Thoughts On Remote Work

For those able to work by solely using a computer, remote work could arguably be the future of many employees. If so, then there will be less of a need to drive to a specific location every day, or even share a space with other people, just to fulfill a job you can basically do anywhere as long as your computer has an internet connection.

Remote work is arguably the best way to work because it means that your work hours will be very flexible if you're able to finish your job for the week. Imagine working intensively for a few days in a week, to the point that you are left with no work for the time being. Then, you could do whatever you want until another series of tasks comes your way.

Why work 5-6 days a week when you can condense the work to a smaller number of days and take extra days off? Why not take longer breaks and divide your work time in a way that will bring you more comfort and less potential exhaustion? That way, you might even become more productive!

If you're easily bored by being in one place, why not work in one or more cafes? During a vacation abroad? Or even in your own bed, as I myself have been doing for a long time? If the work is done remotely, it doesn't matter if you're a freelancer or an employee of a specific company, because the freedom of choosing a location and time will be on your own shoulders, as long as the task at hand is done.

As more and more people get cars, the roads will only get more and more filled with traffic, which could lead to traffic jams that will require you to either use public transportation or simply wake up earlier than you should -- all just to get to work in time. When you work remotely, on the other hand, you can wake up whenever you want, under the obvious condition that you'll actually work and not slack off.

The problem with "orthodox" work, AKA work that requires you to be in a certain place exclusively, is that it might require you to be confined to a certain area or even country. Now that we have the internet, we can hire the services of people across the world without needing them to be local to our own office or any other physical location.

One of the reasons I myself could move from my hometown to a quieter region, was because I wasn't confined to a workplace. If I, for instance, worked with several people in a physical gathering space such as an office in some building, I wouldn't be able to leave, and instead, I would continue to be tormented by my former, horrible neighbors and their screaming (which I'm sensitive to).

Being physically confined when working is also problematic because you might have free time once you finish your job for the day but would have to wait until you'd have to sign off work. Back when I worked in the National Service, which was basically an office in a major hospital, there were times where I finished my job too quickly and instead would have to wait until the clock ticked to 3 PM, which was boring if my phone would run out of battery.

I would just wait and do nothing until the time to get out of work came. Working remotely, however, would mean that once you finish your task, this waiting period wouldn't be necessary at all.

I am very thankful to have been born in this age when you can connect and deliver content to anyone across the world with a click of a button. Even when I used to visit my family in the metropolis, I could bring my laptop and write whenever my hosts were too busy with other things, making my time there productive whenever I was left alone. Computers are pretty much great, even on the professional level.

I recall as a kid that when I watched cartoons, sometimes there was a character who was a newspaper delivery boy. He would have to step out of the house every day just to dispense newspapers to everyone in the neighborhood. Now that you can publish articles online, that work is pretty much unnecessary (unless your newspaper is also physical).

As a teenager, I wished to abstain myself from computers, only to realize as an adult that physical books don't have as much exposure as having a blog instead. Nothing that is fully physical has, in fact, had much exposure as something that could be written online from every physical space with an internet connection. Thanks to that, now even people from countries across Africa can read my material!

Before I had this site, I had to market my own books to people I knew personally, and I even made some money off it. The minimum I could print at a time was 20 copies, and even then, it was difficult to get rid of them all; it was also very expensive.

I had to have my parents drive me, especially to Tel Aviv, and pick up a box of materials I could've otherwise exposed to practically hundreds and thousands of people with a click of a button. Since my writings became fully digital, I saved myself plenty of money.

Thus, when it comes to both remote work and the digital era, physical places and products should be pretty much "dead," unless they must be physical, such as art and other merchandise. If you work somewhere where your presence is necessary to be gathered in a common space, such as a factory, and there's no other option, then the exclusion applies here as well.

However, why work in a physical space or even produce physical stuff when you can do so remotely online? Why suffer the traffic jams every day and force yourself to wake up abnormally early as a result? Why have a computer in an office when you can have one at a café, on vacation, or even at home while you're in your pajamas?

Of course, some people have their own reasons, which are legitimate. Some jobs give you a car, for example, but even then, if you've moved somewhere else, you'd still have to drive a longer way to work. Now that COVID makes physical workplaces more difficult, perhaps remote work is indeed the future of much of the world's employment, even when that cursed virus will, hopefully, be halted to a significant stop.