Remote work isn’t a new way of working. Remote work is a new way of living. Unshackling people from sitting in a pollution emitting metal box for 2 hours a day commuting to a distraction factory adult kids club where you waste your days not doing anything and padding out an 8 hour day before you go home and have no time left.
The office is great because of reasons that have nothing to do with work.
Remote is great because you get work done while living your life
Millions of people are about to realize how much easier it is to do great work quicker when you’re not in an office, which is going to make it incredibly difficult to go back to the office. There are advantages to office working but everything true for the office is true to a greater or lesser extent for working remotely as well. The difference is that the benefits of remote work are not typically available to people who work from an office. These are:
Quality of Life
Remote work is about improving your quality of life
Giving people the freedom to organize work around their lives rather than the other way around. Working when it suits them rather than being expected to occupy a seat
Trust
Remote work is about trust
Giving adults the autonomy to do great work rather than appeasing the ego of a middle manager who feels important watching their team, interrupting them constantly with meeting requests and idle chatter which distracts them.
Control
Remote work is about control and flexibility.
Letting them drop and collect their children from school, attend appointments without asking for permission, going for an afternoon run if that’s what they need to re-energize.
Allowing people to work when they are most productive rather than prescribing a singular approach for everyone that fits nobody.
Balance
Remote work is about balance.
Having the time to do the things we love with the people we care about most. Working remotely has freed me to spend more time with my family and friend, improving my health well-being and happiness
Autonomy
Remote work is about autonomy
Putting people in a position to do the best work they have ever done in their lives by getting out the way and letting them do it.
Every day I hear awesome things remote has let people do. Caring for a family member, having the freedom to surf at lunch, seeing your Childs 1st steps, allowing people to work who physically couldn’t in an office.
Real human stories with a massive impact and noticeable implications on happiness.
Remote work is about health and well being, happiness and joy, time and freedom
Companies who appreciate this will dominate the 2020s
The benefits for companies are equally as obvious as they are for workers:
Money
Office-first companies spend $18,400 on average, per workplace, per person. For a 1,000 person company, this is a massive expense $18.4m a year
Remote is $2,000 per team member for the best possible remote setup, or a $16.4m saving per 1,000 workers.
Talent
A physical office means you can hire the best person you can afford in a 30-mile radius, disqualifying you from 99.9% of the world’s talent.
Remote teams can hire the best person they can afford on the planet.
First-mover
Companies who move first have a massive benefit.
They’ll hire the most talented people from their biggest competitors. They will keep their best people from leaving because remote team members stay longer.
Productivity
The biggest challenge for companies is that setting a remote team up for success is expensive, time-consuming, and making sure workers are safer more comfortable and productive at home than they could be in an office is hard.
Originally published on LinkedIn.com