One of the reasons I myself could move from my hometown to a quieter region, was because I wasn't confined to a workplace. If I, for instance, worked with several people in a physical gathering space such as an office in some building, I wouldn't be able to leave. Instead, I would continue to be tormented by my former, horrible neighbors and their screaming (which I'm sensitive to).

Being physically confined when working is also problematic because you might have free time once you finish your job for the day but would have to wait until you'd have to sign off work. Back when I worked in the National Service, which was basically an office in a major hospital, there were times where I finished my job too quickly and instead would have to wait until the clock ticked to 3 PM, which was boring if my phone would run out of battery. I would had to wait as I craved rest.

I would just wait and do nothing until the time to get out of work came. Working remotely, however, would mean that once you finish your task, this waiting period wouldn't be necessary at all.

I am very thankful to have been born in this age when you can connect and deliver content to anyone across the world with a click of a button. Even when I used to visit my family in the metropolis, I could bring my laptop and write whenever my hosts were too busy with other things, making my time there productive whenever I was left alone. Computers are pretty much great, if you use them ethically.

The Days Before Philosocom

I recall as a kid that when I watched cartoons, sometimes there was a character who was a newspaper delivery boy. He would have to step out of the house every day just to dispense newspapers to everyone in the neighborhood. Now that I can publish articles online, would writing them as parts of newspapers help me? Newspaper reading has been on the decline.

As a teenager, I wished to abstain myself from computers, only to realize as an adult that physical books don't have as much exposure as having a blog instead. Nothing that is fully physical has, in fact, had much exposure as something that could be written online from every physical space with an internet connection. Thanks to that, now people from across the globe can read my material as I rest and sleep!

Before I had this site, I had to hand over my own books to people I knew personally. The minimum I could print at a time was 20 copies, and even then, it was difficult to get rid of them all; it was also very expensive.

I had to have my parents drive me, and pick up a box of materials I could've otherwise exposed to practically hundreds and thousands of people with a click of a button. Since my writings became fully digital, I saved myself plenty of money.

Part III:Points of Contrast

• Different companies can't afford as much remote work as other industries, still hallmarking the traditional importance of physical spaces. From the global media company Yahoo to the massive online platform reddit, some companies abandoned this feature entirely. Yahoo blamed it for lack of innovation. Reddit blamed it for lack of coordination. A Microsoft study claims remote collaboration is more mentally challenging.
  

• Some people require a sense of community for their wellbeing. Remote work can only intensify the loneliness of remote teams.

• Remote work can harm corporate culture, therefore reducing the competency of teamwork and team bonding, which can greatly increase work output if done correctly.

• Urban planners may design cities to lure digital nomads as residents, who are known to be remote workers. This comes at the cost of declining downtown businesses, ruining local revenue. Downtowns are basically business centers.

Conclusions

When it comes to both remote work and the digital era, physical places and products should be pretty much "dead," unless they must be physical, such as art and other merchandise. If you work somewhere where your presence is necessary to be gathered in a common space, such as a factory, and there's no other option, then the exclusion applies here as well.

Therefore, remote work is never always possible, making physical spaces for work, production and distribution, a "necessary evil".

However, if possible, why work in a physical space or even produce physical items when you can do so remotely online? Why suffer the traffic jams every day and force yourself to wake up abnormally early as a result? Why have a computer in an office when you can have one at a café, on vacation, or even at home while you're in your pajamas?

Of course, some people have their own reasons, which are legitimate. Some jobs give you a car, for example. So, if you've moved somewhere else, you'd still have to drive a longer way to work, but with it being sponsored by your company.

Still, remote work could indeed be the future of much of the world's employment. For some people, like the autistic and the extremely empathic, remotely-working in an environment you can choose per your own design could be ideal.