A remote possibility: virtual work and losing what we've never known

I am worried the move to remote work will make things better in ways that we can see and it will make things worse in many ways that we won’t.

Better in ways we can see

Clearly one of the great benefits is for families to have more parents at home at least for those jobs where this flexibility as possible. Time with our loved ones and those that need our care is precious. All the time we feel we lose during our commute and all those interstitial spaces is regained. We don’t need to make our lunch in the morning or the day before and there’s less pressure to pick out some cute, respectful, professional new outfit every darn day. Less interruptions and less distractions. Less noise from those working around you and those annoying pop-ins will be a thing of the past.

This is the better that we can see. This is the better that we can experience. This surely must be better for our children, for family members who need our care and perhaps even for our neighborhoods since we will just be around more.

To see these benefits is to believe in them. And since these benefits of remote work are seen and experienced, it feels truly better for many.

Worse in ways we cannot

You won’t notice the community that you didn’t have and you won’t miss the random conversation because it never happened.

You won’t miss the ideas you had while going to work or the novel perspective that arose from an unplanned conversation. These ideas won’t be missed because you will never have them.

As convenience eats community the sweet taste will make you forget what you’re missing.

The reference point for contentment and meaning will change and that’s when you really need to worry. For it is when we become comfortable in a situation that should have never existed and for which we were not designed, that abundance ends and mere survival begins.

Perhaps our natural human need for connection comes from other corners of life. Perhaps new ideas, love, and belonging jump from podcasts and audio books and video chats through ear buds to stir our heart and mind muffling the hunger pains for people. But perhaps we lose the very thing that, over time, we forget we needed. That is what worries me most.