Heard this from 100+ people:

Company surveys team on how much remote work they want

60%+ want remote 4+ days a week, 95% want 3+ days

Company says they will allow remote 1-2 days a week

Company SHOCKED by anger

Media won’t report this!

[ a thread ]

Emotional rollercoaster: Companies response usually looks this:

why is this happening?
we’ve had offices for decades
why do they not like them now?
THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY WANT!

They think they know better!

Hyper Turnover: We’re about to live through the highest period of turnover in history between companies

People will optimize for the work situation that gives them the highest quality of life

Companies hiring remotely will dominate the next decade as a result

Office Death: Companies who go back to the office full-time will be crushed for 2 reasons:

Talent: If you go back full-time & biggest competitor doesn’t they’ll steal your best people

Efficiency: they save $20k / worker a year on office space + have higher productivity

Worker Power: People are realizing that in a knowledge-based economy talent *is* the company

Talent wants remote work

They will quit companies than don’t give it to them

Rapid Change: Google announced their return to the office one week. The next they changed their mind

Fear of losing talent will force companies to give their people what they want

Management Mistakes: We will see this play out in every industry. From tech to the most traditional

Senior leadership will continue to get this wrong because they don’t get it and can’t relate to their teams anymore

Manager Fear: Middle managers feel productive from feeling busy

Workers are productive when they get shit done without distraction

When middle managers only way to feel valuable is by stopping workers from feeling productive we have a massive problem

History Repeating: Department stores got crushed by eCommerce

They thought nobody would buy anything online. They were wrong. Most people buy most things online

Companies missing out on remote get crushed for the same reason

Most people want to work remotely most of the time

Growing Anger: Companies believe that once people are back in the office they’ll realize how much they miss it

The opposite is far more likely. When people go back to having a commute they will resent the office for wasting so much of life

Destroyed Benefits: having to go to an office 3 days a week ruins many benefits of remote

People still have to live close enough to commute regularly, have a high cost of living, and little flexibility

Genie Escaped: There is no way to put it back in the bottle. We all now know remote work works

Being able to do deep focussed work without the distractions enables people to do better work

There is no good reason for a return to the office full-time

Base Estimate: Millions of people have only experienced pandemic remote work

Normal remote work is 10X better

If 95%+ of people already want 3 days a remote, this number will skyrocket once lockdowns, homeschooling etc. ends

Quality of life: The future of work is so important because it is really about the future of living

This is a quality of life upgrade that an entire generation has been waiting for

If we miss that we will regret it for the rest of our lives

Access opportunity: Offices have discriminated & disqualified a huge number of people from being able to access great jobs

The most diverse, accessible and inclusive organizations in history should emerge

It’s on the shoulders of everyone in this space to make sure it does

Invisible Barriers: Offices are great places for certain people. Remote first orgs are great places for everyone

It doesn’t matter if you’re a single parent, a carer, or you have a health condition or impairment that makes office working impossible

Remote fixes that

The Big Choice: There are only two types of company after Covid

- remote-first
- office-first

Wherever leadership spends most of the time will dictate the type of company you work for

Remote Laws: The choice to work remotely will become a legal right

Eventually, companies won’t have a choice. People will have full control over their working location

Number of Remote Jobs: There are 255M desk jobs globally

130M+ jobs will be done remotely more than three days a week by 2030

Incentivised Relocation: Local governments will quickly realize the value of highly paid remote workers moving to their state

@FrancisSuarez has been a incredible here for Miami, which will be the first global hub

How can companies get this right?

http://FirstbaseHQ.com