Remote Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Making the Best of It

Buchanan, Nicholas D; Aslaner, David M; Adelstein, Jeremy M.; MacKenzie, Duncan M; Wold, Loren E.; Gorr, Matthew W.

doi:10.1152/physiol.00035.2020

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…While we did not find any research directly related to product design engineers’ attitudes towards virtual work , studies of related fields—such as scientific research—that rely on access to physical labs and spaces have discussed the unavoidable interruption caused by a forced work-from-home policy due to the inaccessibility of hardware equipment (Buchanan 2021 ). In our context, product design engineers have previously been described as locally mobile: they spend a lot of their day moving around the office to maintain awareness, discuss with colleagues, build and test, or locate parts (Bellotti and Bly 1996 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 70%

“Why couldn’t we do this more often?”: exploring the feasibility of virtual and distributed work in product design engineering

et al. 2022

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Lower costs and higher employee satisfaction are some of the benefits driving organizations to adopt dispersed and virtual working arrangements. Despite these advantages, product design engineering teams—those who develop physical products—have not widely adopted this working style due to perceived critical dependence on physical facilities and the belief that it is ineffective to communicate technical details virtually. This paper uses the mass shift in working conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to explore the feasibility of virtual and distributed work in product design engineering. We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with product design engineers working virtually to uncover current challenges of, and the beginning of promising strategies for, effective virtual engineering work. We categorize and analyze Tangible Design activities, Intangible Design activities, and Communication and Project Management activities throughout the product design process. Contrary to present opinions, we found that much of a product design engineer's work is realizable in a virtual and distributed setting. However, there are still many challenges, especially when attempting Tangible Design activities—those that require physical products and tools—from home. These challenges, missing from existing virtual product design engineering literature, include but are not limited to individuals’ lessened sense of accountability, fewer de-risking opportunities before product sign-off, and limited supervision of production staff. Product design engineers described novel strategies that emerged organically to mitigate these challenges, such as creating digital alternatives for engineering reviews and sign-offs and leveraging rapid prototyping. Recent advances in technology, an increased commitment to reducing environmental impact, and better work-life balance expectations from new generations of workers will only push society faster towards a distributed working model. Thus, it is critical that we use this opportunity to understand the existing challenges for distributed product design engineers, so that organizations can best prepare and become resilient to future shocks.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 70%

“Why couldn’t we do this more often?”: exploring the feasibility of virtual and distributed work in product design engineering

et al. 2022

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“…The lack of a deliberate design in remote work and work flow (Sethi & Saini, 2020) has caused problems throughout schools and resulted in knowledge fragmentation (Ferreira et al, 2021). Loneliness, though mediated by control of time, remains a major problem beyond supervision (Buchanan et al, 2021). Autonomy has proven to be a major enhancement to remote workers, but the paradox has been autonomy has also caused an erosion of having a regularity to one's day and life (Ratz et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structure of Remote Work in Public Education: A Rapid Scoping Review

Coker

2021

IRE

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Remote learning predominates the research literature during the COVID-19 pandemic, while remote work structures and workflow research were unknown. A rapid scoping review was conducted for remote work and workflow for 2020-2021. After locating and screening articles, a qualitative synthesis of the literature explored trends and themes using thematic analysis. A discussion of the perplexities of remote work and workflow, issues which impact every student and teacher, examined the problems of the new normal. Recommendations were to use Fayol’s principles as a guide within the context of using a holistic schooling experience focus, a formalized policy, and making leadership and management standardized and present within a remote environment. Limitations were discussed, and future directions for research gave a plan to improve remote work and learning.

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“…Lab culture integrates the culture of diversity, collaboration, and teamwork by bringing together complementary knowledge and skills from members who often have different expertise, experience, and scientific and cultural backgrounds (Genovesi, 2014 ; Maestre, 2019 ; Powell, 2020 ). The COVID‐19 pandemic suddenly affected labs’ capacities (i.e., the sum of all research activities carried out in a lab), and researchers had to adapt from an almost full‐time remote workforce during lockdown phases to partial‐to‐full in‐person work during phases with lifted social restrictions (Buchanan et al, 2021 ; Figure 1 ). The shift between different COVID‐19 phases led scientists to face drastic daily changes by adopting different working dynamics, potentially having negative impacts on lab's capacities due to reduced teamwork efficiency, interactions between lab members, and lab members’ welfare (Figure 1 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The COVID-19 pandemic suddenly affected labs' capacities (i.e., the sum of all research activities carried out in a lab), and researchers had to adapt from an almost full-time remote workforce during lockdown phases to partial-to-full in-person work during phases with lifted social restrictions (Buchanan et al, 2021; Figure 1). The shift between different COVID-19 phases led scientists to face drastic daily changes by adopting different working dynamics, potentially having negative impacts on lab's capacities due to reduced teamwork efficiency, interactions between lab members, and lab members' welfare (Figure 1).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting lab culture to enhance academic resilience during crises

Arranz

Nobre

Carvalho

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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The COVID‐19 pandemic has heavily impacted academics’ professional and personal lives, forcing many research groups (labs) to shift from an academic system primarily based on in‐person work to an almost full‐time remote workforce during lockdowns. Labs are generally characterized by a strong lab culture that underpins all research and social activities of its members. Lab culture traditionally builds on the pillars of in‐person communication, knowledge sharing, and all social and professional activities that promote collaboration, team building, scientific productivity, and well‐being. Here, we use the experience of our research group facing the COVID‐19 pandemic to illustrate how proactively reinforcing lab culture and its positive outcomes have been essential to our lab when transitioning from an in‐person to a remote lab environment, and through its ongoing evolution toward a hybrid remote/in‐person model. We argue that the proactive promotion of lab culture in research groups can foster academic resilience during crises, helping research groups to maintain their capacity to conduct scientific activities while preserving a sustainable life/work balance and a healthy mental condition.

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Remote Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Making the Best of It

Cited by 10 publications

References 3 publications

“Why couldn’t we do this more often?”: exploring the feasibility of virtual and distributed work in product design engineering

“Why couldn’t we do this more often?”: exploring the feasibility of virtual and distributed work in product design engineering

Structure of Remote Work in Public Education: A Rapid Scoping Review

Promoting lab culture to enhance academic resilience during crises

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