There’s a lot of pressure on the term “remote work.” It has been — and will continue to be — a trending buzzword. But, remote work as a concept seems to be thrown around loosely, and often fails to adequately convey all of its radical implications. Remote work is not just a sparkly employment perk (though there are fantastic benefits of remote working). It’s not just working from the couch in pajamas. And it’s definitely not a digital nomad sipping a margarita in Bali while founding his next unicorn SaaS product.
No, the remote work trend is driving serious economic, urban development, and demographic change. It’s increasing environmental sustainability, social mobility, cultural inclusion, and much more.
I scoured what leading voices on Remote Twitter (you heard it here first!) are talking about to paint a meatier picture of what remote work really means today.
1. Remote work is reshaping the entire notion of work as we know it.
All of a sudden, most people I work with live outside San Francisco, outside California, outside the U.S.
— Nivi (@nivi) 11 января 2020 г.
2. Remote work isn’t a handicap. It encourages best practices for any kind of team.
All of a sudden, most people I work with live outside San Francisco, outside California, outside the U.S.
— Nivi (@nivi) 11 января 2020 г.
3. Remote work comes in all shapes and sizes: fully remote, distributed, hybrid, co-located … and it might not matter.
All of a sudden, most people I work with live outside San Francisco, outside California, outside the U.S.
— Nivi (@nivi) 11 января 2020 г.
4. Remote work obliterates the 9 to 5 work schedule. Workplaces must take this into account.
Love this! Landing a consistent style of collaboration and actively promoting inclusion are areas companies need to explore for a positive experience for remote workers. These are key challenges for “hybrid” companies (HQ-based office workers, periodic wfh, and compete remote).
— Julie Carey (@jcarey2424) 7 января 2020 г.
5. Remote work isn’t just about work/life balance, it’s about work that is sensitive to the varying needs of employees.
Love this! Landing a consistent style of collaboration and actively promoting inclusion are areas companies need to explore for a positive experience for remote workers. These are key challenges for “hybrid” companies (HQ-based office workers, periodic wfh, and compete remote).
— Julie Carey (@jcarey2424) 7 января 2020 г.
6. Remote work changes the game for recruiting and hiring.
Building trust and understanding comm preferences with teammates is key.
— Chad Fife (@chadfife) 12 января 2020 г.
7. Remote work is about how you’re working, not where you’re working.
A3: First, I put my home office in a remote part of the house that I don’t pass by unless I’m heading to work. And, it has a door! I also put my laptop to sleep at the end of the work day, and don’t often check my work email after hours on my phone. #RemoteChat
— Scott Dawson (@scottpdawson) 15 января 2020 г.
8. Remote work is waving goodbye to Silicon Valley-centrism.
A3: First, I put my home office in a remote part of the house that I don’t pass by unless I’m heading to work. And, it has a door! I also put my laptop to sleep at the end of the work day, and don’t often check my work email after hours on my phone. #RemoteChat
— Scott Dawson (@scottpdawson) 15 января 2020 г.
9. Remote work is giving rise to tools that improve remote and IRL teamwork.
Seeing more tech companies use “remote-friendly” to retain top execs
We should expand our view of counter-urbanization to include more than a permanent move to a boring suburb @remoteyear (now 6 years old) was early in a much bigger trend towards remote stints for tech workers
— Brianne Kimmel (@briannekimmel) 13 января 2020 г.
10. Remote work gives insight into how policy, capitalism, transit, and other social systems work together.
Seeing more tech companies use “remote-friendly” to retain top execs
We should expand our view of counter-urbanization to include more than a permanent move to a boring suburb @remoteyear (now 6 years old) was early in a much bigger trend towards remote stints for tech workers
— Brianne Kimmel (@briannekimmel) 13 января 2020 г.
11. Remote work can learn from those thinking about diversity, inclusion and accessibility in the workplace.
⏰ Asynchronous Work: Offices are instantaneous gratification distraction factories where synchronous work makes it impossible to get stuff done
Tools that enable asynchronous work are the most important thing globally remote teams need. A lot of startups will try to tackle this
— Chris Herd (@chris_herd) 1 января 2020 г.
12. Remote work is feng-shui-centric.
This decade, ‘mobile work’ will dominate as productivity on mobile devices gets 10x better than productivity on desktop and people are able to work from anywhere (not just at a desk in an office)
— Greg Caplan (@gdcaplan) 2 января 2020 г.
13. Remote work is more than a perk.
This decade, ‘mobile work’ will dominate as productivity on mobile devices gets 10x better than productivity on desktop and people are able to work from anywhere (not just at a desk in an office)
— Greg Caplan (@gdcaplan) 2 января 2020 г.
14. Remote work is creeping into hiring in different ways.
This decade, ‘mobile work’ will dominate as productivity on mobile devices gets 10x better than productivity on desktop and people are able to work from anywhere (not just at a desk in an office)
— Greg Caplan (@gdcaplan) 2 января 2020 г.
15. Remote work is about mastering asynchronous work.
The current temperatures of our distributed team. Brrrlington #remoteworkers pic.twitter.com/dYZwWk3BHR
— Tiller Money (@tillermoney) 18 января 2020 г.
16. Remote work is going mobile.
The current temperatures of our distributed team. Brrrlington #remoteworkers pic.twitter.com/dYZwWk3BHR
— Tiller Money (@tillermoney) 18 января 2020 г.
17. Remote work begets empathy: for time zones, for location, for cultural differences.
The current temperatures of our distributed team. Brrrlington #remoteworkers pic.twitter.com/dYZwWk3BHR
— Tiller Money (@tillermoney) 18 января 2020 г.
18. Remote work breeds really good communication hygiene.
The current temperatures of our distributed team. Brrrlington #remoteworkers pic.twitter.com/dYZwWk3BHR
— Tiller Money (@tillermoney) 18 января 2020 г.
19. Remote work levels the playing field.
4⃣ I don’t think team #productivity has to be difficult when you work in a distributed team.
Effective collaboration is built on 3 core ideas:
1. Open and honest feedback
2. Intentional documentation ✏️
3. A culture of accountability— John Xie (@johnxie) 15 января 2020 г.
