47
Fenton says his employees love being able to
spend more time with their kids. They get to k now
one another by observing their apartments during
video calls; Fenton has a cat often sleeping on the
couch behind him, for instance, and he has a ukulele
on his wall. People log in early to video meetings just
to have idle c hats, and they have g reat memories
from the all-company in-person meetings, he says.
Fenton argues that the importance of meeting
someone in person is overrated; humans c an mis-
read body language, and they can be daydreaming
even in an in-person meeting.
Still, I found it hard to agree with Fenton a s we
talked over a Zoom video call; I wanted to l ook h im
in the eyes and show him that I was listening, but
instead I had to stare at the small g reen dot on my
computer. If I took my eyes off it, he might t hink me
rude for looking away from him. I asked Fenton i f any
of his employees lived alone and felt depressed or
lonely, and he said he wasn’t sure. Before coronavirus
closed h is g ym, Fenton would make sure to go to a
6:30 a.m. fitness class each day t o get some in-person
interaction. Now he’s working o ut with friends over
video c alls. “ It was a little unusual at first,” he says,
“but it’s been a great outlet and a lot of fun.”
Fenton says that interacting with people remotely
is different from but not necessarily inferior
to meeting them in person. “It’s like learning
a new language—not a complicated language,
just different,” he says of adjusting to remote
communication. “And once you get to understand
the d ifference, we’ve noticed that people just a djust
very naturally.”
That’s the argument that Spatial is making
too. Agarawala, the CEO, says that as 5G rolls out,
augmented reality will become faster and less glitchy.
Nreal, a tech company that is partnering with Spatial,
will this year release its Light augmented-reality
headset that looks more like a pair of sunglasses
than the current clunkier AR headsets, and that
should speed up adoption of remote work, Spatial
says. Already, Spatial is working on features that will
improve the collaborative experience; when p eople
say a word, for instance, they can make i t a ppear i n
the room, which can focus discussions. Spatial is also
working on simulated blinking and lip-synching to
make avatars look more real.
The c ompany has seen an uptick in interest since
the coronavirus started spreading, says Lee, the CPO,
but e ven if the corona virus goes away, remote work
tools like Spatial will take over, because they’re
essential to combatting another crisis: climate
change. If people work remotely, buildings will have
smaller carbon footprints and people won’t need to
fly a cross the world to meet. Holographic meetings
would help the world cut down on carbon, he says.
Whether they will lead to a spike in loneliness i s
another question. □1 63 MILLION
Number o f p eople i n t he U .S. w ho h ave
been o rdered o r a dvised t o s tay home; as
of M arch 2 4, g overnors in 17 states had
directed r esidents n ot t o g o o ut u nless
they h ad j obs p roviding essential services
that c ould n ot b e p erformed remotely6 7%
Percentage of employers who have t ake n
steps t o e nable workers who usually come
into t he o ffice t o w ork f rom h ome, a ccording
to a s urv ey by t he l aw firm S eyfarth Shaw
conducted M arch 1 2 t o M arch 1 613%
Share o f H ispanic o r L atino w orkers who
were a ble t o w ork from home in 2017 and
2 018, a ccording t o d ata f rom t he A merican
Time U se S urv ey ; by c ontrast, 1 8% o f b lack
workers, 26% of white workers a nd 2 8% o f
Asian w orkers could work remotely4 7%
Share o f w orkers with a bachelor’s degree
who work f rom h ome at l east o ccasionally,
according t o A merican T ime U se S urv ey2 8%
Percentage of single-person h ouseholds
in 2 018 i n t he U .S., u p f rom 1 6% i n 1 968;
in J apan, 34.5% o f h ouseholds were
single-person as of 2015, and more than
half o f h ouseholds i n D enmark , S we den
and L ithuania were m ade u p o f p eople
living a lone i n 2 0161 5 YEARS
Amount o f t ime r esearchers say p rolonged
social i solation can p otentially s have off a
person’s life spanREMOT E WORK
BY T HE NUMBERS
ILLUSTRATION BY BROWN BIRD DESIGN FOR TIME
WREMOTEWORK.indd 47 3/25/20 2:01 PM