Adopting Remote Work

Companies who don’t have a remote strategy won’t be competitive by 2030

Remote work is already everywhere. The smartest people I know all plan to work remotely this decade, while the most interesting startups I have discovered are all offering remote work. At the same time, there is a massive supply and demand problem. Far more people want remote jobs than there are remote jobs available. This had led to a perfect storm, particularly on social media, where a vocal minority evangelizes the remote work benefits while non-remote people question whether the benefits can be as great as is suggested.

Fortunately, this supply and demand problem eases with each passing day. Remote work has grown 400% in the last decade, while the number of full-time remote workers across the US and EU is projected to grow to 40m by 2030. While that is only a fraction of the 255m desk jobs globally, I believe that number will turn out to be a significant underestimation. As the workforce transitions to more flexible arrangements in search of better work-life balance, the inevitable implication is the rise of the two dominant locations of work away from the office: coworking space and remote working from home.

How can I predict that the number of full-time remote workers from home will race past 40m before 2030? Because the vast majority of remote workers today want to work from home

With that being the case, companies must deliver a far better experience to remote workers. Right now, remote workers are happy to accept less than optimum conditions because they see remote work as a perk.

It isn’t.

Remote work benefits both parties and a failure for companies to acknowledge that will be as costly as not going remote at all.

Companies who don’t:

• Go remote will lose their best people to their biggest competitors who do
• Provide a great remote work experience will lose their best people to their biggest competitors who do

Remote work experience is the thing that most companies are currently neglecting. We provide our remote work with all the physical tools they need to work remotely while failing to give them the physical tools they need to do their best work. Remote workers should be safer, more comfortable and productive at home than they can be in an office.

There is a missing half of remote work and that involves human connection, experience, and culture. It focusses on improving remote work and bringing it into the 21st century. Anyone who has worked remotely knows that sitting hunched over the kitchen table is a terrible experience. To do great work at home we need dedicated space. We need the right tools and equipment. Working remotely is only half the equation: we have the space to do deep focussed work in quiet isolation but we require more than that to do the best work we have ever done.

The economic calculations are even more obvious:

🏢Cost of the office:

• $18,400 per workspace
• 520 hours commuting 
• 5,443lb Co2 emitted 

Per person, every year

vs.

🌍The cost of remote work:

• $2,000 per workspace
• 0 hours commuting 
• 0lb Co2 emitted 

Per person, every year

A remote workspace is $16,400 less per year, per team member

Companies that don’t go remote won’t be competitive. Office-first companies will die twice:

• cost
• talent

💰 Real estate cost means they won’t be able to compete economically.

📍Fixed location will disqualify them from 99% of Worlds talent

Only being able to hire the best person you can afford within a 30-mile radius of your office will mean that your remote-first competitors become more talented than your company with every hire. At the same time, they will be operating at a lower cost than you.

⭐Great Talent

The most talented people are stipulating remote work as a condition of employment. Companies who don’t provide this won’t be able to attract the best people.

Companies who don’t give this to their existing workers will lose their most talented people to their biggest competitors.

🚦Changing Preferences

The smartest people I know personally ALL plan to work remotely in the next decade.

The most interesting companies I know personally *ALL* plan to hire remote workers in the next decade.

Remote will be the dominant workplace of the best companies and people.

⌛Efficiency

Office-first companies won’t be able to compete with remote-first companies in terms of efficiency, both economic and operationally. Not only will remote-first companies increase their average level of talent with each hire, they will be far more cost-efficient. City living is subsidized by companies, leading to a lower disposable and quality of life.

Most Companies Want to Go Remote

Why Now?

Remote work is the biggest workplace revolution in history and nothing will deliver a higher quality of life increase in the next decade than this. Workers having more flexibility to decide their work schedule, able to operate when they are most productive rather than a fixed day, enables a far better future of work than the one we currently experience. Organizing work around your life is a huge transition with major implications. Gone is the requirement to beg your bosses permission to go to an appointment, it is the ability to drop and pick your child up from work every day with time in the afternoon to go for your recharging run.

Being handcuffed to an office and expected to live in a high cost of living city with a low quality of life is a remnant of the industrial revolution. The devolution of offices into almost factory-like conditions as distraction factory adult kids clubs is complete. The office has become the worst place on the planet to get the isolation and focus you need to do deep work.

Make no mistake, remote work is exploding to prominence right now. We are living through the inflection point today. Shortly, workers will realize their power and influence to demand remote work.