It was shocking, to say the least, what executive Tallis Gomes said about remote work a while ago: “(…) it’s impossible to build anything in this model. Don’t be held hostage by bums who want to spend their time messing around at home.” Unfortunately, thoughts like these reflect a huge prejudice that part of the market still carries. For those who perform their activities in this way, it’s common to hear jokes insinuating that we don’t do anything or that we’re professional swindlers. Anyone who thinks this way is mistaken, and I’ll show you why.
A first point to consider is how much remote work does for people.Study conducted by the University of São Paulo and FIA Business Schoolpoints out that 94% of professionals who perform their activities in this way say that their quality of life has improved. This happens because some obstacles are eliminated, such as the long commute hours, a very cruel reality especially in companies located in large cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Balance and quality of life do not mean “dragging around” but rather motivation.
Furthermore, working from home also allows for more time with family, promoting greater autonomy to balance professional and personal lives. For this reason, working without physical fatigue and with more time to dedicate to personal projects, employees end up more motivated and willing to give their best to the company. And as one study concluded,research carried out by the consultancy Right Management, after consulting 30 thousand people from 15 countries, motivated people produce 50% more.
And this is also corroborated by companies, since astudy carried out by EY,showed that 74% of employers have also noticed greater efficiency in recent years. Going further, Brazil is one of the leaders in the global turnover rate,with data from the General Registry of Employed and Unemployed Persons (CAGED)pointing out that the national rate reaches 56%. With the adoption of remote work, this number tends to plummet,since a survey by Robert Halfshows that 80% of Brazilians want a better balance between their personal and professional lives to feel happier in their careers.
DData from the Latin America Digital Transformation Reportindicate that companies that adopt remote work see a 41% greater increase in productivity than those that barely allow activities at home. This happens because, at home, people tend to work more, which benefits companies. This is what a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research of the United States shows, which confirmed that employees who work from home end up working, on average, 48 minutes more.
Another point worth discussing is the issue of diversity and the increase in job opportunities for people who live far from major cities. When in-person work was still the norm, a company in São Paulo, for example, only had employees who lived in the same city due to logistics. With remote work, people from distant regions have equal opportunities to work in large companies without having to face an unscheduled move to another city.
This increases the exchange of ideas between people from different regions of Brazil, enabling access to different cultures which, in turn, contribute to making the corporate environment more inclusive. According to aMcKinsey surveyshows that ethnically, regionally and culturally diverse teams are 33% more likely to achieve better results, precisely because they increase companies' creativity and problem-solving ability. Especially in technology, diverse teams bring more innovation and disruption.
Regarding organizational culture, which many claim is impossible to build in remote work, I also disagree. Impulso is the best example of this. We were founded 14 years ago and have always been 100% remote. We have an extremely strong culture based on freedom and responsibility. It is possible to build culture in remote work, as long as remote is the culture.
Opposing remote work is a step backwards. Leaders, like Tallis Gomes, apply the model they believe is the best model for their businesses, but this does not mean that remote work does not work. It has been more than proven that it works. See almost 2 years of pandemic. We often tend to blame the “what” and not the “how”. The fact that productivity has fallen while the company was operating remotely does not mean that the model is bad either. Meta itself shows us this.
Mark Zuckerberg, in September 2023,announced that Meta employees would have to say goodbye to home officeto return to the office. What did he claim? Productivity problems, stating that 2024 would be the “Year of Efficiency”. Now, in January of this year, the executive goes public again, this time to announce that the technology giant will probablythe biggest wave of mass layoffs in its history. Almost 4,000 employees will be cut. Almost 5% of its global workforce. And what is the justification given? “Poor performance”. In other words, the problem was not the remote work.
The problem usually lies in management. It is important to understand that different models require different management formats. The biggest mistake is trying to apply the same way you managed your team in person to the remote model. The routines, processes, flows, communication, and even the tools have to be different. Impulso did not go from zero to over R$50 million in revenue despite the remote model, but rather because of the strong management and culture provided by the remote model.
