Remote Work Keeps Changing

Don Wickelgren
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January 6, 2022
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Some of it is just this very old-school idea that if you can’t see someone doing their job, they’re screwing around

– Anne Helen Petersen

In the 1990s, when I was working on the commercial Internet at IBM, I opened the door in a room and saw it filled with South Asian programmers. At that time I realized that the work I was doing was going to be done remotely. I decided to develop more of a domain skill rather than just a technical skill.

When the pandemic began in 2020, business planning forced a clear-eyed view of what was going to happen to our business. We needed to prepare for the variations in the  COVID virus and we started with the plan to provide our services through 2022 for work from home.

What we’ve seen happen is a shaking out of the old mentalities about work held by older leaders like myself. In 1990, I realized that the key to working remotely was the ability to measure what exactly was going through that thin little wire. I still think that there are some challenges in organizations because they’ve relied on the physical presence of their staff. But now, many are focusing on measuring proper output.

Reference: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/12/26/how-we-work-from-home-needs-to-change-in-the-new-year-author-argues-.html

Bio

Don Wicklegren is Xilium's founder. He is a technologist by profession who started his career pre-internet in remote medical technology and learning. He has worked in both small and large corporations with world-wide remote staff and became a part of the team who developed the first commercial internet. As an entrepreneur, he started his first technology company in 2001. In Xilium, he focuses on innovating solutions for the US healthcare system.