The Accountant – Business as Usual?  –  Spring 2020 (MIA Publication)

In the past decades, technology promised to free us from our workplace and empower us to work anywhere. However, this never materialised since companies were reluctant to loosen their hold on employees. However, the rise of the pandemic gave employers no choice. It immediately became a matter of survival and companies who did not adapt were risking closure. 

Luckily for us, we live in a technologically advanced world where migrating our job online is rather easy. The first and obvious requirement is a good internet connection since this will serve as the gateway for all our digital services. This requirement is not a problem in western countries when one considers that on average, there's an 85% broadband penetration in their households. The second fundamental requirement is a digital device such as a laptop or a tablet capable of connecting with the Internet. 

Once these two requirements are satisfied, it is now time to shift towards the necessary applications. Most of these apps are free and accessible through a browser, so they tend to be hardware independent. All one has to do is go to their website and use the app. The following is a list of applications which one needs to get started.

• An online calendar is essential to schedule and organise meetings. It is accessible from any device located anywhere. 

• Quick chats with work colleagues or customers can happen via email or through the various messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Slack and countless others.

• For longer meetings, one would require a video conferencing app such as Skype or Zoom. Most of them are free and allow for multiple people to meet in one virtual room. 

• To execute complex projects, applications like Trello help people manage tasks by subdividing them into subtasks and assigning them to different team members. Deadlines assigned to specific tasks will keep people in check. 

• Working with people across different locations and timezones can be tricky. Because of that, tools like G Suite by Google and Office 365 by Microsoft help team members collaborate on various documents simultaneously. These suites include support for the most popular productivity apps such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint or variants of them (which are 100% compatible). They also provide users with cloud storage, thus ensuring that the files are saved safely in a remote location. 

• In the fast-moving world of today, keeping abreast with novel concepts is very important . Websites like Coursera, Udemy and edX offer free online courses, some of which accredited by top Universities. They allow employees to study from the comfort of their own home and in their own time, thus allowing them to better their career prospects.  

• Finally, since access to the office computer might still be required while at home, the Chrome Remote Desktop helps users access their machine securely from any device. 

With all of these applications in place, one is ready to start working in no time. After a few trial sessions, one begins to realise that in the end, remote working is not much different from working in an office. One can still organise 1:1 meetings, group meetings, work on shared documents or ask for advice. However, remote working also brings with it some of the following pitfalls;

• Office hours take an entirely new meaning. One can work at any time of the day and night since the office is now only one meter away. It is crucial to set up time bounds which would avoid overworking and eventually burnout. 

• Working at home can be lonely and boring since office jokes are challenging to organise online. While these things do not add directly to the productivity of the organisation, they help employees to bond, build trust and work better together. Because of this, it is essential to keep an open channel either through a chat or through virtual events where employees can share fun stuff  such as episodes of their lives, memes, funny videos or other social stuff. 

• Many people feel uncomfortable during a video conference because it tends to dilute interaction cues between people. People usually look at someone's eyes when they speak, but this does not happen in a video conference because they are looking at the camera. Others tend to gesticulate too, but this is several reduced in a video call. So sometimes, a video call is awkward for people, and in that case, people should have the option to switch off their camera if it makes them uncomfortable. 

• Being in an office also brings with it accidental-communication whereby people get to know additional details about a project informally. This form of communication happens typically in the corridors or during break time. While many organisation try to discourage it in favour of more structured communication channels, the truth is that it still happens and helps employees understand better different viewpoints. Of course, this does not occur while working from home and in this case, the company should promote a transparent agenda where everything about a specific project gets shared amongst all the team members in organised chats. 

• Waking up for work, rolling out of bed and finding oneself in the home office is not healthy. A morning ritual is essential to maintain some sense of normality (especially when remote working is an imposition rather than a choice). Of course, everyone has his ideal template of the perfect morning routine and maintaining it is essential to stay motivated. 

• Finally, let's not forget that the home is the epicentre of all distractions. Fluffy-cat might be jumping all over the keyboard for attention, the kids start yelling from the other room, the brain ponders about the ending of that fabulous Netflix series, and the pantry calls you to take a snack every 5 minutes. So many things to waste your time on! Unfortunately, distractions are a reality in every setting; we have to accept them, learn to live with them and set boundaries where possible. 

But even though working from home has its challenges, it can also offer various benefits; 

• Commuting becomes inexistent, thus saving people travelling time, traffic-related frustration and car expenses. Just think what one can do with an extra hour every day and with hundreds of euros saved!

• Each person can reduce his carbon footprint by at least 2.3 metric tons of CO2 every year.

• Being at home also means that one is in total control of his diet. Unhealthy choices because of peer pressure become a thing of the past—no more excuses to eat fast food because there isn't a microwave in the kitchenette!

• Companies design their offices according to their brand guidelines while prioritising functionality and interactivity. But the home office is different; it reflects the employee's individualistic style. Whether the person is a Feng Shui freak, who prefers to work in arctic temperatures but surrounded by tropical plants or an underground dungeon master locked in a dark room is entirely up to the individual. These choices make the home office a fun space which helps employees increase their productivity. 

• Finally, remote working does not have to be from home. If there are no health restrictions, employees can comfortably work from coffee shops, co-working spaces or even in nature. If one wants to take it further, he can also work from one or several foreign countries. These people are typically referred to as digital nomads because they use technologies to earn a living while conducting a nomadic lifestyle. 

This article tried to paint an honest picture of remote working. The system is far from perfect, but it does offer various advantages, and it is good enough to fulfil the needs of modern workplaces. One thing is for sure, when the health emergency recedes, we cannot return to our old habits, but we have to invest further and improve remote work practices. We will never know when the next pandemic will hit us, and it might be sooner than we think. When it does, we have to be ready. From now on, remote working should not be a secret weapon which we unveil when the need arises but rather an extension of our current work practices.  It should be second nature for us to work from home. Only then can we keep on working without disruption when the next pandemic hits us. 

Prof Alexiei Dingli is a Professor of AI at the University of Malta and has been conducting research and working in the field of AI for more than two decades, assisting different companies to implement AI solutions. He formed part of the Malta.AI task-force, set up by the Maltese government, aimed at making Malta one of the top AI countries in the world.