Managing Remote (or Hybrid) Employees: What They Don't Tell You in the Textbooks

The Zoom fatigue is real, but so is the productivity boost when you get it right.

After seventeen years of managing teams across everything from construction sites to corporate boardrooms, I can tell you that remote work isn't the villain everyone made it out to be in 2020. But it's not the silver bullet either. It's messier, more nuanced, and frankly more interesting than most leadership gurus want to admit.

Here's what I've learnt: managing remote employees is less about technology and more about psychology. Less about tracking hours and more about understanding humans.

The Trust Trap Most Managers Fall Into

Let me be brutally honest here. Most managers are control freaks. I was one of them. Back in 2019, I had this elaborate system of check-ins, status reports, and what I now realise was workplace surveillance disguised as "accountability measures." It was exhausting for everyone involved.

The shift to remote work forced me to confront an uncomfortable truth: if you can't trust your employees to work without constant supervision, you've either hired the wrong people or created the wrong culture. There's no middle ground here.

I remember Sarah, one of my best project managers, telling me six months into our remote arrangement: "Andrew, I'm getting more done in four focused hours at home than I used to in eight hours at the office." She was right. The constant interruptions, the performative busyness, the meeting-for-meeting's-sake culture - remote work stripped all that away.

Why Flexibility Beats Structure Every Time

This might be controversial, but I think rigid remote work policies are killing productivity faster than anything else. You know those companies that insist on 9-to-5 video calls and mandatory camera-on policies? They're missing the point entirely.

Different people work differently. Some of my team are night owls who do their best thinking at 11 PM. Others are early birds who've solved three problems before most people have had their coffee. Why would I force everyone into the same box?

Take Melbourne-based consulting firms - the smart ones have figured this out. They focus on outcomes, not optics. Skillwave gets this right with their approach to business supervising skills. They understand that supervision in the modern workplace isn't about watching; it's about supporting.

The Communication Conundrum

Here's where most remote managers stuff it up completely. They either over-communicate to the point of harassment or under-communicate and leave everyone guessing. Neither works.

The sweet spot? Predictable touchpoints with meaningful content. I've settled on a rhythm that works: quick Monday morning check-ins (15 minutes max), mid-week project updates, and Friday wrap-ups that actually celebrate wins instead of just identifying problems.

But here's the thing nobody talks about - you need different communication styles for different personality types. Your introverts might prefer Slack messages over video calls. Your extroverts need more face-to-face interaction. Your detail-oriented team members want written summaries; your big-picture thinkers want verbal discussions.

One size fits none. Always.

The Technology Trap (And How to Avoid It)

Every second week, some new productivity app promises to revolutionise remote work management. Most are expensive solutions to problems you probably don't have.

I've tried them all. Asana, Monday.com, Notion, Slack, Teams, and a dozen others I've forgotten. Here's what I've learned: the tool doesn't matter as much as how you use it. A simple shared document can be more effective than a $50-per-user-per-month platform if everyone actually uses it consistently.

The best remote work setup I've seen? A Brisbane-based training company that uses three tools maximum: Slack for quick chats, Google Workspace for documents, and Zoom for face-to-face time. That's it. No fancy project management dashboards, no time-tracking software, no employee monitoring tools.

Simple works. Complicated fails.

The Meeting Mistake Everyone Makes

Remote meetings are not the same as in-person meetings. Stop treating them like they are.

In-person meetings can handle meandering discussions, multiple side conversations, and spontaneous brainstorming. Remote meetings need structure, clear agendas, and defined outcomes. When you ignore this difference, you get those soul-crushing two-hour video calls where nothing gets decided and everyone's exhausted.

My rule: if it can be an email, make it an email. If it needs discussion, keep it under 45 minutes. If it's about relationship building, schedule it separately and keep it optional.

Performance Management in the Remote World

This is where I made my biggest mistake early on. I tried to replicate in-person performance management virtually. Big error.

Remote performance management needs to be more frequent but less formal. Instead of quarterly reviews, think monthly conversations. Instead of annual goal-setting, try quarterly adjustments. The pace of change is faster when you're distributed, so your management approach needs to keep up.

I also learned that celebrating wins is ten times more important in remote settings. In the office, success has natural visibility. Remotely, achievements can get lost in the digital noise. Make recognition intentional and public.

The Hybrid Headache

If remote work is challenging, hybrid work is the advanced degree. You're essentially running two different management systems simultaneously, and if you're not careful, you'll create a two-tier system where office workers get more attention and remote workers feel like second-class citizens.

The solution isn't perfect, but it's workable: default to remote-first practices for everything. If the remote workers can't participate fully, change the format. It's easier to bring in-office people into a digital conversation than to extend an in-person meeting to remote participants.

Some companies are nailing this. Learning Grid has resources about supervising teams that acknowledge these realities instead of pretending they don't exist.

What Nobody Tells You About Remote Leadership

Leading remotely requires a completely different emotional intelligence skill set. You can't read body language as easily. You can't sense the mood of the room. You can't have those informal corridor conversations that often solve problems before they become problems.

You need to become hyperaware of written communication tone. You need to check in more intentionally. You need to create artificial opportunities for the natural relationship-building that happens automatically in physical spaces.

It's harder work, but it's also more intentional work. And intentional usually beats accidental.

The Energy Management Secret

Here's something that took me three years to figure out: remote work is more mentally exhausting than office work, even when it's more convenient. The constant context switching between work and home life, the effort required for digital communication, the lack of natural boundaries - it all adds up.

Smart remote managers factor this into their expectations. They build in buffer time. They encourage actual lunch breaks. They model switching off after hours instead of just talking about work-life balance.

Your team's energy is finite. Manage it like the precious resource it is.

Making Remote Work Actually Work

After all these years and all these experiments, here's what I know for certain: remote work succeeds when managers focus on outcomes instead of activities, trust instead of control, and people instead of processes.

It fails when managers try to recreate the office experience digitally instead of creating something entirely new.

The future isn't fully remote or fully in-person. It's flexible, human-centred, and probably messier than the neat categories we like to create. And that's perfectly fine.

Related Articles:

• Growth Network Blog - Insights on professional development
• Skills Grid Resources - Leadership and supervision guidance