Distributed Workforce in the Time of The Coronavirus: SmartWork Has Always Been The Way Ahead

During the peak of the ICO “boom”, AmaZix had over 150 industry-leading team members working from their sofas, beds, in cafes, pubs, libraries, park benches, log cabins in the woods, on boats, in treehouses, spas, theme parks and all kinds of other locations all while doing their jobs to the very highest of levels. This is something that we are very proud of.

AmaZix began life back in 2017 as a blockchain consultancy firm. The six founders — the original AmaSix — firmly believed in the principles of decentralization and, as a result, chose to function as a distributed, global team. The AmaZix team has remained fully distributed — working remotely from across the world — ever since.

In addition, our team works with flexible hours to suit each person’s schedule, making it far easier to find a good work/life balance. We do not believe that a rigid 9-5 working day is particularly efficient, practical or pleasant.

Some people are early birds, some are night owls, some have to drop off and pick up their kids from school, some just enjoy a long siesta in the middle of the day and we are more than happy to facilitate this because allowing people to manage their own time often leads to much higher-quality work as various studies have shown.

When life happens, which it often does, with some need that pulls us away from our work at an unexpected time, team members can deal with it without any stress around fixed working hours; we can just make up the time when we are ready.

Remote work undoubtedly has its shortcomings, though these can be mitigated once you get a grip on things. Probably the most commonly cited issue is the isolation factor. It is easy to feel cooped up in your home and lonely since your colleagues are often on the other side of the world.

This is a big problem that can tank contentment, creativity, and productivity quickly. We solve this with frequent video calls, voice chat rooms and, now and then, virtual afterwork socials where everyone orders themselves a pizza or two and hops on a group video chat to socialize and have a good time.

There are, as you might imagine, many major advantages to remote work. It is great to roll out of bed a quarter of an hour before work, work from the comfort of your own home, have your own kitchen, be able to wear whatever you like, and not have to take a long journey every morning – often cramped into some form of public transport vehicle with a group of strangers – to get to an equally cramped office bumping elbows with your colleagues.

These are all things that we have been bragging about for years now to all of our “conventional job” friends.

However, it was not until now, when the world is gripped with fear over the rapid spread of Coronavirus and people are being prompted to work from home wherever possible, that the health benefits of remote work were really highlighted.

With a fully decentralized workforce, none of our team members have to risk contamination from exposure to large groups of unknown persons in enclosed spaces like the bus, trains, the underground, offices or canteens.

There is no need to touch the handles of shared bathrooms and doors in public spaces. There is no need to trust that the workers cooking your canteen lunch and breathing on your food don’t have a sniffle that they are writing off as a hangover symptom.

In other words, as well as being decentralized, we are trust minimized – with a near negligible need to depend on others for our own health and safety.

It is incredibly important for companies to take care of their workers, especially in this time of a global pandemic. Many employers are taking the wheel and finding ways to reorganize their businesses to facilitate remote work; either just as a short term solution or for the long haul.

We strongly support these employers and the governments across the world that have encouraged employers and workers to move towards remote work at this time.

With the advantages of remote work becoming increasingly clear, we look forward to seeing a future free from oppressive office jobs and with healthy, happy workers staying safe and enjoying their careers.

Now that so many corporations have allowed their employees to work from home due to the current crisis, workers and businesses alike will be able to clearly see the many advantages to remote work. For workers, it is all of the things mentioned above – flexible hours, creature comforts, safety, mental health, convenience and so on.

For employers, advantages include reduced overheads (office hire, electricity, computers, physical space health and safety, etcetera), a happier workforce and, often, improved output from employees.

We expect that many employees will never want to go back to working from their offices leading to an increase in people looking for remote work opportunities and an increase in the number of online entrepreneurs.

Equally, many enterprises may realize that they would prefer to employ a distributed team due to the many advantages associated. If your company is looking to make this transition or you are a worker looking to venture into remote work, AmaZix will be releasing guidance and tools to help you over the coming weeks so keep your eyes peeled.

Though the Coronavirus has been devastating and looks to only worsen over the coming weeks, we hope that one positive side effect will be a global transition to an increasingly distributed and free workforce living an unfenced existence that is safer, more efficient and more convenient.

(Originally published here)