Remote Viewing is that working?

With the Covid 19 virus gripping the world impact some places less than others and looking up that in itself will surprise you. I digress, with the spread it is now pretty much becoming the norm for people to work from home and connect when needed using the technology we all take for granted. There are already rumours of large firms rethinking their strategies in terms of leased office space in light of how well or bad they are doing under this crisis. Many firms have already over the years consolidated, typing pools, copying areas and copy/printing machines linked digitally. This creates savings as well as efficiency, although if you want an opinion, copy/printing machines are so complicated I’ve never known one that works all the time as advertised except the really high end.

Further to these measures many offices are closing their doors with their staff all going remote, how this will impact you the customer we don’t as yet know but it is a big step and one that also could have huge consequences going forward both positive and negative. Meetings can easily be done via Skype/Facetime there’s even a google one called “Hangouts” which is typical silicon valley hipster speak. There are many other too numerous for them all to get a shout out.

There is a downside to this though and being human we often need and read those personal quirks that determine whether we can work with or for someone. That gut feeling you get when a client walks in that is impossible see no matter how big your screen. When I was learning the art of interviewing for recruitment I spent hours of training and practice interview going through each person on the course to local school leavers being bussed in for their own practice as well as being good for us. In the time I spent as a recruiter I must have interviewed easily several thousand people of all ages and intelligence. Some interviews laster only 10-15 minutes others up to 90 minutes depending on the requirement. This gave me and my colleagues an edge above others, you learn patterns and styles. You can tell Arthur Daly from Arthur Negus but sometimes the Del boy is what you want not the smooth charmer with the old school tie. This is what we could lose in personal and corporate client meeting carried out via electronics. Yes we can get things done especially during this pandemic, and if we are simply sitting in what air traffic controllers call a “holding pattern” well that’s fine. However if we think as a profession we can do everything remotely imagine a future court case where we are all on our phones and at the end, after the judge’s summing up he bangs his gavel to signal the point when everyone in on the proceedings just presses “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”.