With the advent of the COVID-19 epidemic the world has discovered two alternatives to the working in the office: smart working and remote working.
These two terms nowaday are used interchangeably but they have some differences that we will find out in this article.
What it is smart working?
Smart working is more a philosophy that a methodologies of work that require a particular mindset and it is base on three main principles:
- Flexibility of place
- Flexibility of time
- Organisational culture of the company
Flexibility of place
With the smart working you can work wherever you want.
You can plan to work for 6 months in Bali and the rest of the year in New York; or you can simply work from your van while are you traveling the world ;)
Flexibility of time
With the smart working you can work at every time and for how much time it’s necessary.
The most important thing it’s not doing the classic 9 am to 5 pm everyday, but achieve the goals in time.
Organisational culture of the company
In order to let the employees to work whenever and wherever they want the management must be adopt a mindset based on two principles:
- Totally trust in the employees. The management should have trust in the employees and should not monitor always if they’re working.
- Work for goals. The company should not create a mindset where the employees work regularly 8 hours per day but instead they must create a mindset where the employees works for goals
What is remote working?
With the remote working you usually have a workstation at your home and you must follow the classic 9 am to 5 pm working hour from monday to friday.
You may have a flexibility of time and place, but you need to keep in mind that the company follow the 9 am to 5 pm working and sometimes you must respect this working hour.
Furthermore, if you decide to work in a timezone completely different of your company, the company could require you to work in the timezone where the company is based.
Basically the differences between smart working and remote working is that often, with the remote working you should follow the working hour of your company and you have don’t have so much flexibility regarding the time and the place.
With the smart working, instead, you can totally decide whenever and wherever you want to work.