Overview

Common factors related to leadership style

与独裁/家长式领导风格相关的影响因素

Perceived issues with remote working

人们对远程工作的感受态度

Culture is a mindset – not a place

文化是一种思维倾向 – 无关乎地方

Communication 沟通

Return to work  重返办公室工作

Live Webinar Content Abstract 直播内容摘要

The concept of working from home (independent remote working) has historically not been a major factor in Chinese business culture. A key explanation for this is the nature of the culture itself; in Chinese society group orientated collectivism has a long tradition. Based on Confucianism, where being a 'community man' (qúntǐ de fènzǐ) (群体的份子) and someone with a 'social personality' (shèhuì de réngé) (社会的人格) is esteemed; as well as the worldly and family focused (shìgu) (世故) personality type. 

      在家办公（远程的独立工作）的概念并不是中国商务文化长久历史以来的一个重要因素。对这一现象的一个关键解释是中国商务文化本身的性质；在中国社会，群体导向的集体主义有着悠久的传统。以儒家思想为基础，在儒家思想中，“群体的份子”（qúntúde fènzǐ）和“社会的人格”（shèhuì de réngé），以及世俗和家庭为中心（shìgu）（世故）的人格类型是受人尊敬的。

A well-known Chinese case study from Ctrip covers the implementation of a pilot remote working initiative. At the time (2013) the 16,000-employee, NASDAQ-listed Chinese travel agency was a pioneer in the Chinese market; as remote working was almost unknown. Call centre employees volunteered to either work from home, or in the office, for 9 months. Despite many of the objections listed above being cited against the project, home working actually led to a 13% performance increase overall.

      携程在中国的一个著名案例研究涵盖了试点远程工作计划的实施。作为当时（2013年），在纳斯达克上市的中国旅行社（Chinese travel agency）有1.6万名员工，是中国市场的开拓者；由于呼叫中心的远程工作是不需要与人面对面沟通的，因此携程允许呼叫中心员工自愿在家或办公室工作9个月。尽管上面列出了许多反对该项目的理由，但在家工作实际上导致了整体业绩增长13%。

There exists a possibility of over-communication - most people are not natural multitaskers – allow for set periods of non-communication time to boost productivity. Similarly, make it clear that there is no competition to be first to reply in a WeChat group – slavery to an app is similar to keeping watch for the boss in the office; both are enemies to efficiency. Finally, remember that work is not 24/7 and that, just because staff cannot be seen, does not mean that they do not have their own issues and personal commitments to attend to.

      远程工作还会存在着过度沟通的可能性- 大多数人不是天生的多任务者-允许设定非通信时间段来提高员工生产力。同样，要明确的是，不要把在微信群里率先回复消息通知也看作是竞争性的–被应用程序奴役类似于你在办公室里盯着老板的一举一动，随时准备响应对方而没有专心工作；以上两者都是效率的敌人。最后，请记住，工作不是全天候的，仅仅因为看不到工作人员，并不意味着他们没有自己的问题和个人承诺要处理。

When remote working employees return to ‘normal’ work patterns, there is bound to be a period of readjustment; for both staff and management. Frankly, many will have enjoyed the new found ‘freedom’ of working at home, not having the boss behind their shoulder and no long commutes to the office. Just simply returning to the employment policies of before the experience is likely to be both counter-productive and short sighted – once something is done it is very difficult to ‘undo’ it. 
       当远程工作的员工恢复到“正常”的工作模式时，员工和管理层必然会有一段时间的调整。坦率地说，许多人将享受新发现的在家工作的“自由”，没有老板在背后，也没有长时间上下班。所以在员工们返回工作岗位后，并简单地恢复以前的工作管理政策上，可能会适得其反，而且这也是目光短浅行为– 远程工作模式一旦在公司被普及，就很难“消除”它的影响，即便不少企业是被迫采用了这样的工作方式 –作为现代化企业，我们应该考虑到远程工作的积极作用并灵活融入企业现有的管理模式中来.