Sir, – I found the article by John Geary and David Mangan in relation to remote working to be quite an inaccurate measurement of the current mood of employees in relation to the issue (“Remote working is starting to look like a busted flush: Employers are hesitant, workers are unsure and the Government is not doing much to help”, Opinion & Analysis, July 7th).
The article read as though it was commissioned by a disgruntled, ageing CEO class who can’t bear to watch the world change.
I was particularly surprised by the suggestion that employers still want to “inculcate staff identity with the organisation”. I remind the authors that this is 2022, not 1965. The world has changed.
The truth is that employees are tired of being ceaselessly monitored in glass citadels by micro-managers and that employers across the board have embraced the hybrid model as a more efficient and more humane way of working. In any case, identity is self-derived.
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People, not corporations, are endlessly fascinating and any attempt to “inculcate” will fall on the deaf ears of a generation of employees finally finding their voice. – Yours, etc,
SHANE MORRIS,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – John Geary and David Mangan seem to have fallen into the trap of conflating emergency working from home measures with remote working.
Remote work and pandemic-driven working from home measures are very different. Remote work is simply removing location as a barrier to employment: unlocking decent jobs from within commuting distance of a city centre or company HQ building.
In fact – while it’s not without its challenges – employees do want to work remotely, remote-first companies are thriving and innovating, and the Government has demonstrated its commitment to remote work as a driver of economic and social development, particularly in rural Ireland.
The CSO tells us that remote workers report extremely high levels of job and personal satisfaction, and 90 per cent of 35 to 44 year olds who can work remotely want to do so in the future.
Pre-legislative scrutiny of the Right to Request Remote Work Bill has just concluded and we look forward to seeing the necessary amendments to it, but ultimately the success or failure of remote working does not lie in legislation alone. The Government’s commitment to and support for remote work are captured in both its National Remote Work Strategy, Making Remote Work, and in Our Rural Future, its rural development policy for 2021 to 2025.
If employers are hesitant about remote working, it’s because the transition from traditional office-based work to a remote-first model is a very significant undertaking, and a well-resourced programme of supports is needed to assist businesses in this. However, the trend toward remote working as a way to increase productivity and deepen the available talent pool and scale was already well established before the pandemic.
The authors also seem to be unaware of the depth of innovation and scale of growth currently happening in Irish companies that operate on a remote-first basis, such as Flipdish, Glofox, Otonomee, Nearform, and Axonista, to name just a few. – Yours, etc,
KATHY McKENNA,
Communications Manager,
Grow Remote,
Donegal Town.