With practically no notice, businesses shut down due to shelter-in-place and quarantine orders. Businesses that could, moved employees to telework solutions, almost overnight.
And suddenly, we discovered teleworking worked even better than office work in many cases. The requirements were small, a stable internet connection, computer, and a relatively quiet place to work. It was even better when it wasn’t so quiet. The mishaps and the sounds of young children and dogs have become Internet gold. I have a photo bomb of my giant Great Dane’s head peering into the camera during a Skype call.
It took a pandemic for us to really examine some of the ideas that we, as a society, held as givens. Do we have to meet face to face for professional interaction? Do we need to all travel hours each week to meet in one building in order to work effectively? Do you need to meet your lawyer, your CPA, your financial planner or other advisor across a table or can you save the commute time and have the same meeting on a Zoom call?
And even better, some groups of people found benefits right away from working from home. A married couple, both lawyers, with small children were now able to share care responsibilities and both work in their chose careers. CPAs are now able to work the hours they work best. Morning people work in the mornings. Night owls work at night. And you can work anywhere in the world where there is good Internet.
Disabled people who struggle with commutes and desks that aren’t set up to accommodate their disabilities are suddenly able to be productive again.
Who knew it would take a pandemic to sort out some of the inherent discrimination in our jobs?
Some of the myths that have been dispelled about telework solutions:
Myth #1: Telework employees won’t be as productive.
Fact: With commute time gone, there is less wasted time in the work day. Parents can share parenting responsibilities and work productively. And that is even better than day care!
Myth #2: Work hours must always be at a certain time.
Fact: As long as meetings can be done at mutually-agreed-upon times, the work itself can be done when it’s best for the employee. That means employees aren’t having to choose between their children or elder care responsibilities and their jobs. Employees can work when it best fits their own personal life style.
Myth #3: Meetings have to be done face-to-face.
Fact: Clients and customers have suddenly had to become accustomed to technology. And the unexpected bonus is that technology requires forethought and planning. No more quick meetings to disrupt work days. Everyone knows and can plan for the meeting, making the time spent more efficient.
Myth #4: Teleworking is expensive.
Fact: When employees work from home, employers can reduce the office space. That means less rental expense, less utilities, less furniture, less administrative support and so forth. Teleworking is actually a whole lot cheaper for the employer.
The biggest change, though, has probably been for the professional, or knowledge worker, during the pandemic. When the concept of gig workers first became mainstream in 2009, the idea was that big corporations would dump their staff and hire gig workers for special projects.
But it didn’t quite work out that way. For example, a big tax firm would have specialists who could handle multi-national tax returns. If you hire my firm, for example, you get US tax specialists, but we’re not specialists in Irish tax law. If you need this sort of representation, one of the big 4 global accounting firms is a better fit. Sometimes bigger firms are better than smaller, when it comes to global work.
Big companies have values, practices and specific ways of doing things. Gig workers or solopreneurs won’t share the same experiences because they haven’t developed in that culture. That means they won’t assimilate as easily in a big company as an employee would.
In addition to the broader question of how a solopreneur can be force fitted into a company box, there are logical issues such as of how to give a performance appraisal to a gig worker in comparison to an employee.
Just by their very nature, solopreneurs are independent. It isn’t a case of not understanding the corporate culture of a big company, it’s more a case of not accepting it. There is a reason why solopreneurs aren’t employees.
A solopreneur will bring fresh ideas to an old business model which could bring real value over and above the work that he or she is doing. But that benefit, plus the lower cost just simply wasn’t enough to overcome the objections.
Now, the pandemic has forced everyone, at least for a time, to be teleworkers. It’s forced us all to be more independent and to work outside the rigid box of big company employment.
Now that we are slowly emerging from quarantine, we’re all re-examining what it means to have a business and work in this new economy. Whatever emerges will be different, but no one can tell for sure just how different it will be.
Do you have, or want to have your own business? Here are some must reads for the new economy and your business.
