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TCN PROFESSIONAL JOURNAL FALL 2021
Remote Work : No “ One Size Fits All ” Strategies
Originally Published in Strategic Reset on Staff Working Remotely – A Framework for Success , GreenDot . Press ( 2021 )
by Jonathan E . Smith
JUST FIFTY YEARS AGO IT WAS NORMAL TO HAVE A PARTY LINE TELEPHONE . REMEMBER THOSE ? THIRTY YEARS AGO LANDLINE PHONES WERE THE STANDARD EVERYWHERE . TWENTY YEARS AGO THE MIGRATION TO CELL PHONES HAD BEGUN , BUT MOST HOMES STILL HAD A LANDLINE . TODAY , FEW KNOW WHAT A LANDLINE IS , AND EVERYONE HAS A CELL PHONE ! THESE CHANGES IN “ NORMAL ” AS THEY RELATE TO PHONES TOOK PLACE OVER DECADES . TODAY “ NORMAL ” CHANGES ALMOST DAILY .
IS WORKING REMOTELY A NEW NORMAL ? Working remotely is not a new concept . Before the start of the Industrial
Revolution in the United States ( late eighteenth century ), working from home was the norm . Craftsman like carpenters , blacksmiths , potters , as well as farmers producing the nation ’ s food supply all worked from home and often sold their products from their homes .
The Industrial Revolution ushered in a workforce change in which workers went to factories to operate and manage machinery . That was the birth of the workplace commute . Prior to the Industrial Revolution working at home was normal . Working remotely back then would have referred to working in a factory or some another location that was not at home . See how normal changes ?
After World War II , normal was working at a centralized location , like an office or a factory . Working at home was no longer normal ; carpenters , blacksmiths , potters , and so on were all plying their trades at an industrial level . The invention of the telephone in 1876 began a very slow turn towards returning to working somewhere other than the office or factory – like at home . The telephone was the first step towards working from home ( again ), or working “ remotely .”
In the late 1980s , over 100 years after the invention of the telephone , the Internet started the process of decentralizing the workforce . Cube farms and office space could suddenly be mobile , and while