TRAVERSE CITY — Eric Roberts, executive director of 20Fathoms in Traverse City, often works remotely from his home.
So does his wife, Christine Roberts, though the company she works for, Poly, Inc., is a little bit farther west — California, to be exact.
Is working remotely a growing trend in the business world?
“I sure do (think it’s becoming the trend),” said Roberts. “It was COVID-accelerated. COVID sent everybody home. We’ve seen a lot (working remotely) here at 20Fathoms.”
For those who want to turn their nostrils to the winds of business and begin their own company, 20Fathoms can help. For those who want to reach out to other businesses to gain insight and trade knowledge, 20Fathoms can help. And, for those who have questions about working remotely with their current employer, 20Fathoms can help there, too. It’s all a matter of innovation.
And yet, there are reasons to be excited about such innovations, and reasons to be wary.
Roberts sees many positive reasons for why a person might work at home, including something so important as how a married couple might benefit from when the husband works remotely from home for couple days each week in order to watch over the household — and if they have kids, to provide childcare — and then go into his office as needed there while his wife works at home to oversee the same, before she returns to her office when needed. Switching back and forth like that, he said, is a win-win for everyone. It’s teamwork.
But he also sees a few negative things about only working at home, and not going into an office to be among the coffee klach group, as well as to gather with others over the drinking fountain.
Little employee-to-employee encounters like those, he said, often lead to important job-related discussions.
“It’s not so much (the loss of socialization from working remotely) as it is when you don’t engage (personally with others to ask), ‘well, what do you do … or, how does that work, or, what’s going on right now.’ It challenges your mind.”
And to Roberts, those face-to-face, shoulder-to-shoulder encounters even in passing in hallways can pay great dividends.
Since its inception four years ago, 20Fathoms has served as an incubator — a think tank, if you will — to guide and assist other startup companies on their path to success by offering a multitude of professional, managerial and technological services, workshops, and more.
And when those other businesses aren’t meeting remotely, 20Fathom also offers conference room space where people can sit face-to-face to discuss their goals, innovations and more.
“We definitely saw a trend over the last year where companies wanted to use our conference room space,” said Roberts. “One company, who didn’t have a single employee in the Traverse City area, thought it would be a cool place to have their get-together. Six employees scattered all around the U.S. flew into Traverse City and booked our conference room for a couple of days and they were in there (doing their) strategy.”
For several years prior to moving to Traverse City, Roberts worked in Silicon Valley. Now, as executive director of 20Fathoms — which has a membership of nearly 100 and continues on its own upward trend — he is looking forward to the challenges and rewards that lie ahead, as well as to just relaxing in the Traverse City area, which he and his wife so-carefully selected to call their new home.
When asked, “Why here, why Traverse City?” his responding chuckle was immediate, gentle and meaningful.
“It’s Traverse City!” he said, suggesting that such as simple answer was self-evident.
More information is available at 20Fathoms.org.
Gloss