Author: Future Manager Research Center 

In recent months, as never before, the issue of smart working has gained a prominent position on the pages of business newspapers and, more generally, on everyone’s lips.

Everyone agrees on the obvious and indisputable usefulness of this work tool during the crucial weeks of the COVID-19 epidemic, however the question becomes more delicate if one thinks of a possible long-term extension of this working method.

Many companies imagine an extension of their smart working activity, a monoeuvre which would stop no earlier than 2021. This choice may seem insignificant for some categories of workers, but if you think about the world of business and marketing there is certainly something to object to.

Underestimating the power of human relationships is a mistake that must not be committed: take as an example a CEO who is deprived of the ability to monitor the status of his collaborators’ relationships.

How can he guarantee in a practical way that the environment he has painstakingly created continues to be productive and, above all, peaceful? To what extent can the total lack of a physical encounter between individuals adversely affect? If so, consulting with a colleague, recruiting new staff or approaching a new customer are actions that will have to face and submit to the modalities and timing of the virtual world. Not to mention the very high risk of a worker’s lowering productivity, caused primarily by the growing number of distractions that teleworking would entail.

These are just a few of the possible reflections on how the hypothesis of an almost exclusive remote work would be extremely harmful. However, the assertions reported here are not intended to stigmatize those who choose to make extensive use of remote working, they only aim to contain this last-minute frenzy, in order to invite avid fans of agile work to reflect on which strategy would be better to adopt.