By Maryam Juma

Who would have thought that a pandemic outbreak would bring about such a positive resolution of working remotely (Working-from-anywhere)? Remote working has been in existence long ago before the covid 19 outbreak but there’s no denial that the pandemic forced and increased the adoption of this method of working. Imagine me having to say, “my network is bad so I had to opt out of a meeting” or “Mr. A, can you please mute your mic” because we hear the chatter of his children or his wife’s conversations which is disrupting our meeting or the excuse of “I have been in a blackout for days so I couldn’t meetup with a deadline of a task”. These are most of the reoccurring complains. Sustainably there are some work bays or office spaces one can be at for a particular hour with a stable internet and quiet environment that might not be so far from your home.

A lot of companies and individuals still struggle around the adoption of this methods. Things are noticeably different when you’re collocated, and when you’re not sharing a physical workspace with your teammates. How you communicate for a quick catch up, scheduled meetings and to provide work updates hinge on the reliability of the collaboration and communication tools you use. Office 365 has almost all productivity tools set up for all these, technology generally has it all prepared like they were fortune tellers. Being able to have virtual meetings with more than one individual sharing your screen while spelling out the important facts are all part of technology’s inventions. What would working remotely for companies with a large staff base be like without these productivity tools and the cloud management tools. It would have been disastrous. Or let’s make reference to October 4th, 2021, when all of Facebooks products were down and people couldn’t communicate. Luckily for emails and Microsoft teams organizations whose team members were working remotely were able to still maintain that connectivity. The essence of working remotely is being able to work from anywhere at your own convenience.

More importantly, there’s the added task of remote surveillance. Remote employee monitoring software are readily available. It is a necessary evil, given the inclination to lose track of the time during work hours and spend it elsewhere. Increased time on social media, for instance, can tempt even the most productive worker when they are remote. The point of remote work is to ensure that work stays visible, and workers can establish their presence virtually. The positive for me is that I get to save the funds spent on transportation daily, reduce the stress of waking up so early and hoping from one bus to another likewise reduce inhaling smokes from vehicles exhaust pipe. People that have a family of their own would be able to cater for them more now that they have a flexible working system. In my opinion I believe working remotely hasn’t caught up in Nigeria yet because you wonder why there are so many vehicles still on the road very early in the morning and late in the evening if not that they are headed to work.