This is a op-ed that Deirdre wrote for Journal.ie about remote working in response to Donald Trump bringing the sensitive topic onto the airwaves

One of President Trump’s first executive actions last Monday was to direct all federal workers back to the office full time, leaving many people fearing that his action marks the end of remote working. But I’m not so sure…..

I know there are many organisations moving back to working from the office, from the big tech giants to smaller businesses like ours, but as a business owner I genuinely don’t get it.

We have a team of 20 and almost five years ago, when the country and the world shut down in mid March 2020, we gave remote working a shot – packing everyone off with their laptops and the words “let’s try it out for two weeks“!!

Five years on, it’s been such a positive move for Fuzion. As business owners, my partner Greg and I we believe that as long as people are not feeling isolated, have a suitable workspace and are productive, as long as the lines are not blurred too much between professional and personal lives, and as long as everyone is available for client and team meetings – virtual (with the camera on!!) or in person, then it works for us.

After a lot of learnings over five years, we now have strong structures in place including solid induction and mentoring processes, one to one check ins, team days and our Fuzion Fridays, where once a month we break bread together. We provide office space that members of the team use to meet up, mostly arranged once a week and at other times, when members of the team fancy some interaction with colleagues, or a break away from the four walls of their home office, they use the office facilities or meet for a cuppa.

We also set our team professional goals and monetary targets at the beginning of the year, which are reviewed monthly. These keep everyone focused, they nurture personal responsibility and are a great performance tool for all of us.

By facilitating remote working it also really helps attract and retain talent – our team loves the cost benefits, the travel time saved and the flexibility it gives them and the trust, as business owners, that we show them.

Geography is now less of an issue when recruiting and we have wider access to talent which is a benefit to the business and our clients.

The majority of our clients are also working remotely so they have also pivoted to virtual meetings. They too like the flexibility and it gives them more access to more members of our team, sometimes at short notice, without the need to travel. It saves on time, on costs and everyone is much more productive.

But don’t just take my word for it.

Since Trump’s announcement so many people have defended remote working and the benefits it brings. One of the most vocal advocates of remote working, is Nick Bloom, a Stanford Professor and Economist who has been studying remote work for over two decades. After Trump’s action on Monday Nick posted on LinkedIn, giving compelling reasons why Trump’s directive for Federal workers won’t mean the end of working from home.

Here are his three reasons why:-

1) This announcement was known since last Autumn. But despite the advanced warning no-one has followed – WFH has been flat since early 2023. (Nick referenced a detailed presentation on Working from Home which he went on to share here)

2) Hybrid WFH is very profitable for firms – it has no net effect on productivity but cuts costly turnover (source Nature.com paper). This is why 80% of Fortune 500 firms are hybrid for managers and professionals (Reference Flex Index).

3) It is unclear if this will actually be enforced and persist. The Return to Office will lead to high quit rates, particularly amongst hot skill areas like IT. This could hit Federal websites, systems and payments. Federal IT was never that great to start with, so I can see a lot of risks. Say veterans payroll or the IRS taxes processing fails – some disaster like that could lead to a quiet reversal.

So, yes, Federal Workers are being forced back to the office. But I do not think many other companies will follow, and I’m not sure if the Federal policy itself will even be fully enforced or persist.

So I’m with Nick – and with Spotify who’s HR chief recently stated that remote staff aren’t ‘children’ as the company became an outlier in the tech sector, reiterating that their work-from-anywhere policy will remain in place.

As for our company Fuzion, remote working is something we are consistently reviewing, so that we deliver on promises to clients and have a happy, productive team – but five years on I can’t see us going back to the office full time anytime soon.

Deirdre

Deirdre Waldron is the founding partner of Fuzion, and she is the Head of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs.