The work-from-home movement in New Zealand faces logistical challenges, but the benefits are compelling. By Peter Griffin.
Do I regret my decision last week to join evening commuters on the Wellington-to-Upper Hutt train to attend a concert, rather than driving?
Not at all. The subsidised ticket was cheap ($5.60 for a return fare), the staff friendly, the train car clean and tidy. Could I see myself making that trip to and from town every day? Hell no.
After nearly five years as a remote worker, the thought of losing at least two hours by travelling each day to work is unthinkable. If anything, the ability to work from anywhere is likely to eventually lure me to a part of the country where the houses are cheaper, the pace more laid back.
Many Kiwis feel the same way. InternetNZ’s latest Internet Insights report found that six in 10 workers have the type of job that allows them to work from home at least part of the time and 54 per cent of them would like to work from home more often.
That’s in line with results since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The huge shift to remote working it sparked has become the norm, even if 21 per cent of employers, according to those surveyed, don’t encourage working from home, and city councillors want to revive their central business districts with a daily influx of commuters.
More of us can live better, more affordable lifestyles by embracing remote working. Millennials have a better chance of owning their own homes by leaving the big cities – and taking their jobs with them. A big enabler of that is technology. According to InternetNZ, 64 per cent of us had fibre internet connections at home last year. In December, Chorus wired up Opononi on the south shore of Hokianga Harbour in Northland, bringing fibre broadband coverage to 87 per cent of the country. Australians look at our network in envy, such is the poor state of their cobbled-together National Broadband Network.
As remote workers, we are used to skipping between Microsoft Teams meetings, messaging each other in Slack and keeping on the same page by sharing Miro virtual whiteboards. Yes, there are downsides. It can be a bit lonely at times and I miss those spontaneous office conversations that spark new ideas. But if you are disciplined in your work-from-home routine and schedule in semi-regular face-to-face catch-ups with your fellow workers, the overall lifestyle improvement is definitely worth it.
Many countries are in the midst of a remote-working revolution. According to a McKinsey report, 92 million workers in the US can work remotely and 55 million can do so on a full-time basis. I have a client in the US and can be on a Zoom call with people based in half a dozen states. They get together in person just a few times a year.
At least 49 countries, Indonesia, Spain and Cyprus among them, issue visas to digital nomads, and some even offer financial incentives to those working in rural areas, in an effort to revive communities.
We have a national skills shortage that is particularly acute in areas of technology such as cybersecurity and cloud computing. Remote working is now considered non-negotiable for most tech workers in contract discussions.
Towns like Hokitika, Masterton and Kaitaia could become hubs for more skilled remote workers and their families. But Cyclone Gabrielle and January’s floods showed up the cracks in our infrastructure. Gisborne was shown to be particularly vulnerable. Companies will be reluctant to follow in the footsteps of accounting software maker Xero, which in 2017 opened a satellite office in Napier, without the confidence that their employees won’t be cut off on a regular basis.
Flights on Air New Zealand’s regional network are too expensive to make remote working viable for those who still need to make regular face-to-face meetings. We have some challenges to overcome to capitalise on the benefits of the remote-work movement, but the upside is potentially huge. Trust me, I’m enjoying the benefits of it every day.
