In Nigeria, there is this silent status quo that if one isn’t in the office, one isn’t working or being productive and I always wondered why that should be a thing.
After a few conversations with some open-minded millennials, I got a clearer picture of why that is the case, it’s because the culture shifters in organizations today grew in a time when working in an office or a corporate setting was the norm and anyone seen rebelling against that deserved the guillotine, metaphorically speaking. However, over time the office became the place people were running away from, why? most times it’s due to the presence of toxic work culture. if you’re guessing what some of these are, here you go;
- Poor morale of employees
- Lack of communication
- Insistence on policies over people
- an obvious employee turnover
- Unapproachable bosses
- Undermotivated managers
the list goes on and these are very worrisome red flags that should be taken seriously, especially for the incoming generation of workers.
Don’t believe the hype about on-site work, your career and life depend on it!
Input the antagonist; Remote Work
As Naval said,
Remote work is an exit from 9–5.
Creator economy is an exit from employment.
Individuals are leaving institutions.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021, 47.8 million workers quit their jobs, an average of nearly 4 million each month, meaning 2021 holds the highest average on record, topping the 2019 average of 3.5 million. If Covid-19 taught the world anything, it’s that no one knows tomorrow…or perhaps it was the rapid decline in the health of millions that did the trick. Felt like the entire world woke up from colossal level hypnosis and decided to live life in a way that’ll bring them joy when death comes. The great resignation birthed a new truth, a new hustle, a freer way of living through this muddy life and that is: Working Remotely.
Should I then Quit my Job? what the hell?
The first reasonable step is a mindset halt. Step back from the rat race you so eagerly joined and re-evaluate who you are and who you need to become to be remotely close to contentment, because hey, we all crave the “soft life” and the soft life isn’t some synonym for laziness, no. It is “constructive productivity that benefits me as much as the company”
The next logical step is dusting up your online identity.
The 2022 resume is your LinkedIn profile people. The 2022 job market is on LinkedIn amongst other niche platforms, GET ACQUAINTED with these platforms. Get comfortable with learning new things, get acquainted with feeling “dumb” because from that realization comes a world of enlightenment and actual progress.
NETWORK. Not to sound cliché but closed mouths ACTUALLY don’t get fed. Become a point of contact for the people you see yourself becoming, it truly helps.
The “Office” ain’t it no more…
For a lot of modern-day professionals, their workspace is their minds. some go further as to manifest what they want the workspace to be as their “desk setup”
ps: did you know the average human spends up to 25% of their day sitting at a desk? wouldn’t you want to be at peace doing that?
Gone are the days of jobs requiring you to be at places you don’t care to be all in the name of a paycheck when there are better opportunities with a freer mode of getting the job done.
Take a mental trip with me, you’re in your sitting room working as a virtual assistant to a travel YouTuber and as you’re booking her trip to Columbia, you see a 50% discount for a cruise to the Bahamas. You take it. it also happens to be the end of the month and you receive a credit alert of $2700 from her with the tag “you’re my lifesaver I threw in an extra $200 to say thank you” …your cruise happens to cost a total of $170, you work in comfort and your “boss” appreciates your work and is vocal about it… the number of birds killed with one convenient stone at this point is too many to count.
You feel it. Don’t you? yeah.
I’ll end with 2 quotes from the Naval Ravikant
“Remote work starts with eliminating commutes and cubicles, moves through mass offshoring of white collar workers, and ends with globally mobile employers and employees”
“What free trade did to blue collar jobs, remote work will do to white collar jobs”
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