21st Century Thinking: Remote Work Is Here to Stay

Available for Interviews:  Leni Rivera

Leni Rivera is a Workplace Experience specialist and author of its very first book in the industry, Workplace Experience. Her passion is creating work environments that enable employees to be both productive and happy, regardless of where that is. 

What Leni Rivera can say in an interview
The Future of Work:

• • The biggest challenge with Remote Work is not the concept itself, but rather in accepting, and embracing it, as a new normal. Remote work is here to stay, and the challenges that we consider “difficulties” are only difficult because we are still trying to apply yesterday’s logic to today’s new world.

• • Virtual collaboration is a relatively new experience for most companies, but by focusing on all the benefits it offers (allowing for a more diverse talent pool, improved productivity and morale, and a reduced carbon footprint as examples), rather than focusing on the annoyances of having to accept a new way of doing things, the vital opportunities for sustained growth and innovation can be unparalleled.
  • Leaning into remote work as the new normal allows us to search for areas of improvement within this new environment, and find new ways to connect, collaborate, and build team cultures in this new space. Whereas on the other hand, if we insist on maintaining the old ways of doing things, (i.e., return to the office full-time, and depend on in-person interaction for organizational culture and camaraderie to exist), then our focus will remain on constantly trying to bridge the gap between the old and new environments, stunting innovation into future opportunities.
  • Remote work is not a new concept – it had been around for decades prior to the pandemic. But to understand why it struggled to take off back then, and why it is a struggle for many companies to embrace even today, we need to understand the history of how organizations were structured.
  • The actual structure of organizations, where employees were “centralized” to a corporate office, was last developed during the Industrial Revolution when work was still closely monitored by managers within the same building. This centralized structure has gone unchanged since then. And even as the digital age began improving the way we work, and eventually transformed society completely, organizations remained reluctant to change a structure that they had been relying on for over a hundred years. This is why when the pandemic hit, many companies expressed concern that their businesses would plummet if their workers worked remotely – or “decentralized” from their corporate offices. But guess what? It didn’t. Not only that, workers realized that they could spend time with their families and with the people and things they cared about and work at the same time. So now that the pandemic restrictions are lifting, workers are wondering why they have to go back to the way things were when technology (like Zoom) has allowed them the ability to have the best of both worlds.
  • That’s why remote work isn’t going anywhere. Because what’s actually happening is that organizational structures are finally transitioning into the 21st Century. And the more that technology companies like Zoom improve their capabilities, the more we will learn to communicate, collaborate, and build important connections with people in this not-so-new digital age.

Interview: Leni Rivera

Leni Rivera is a Workplace Experience specialist and author of its very first book in the industry. Her passion is creating work environments that enable employees to be both productive and happy, regardless of where that is.

Contact:
Jo Allison
Managing Editor
Director of Public Relations
MEDIA AMBASSADORS
Success In Media, Inc.
Jo@SuccessInMedia.com