On Trust — What I’ve learned about remote work and outsourcing

During a get-together this weekend, I spoke with people about remote work and what they have been doing.

You’re not going to like what you hear…

A lot of them have not been doing much, work wise anyway. They have been taking care of personal admin, catching up on TV Shows and Movies, exercising and sleeping.

But no one spoke about how they took advantage of remote work for their careers!

They all mentioned how it has added value to their professional lives, i.e. created work life balance and they have found productivity time through not commuting and dressing up etc.

A big theme was that these people just didn’t like their jobs that much!

This is why employers want their employees back in the office, and even some employees want to be back in the office! They could forcefully get output from their employees (i’ve had this thought before, many times)

But what are we to do about this Lack of Trust and Lack of Desire to Work?

1. Employers — need to trust their trusted employees more, the ones doing the work are going to have to do more of it and get rewarded more for it

2. Employers — are going to have to hire for people that they can trust and manage (the micro management kind of manage) the people they don’t trust, give them space to improve and if all else fails, get rid of them

3. Employees — Are going to have to ask themselves some hard questions, why am I in this job? Am I being lazy or do I just not want this role anymore? What can I change? Should I leave?

4. Employees — Are going to have to suck it up, this is for employers too, but for the most part, life isn’t always about doing what you want, when you want and how you want it. What makes me work hard and what work do I enjoy doing?

Sometimes you just have to get things done, and this discipline in the headwind of unmotivated behaviour is an amazing opportunity to learn more how to get things done in the face of this resistance, it will pay dividends elsewhere, not just work.

Trust is such an important factor in all things of life, and it’s something we need to continually work on. When there is trust, there is less friction and more forward momentum.

1. Learn to trust yourself more (trust comes from actions, not talk, trust me…)

2. Speak to those who you don’t trust, yes it’s awkward, but be patient and discuss why you don’t trust them with real world examples, and provide opportunities for building the trust back

3. Get rid of those you do not trust — if you do not trust yourself, get rid of yourself by creating a new self, not by the more morbid kind of getting rid of yourself…

I hope you enjoyed this read, I am always happy and excited to engage with people who do read my posts, so do share some stories, some feedback, and let’s stay in touch!