Why Remote Work is Inevitable
Any company that doesn’t offer the same remote work flexibility as its biggest competitors will perish.
People Want It
9 in 10 people desire some form of remote work.
“What’s more, 27% of workers say that the ability to work from home is so important to them that they are willing to take a 10% to 20% pay cut to work remotely. And, 81% say they would be more loyal to their employer if they had flexible work options.”
Companies who doesn’t let their teams work remote as much as they want will lose them to competitors.
The same way eCommerce disrupted traditional commerce and destroy companies that refused to embrace it, remote work will destroy office-first companies. Amazon started selling books before expanding to all kinds of products. Remote work started with tech and is now expanding to other industries.
Covid enforced work from home but it has not been a normal remote work. Lockdowns, homeschooling, a global pandemic put a lot of restrictions that prevented most people experiencing all the benefits of remote working. Remote working doesn’t mean working from home, it means work from anywhere.
Some people didn’t like the remote experience. Most of them were exposed to incredibly difficult conditions they’ll find difficult to accept. With exposure to the remote experience post Covid many will realize they like the benefits.
People who liked remote during Covid will like it even more post Covid. People who hated it during Covid have a chance of liking it when things open up. There are close to 300 million desk jobs globally. Surveys point to 90% people never wanting to work in an office again full-time.
Benefits Asymmetry
Everything done in the office can be replicated to some extent in remote. Sure there are differences, some things will not be perfect, others need to be adapted. But it can be similar. Most benefits of remote? can never be replicated in the office.
Rebuilding the way of living: with office work people place themselves to live in a 50km radius from the office, expending several hours per week in work commute. Remote is a bridge to a higher quality of life. Being able to live where they want, spending more time with people they choose, having more time to do whatever they love.
Remote work will not replicate the office work model. Asynchronous work enables the creation of new working processes and styles that empower people to work better. Remote allows work to be tailored to the individual rather than the collection, empowering deep focused work and avoiding distractions.
Remote Work Environments
Some workers miss the office: The top reason people miss the office is because they miss seeing their colleagues.
“For all the positives that remote work has brought, there are people who miss the office. Specifically, 49% of those surveyed said they miss seeing their colleagues, with 14% saying they miss water cooler chats, and 11% reporting they were lonely.”
Co-working mega offices in big cities are not a viable alternative to work offices as they fail to solve the problems office have. A better alternative are local micro co-working spaces. Spaces in every street with great amenities will emerge and dominate.
Remote is Inevitable
Companies that resist remote will only be able to hire the best people they can afford in a 50km radius while remote competitors can hire talent from virtually any location. From an economics point of view is stupid to expend €20k/year per employee for an office space when everybody want to work remote. It only takes a small fraction of companies (lets say 30%) to offer remote work, to cause all their competitors to be obligated to do the same just to stay in the business.
Remote work is proven. Now everybody knows it works. People know, companies know. There is no comeback.
Half of all the desk jobs that exist globally will be done remotely most of the time by 2030.
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