(27 Oct 2024) On gig jobs and remote working

Posted on October 27, 2024 by Premnath

Since COVID19 there has been a surge in gig jobs and remote working options. This may be good for people who have no other option but is it good for everybody? How do we think about our options and make wise choices? Here are some of my observations:

Remote working: ========

Pros:

No time or money wasted in travel
If there are no fixed hours in remote jobs required by your employer, then you may be able to get more flexibility.

Cons:

No clear boundaries between home and job places. Tendency to eat into “home” time. Feeling that you are doing neither “home work” nor “job work “ well. Maintaining those boundaries requires a lot of discipline from both you and your family. Many people like to clear compartments in their life.
When you work remotely, your achievements are heavily dependent on the abilities of your “reporting manager” to direct work to you, trust you with important work, identify suitable work etc. And unfortunately, many people are not very good or caring managers.
When you are far away, it also likely that you will be assigned many more tasks which your manager already knows you can do well and reliably. Chances are that they will not experiment with too many new things. I feel this reduces your learning opportunities and makes things monotonous.
Usually, if you are away, the general tendency of your seniors will be to direct not so important work to you. Mission critical work will be given to those who are more reliable and those who can be closely followed up.
Usually, if employees are working remote, the mental stress on middle managers increases. They have to put in a lot more effort to get work done. Normal human tendency is to try and reduce the stresses if they can get away with it. The consequence of that is that the more stressfull aspects tend to get less attention. So, remote workers can often be relatively ignored. You may think that will mean you have less work and worries, but then you are also most likely to loose your job when there is a re-organization.
As a general rule, I think founders and top management prefer to work with colleagues who are completely reliable and who can be trusted to take full responsibility of a function and deliver without fail or without needing an alternative. For ex, if there is a sudden guest/ customer visiting, the seniors do not want to have to step in every time to fill in for a remote worker. Which means that remote workers will not be given any tasks where availability for in-person meetings in important. I think remote workers are likely to loose out on the most important responsibilities.
Work environments are also “social” environments where you meet new people, build networks, learn from others and generally grow in breadth. For example, I welcome several people to my office, discuss shared interests, explore possibilities and collaborations. I also find that people rely a lot on body language, look and feel of the office/ work places, the vide and ethos of a place while make decisions on especially matters requiring “trust” and “respect”.

Gig working: ========

Pros:

— In principle, can chose when to work and how much. But that assumes that work of choice is available in plenty so that you can pick when and how much you wish to do.

— Pros of “remote working” mentioned above

Cons:

— I feel that gig workers often under estinate the amount of time and effort that goes into business development and creating opportunities.

— I also think nobody gives their most important work to gig workers.

— You do not get the “power of compounding” working for you! Read for ex: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-compounding-playing-long-game-vani-kola/

— Cons of “remote working” mentioned above

Overall, I think that remote working and gig working terrible for personal and career growth. They may be short term fixes but not the best of options for people who find joy in achievements and wish to grow in their careers.

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(27 Oct 2024) On gig jobs and remote working