The Remote Working Genie Is Out of the Office Bottle

Abstract

Although remote working has been adopted in some firms for many years, it has been largely marginalized in the sense that the mainstream of software engineering practice has involved groups of software professionals congregating on a daily basis in centralized offices. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has rapidly become widespread. Companies and their employees have grappled with difficult adjustments during this transition, as might be expected in face of an international emergency. One suspects however that remote working will endure in some form in the post-emergency phase. Rather than merely <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">coping</i> as we do today, to be effective and sustainable, post-pandemic remote working will require a deep rethink of fundamental practice. This article provides some signposts to aid the journey from <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">coping</i> with remote work to <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">thriving</i> in remote working contexts.