Reasons against remote working: “But we’ve spent a lot on this collaborative space!”, or Sunk Cost Error
This is a draft of a post I wrote calling for a more open remote working policy in my previous employment. I was going to post in the corporate site but two beta readers determined that the tone was not appropriate, so I never posted it. ---Last year, I entered this proposal ([link redacted]) as an idea for an Employee-Focused Improvement.
As a follow-on, this will be a series of posts on remote working. I target development teams in particular, but there are many potential advantages and disadvantages to remote working, and yet even more configurations of remote working such as a partial remote workforce, fully remote workforce, mandatory remote working days (which some teams in [redacted] have). However I will only be addressing one concept at a time. This doesn’t necessarily apply to all roles, teams, and companies, but I hope to open up a discussion about global or regional flexible remote working as a possibility.
Reason #1: “But we’ve spent a lot on this collaborative space!”
This reasoning commonly comes up regarding [redacted] buildings. This is known as the sunk cost error. It is well-known in the business world, but it actually stems from human psychology and can be observed in many everyday occurrences.
An example is buying a ticket to see a movie, which turns out to be unbearably bad. It’s been found that more people tend to stay than leave, to get the most value out of their ticket. However, if they stay, they waste more time in addition to the money they have already spent on the ticket. If they leave, they have lost the money spent on the ticket anyway, but they don’t lose any more time. Therefore the rational action is to leave to avoid further losses.
Here are a few things to think about for employees working in [redacted] - the following points are from discussions with colleagues:
- How often do you write on the whiteboards or windows?
- How often do you use/sit on the funky furniture around the building?
- How often are you encouraged to use the building to get creative or collaborate?
- Do you collaborate more using the building, or using software like Skype for Business, Adobe Connect, Slack, and email?
- Do open office spaces help you work better, or worse - due to distractions?
If you realise that the building is invaluable to you, then you can keep on working in the office - the great thing about proposing a flexible remote working policy is that it doesn’t mandate remote working for all, it just gives that option to people who may want or need it.
Sunk cost error comes into play when this reason is used - again, this point comes from discussions with colleagues:
“We’ve spent a lot of money, planning, and design effort into creating this space to maximise collaboration, productivity, etc. If we allow people to work remotely, we will have wasted all of that.“
Just like the cinema ticket, that money and effort has already been spent. Is it worth spending even more on the following?
- Losing employees who value a modern, flexible remote working policy to other companies = lost €€€ spent on recruitment, training, etc.
- Losing employee productivity due to distractions, impromptu meetings, employees coming to work sick, etc. - see my proposal ([link redacted]) for more examples = lost €€€ when customers don’t buy, or escalate, due to quality issues, lack of features, etc.
- Wasted effort on employee engagement activities to identify action items when remote working is a known thing that people care about ([redacted]) and could boost employee engagement immediately = everyone’s time = €€€
Hopefully this highlights a common perceived disadvantage of remote working, and how considering or trialling flexible remote working could benefit [redacted] as a company.
- Remote: Office Not Required, by David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried
- https://stackoverflow.blog/2013/02/01/why-we-still-believe-in-working-remotely/?ref=survey-2016
- Irrationality: The Enemy Within, by Stuart Sutherland
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