Justin Harlan for the Tulsa World: Remote Work isn't the Real Problem

Justin Harlan, Managing Director of Tulsa Remote, recently wrote a piece featured in the Tulsa World. In his writing, he explores the tensions between remote work, employees desire for flexibility and productivity in the workplace.

In this piece, Justin highlights an interesting dynamic that’s been revealed over the last several years when work-in-office was the norm: Offices were doing a lot of invisible work for us. They created casual connection. They helped information move faster. They made mentoring and learning easier simply through proximity. When work went remote, those supports disappeared overnight, and most organizations never rebuilt them.

He suggests that if we want to get serious about addressing organizational shortcomings, there are three areas leaders need to focus on, regardless of whether teams are fully in office, hybrid or remote:

1. Connection does not happen on its own.
2. Managing distributed teams, whether they are around the world or across the city, is a learned skill, not an instinct.
3. In-person time still matters. Remote work should not mean isolation or endless video calls. Teams benefit from being together with purpose.

Although this piece focuses on both the successes of the Tulsa Remote program, and unique differentiators to Tulsa as a city - these learnings could be translated to any company, city or remote and/or hybrid organization. To explore the above points more in depth, read the full article here →