Back to the office, hybrid or fully remote? I spoke to 1k companies
Back to the office, hybrid or fully remote?<p>I spoke to 1,000+ companies over the last 6 months to find out more about their plans<p>This is what I learned<p>[ a thread ]  
 HQ’s are finished: companies will cut their commercial office space by 50-70%<p>The will allow every worker to work from home 2-4 days a week, and come into the office 1-2 days a week 
 Fully distributed: ~30% of the companies we talk to are getting rid of the office entirely and going remote-first<p>Companies doing this have seen their workers decentralize rapidly, leaving expensive cities to be closer to family 
 Access talent: The first reason they are going remote-first is simple – it lets them hire more talented people<p>Rather than hiring the best person in a 30-mile radius of the office, they can hire the best person in the world for every role 
 Cut costs: The second reason they are going remote-first is because it lets them be far more cost-efficient<p>Rather than spending $20,000 &#x2F; worker &#x2F; year on office space they can provide the best remote setup on the planet for $2,000 &#x2F; worker &#x2F; year 
 Remote burnout: The productivity inside the companies we’ve spoken to has gone through the roof<p>Their biggest concern is that workers burnout because they are working too hard<p>They are actively exploring ways to combat this 
 Remote onsites: 60%+ of companies we talk to are already thinking about ways to use time together physically to improve culture<p>The most popular we hear is flying the team into remote locations for ~week. Portugal, Spain, Puerto Rico seem to be the most popular 
 Personal choice: the smartest people I know personally are all planning to work remotely this decade<p>The most exciting companies I know personally all plan to hire remotely this decade<p>~90% of the workforces we’ve spoken to never want to be in an office again full-time 
 Async by default: is the thing that organizations are struggling with most<p>The majority of companies have replicated the office remotely and it is causing strains that are beginning to show 
 Personal injury: These are exploding. Companies haven’t moved quickly enough to prevent them and back, neck and repetitive strain injuries are becoming a huge problem<p>Expect this to remedy this quickly by providing better, ergonomic equipment to workers 
 Universal problems: doesn’t matter the size of the organization, every company is dealing with the same thing<p>We spoke to early-stage companies, publicly listed tech companies, through to legacy incumbents with hundreds of thousands of employees<p>All will be more remote 
 Pollution reduction: many companies we’ve spoken to care massively about the environmental impact that eradicating the office – and the commute – will have<p>108 million tons of Co2 less every year 
 Quality of life: even more importantly companies are realizing that they don’t need to expect workers to waste 2 hours a day commuting to sit in an office chair for 8 hour<p>Almost every company we talk to believes that their workers will be happier as a result of remote work 
 Remote pressure: a few companies we’ve spoken to have decided to be more remote than they initially intended because their competitors already did it<p>There is a fear inside companies that if they don’t go remote they will lose their best people to their competitors 
 Remote fear: most companies aren’t scared about the quality of work that will be produced<p>They are scared about intangible things they can’t measure ‘quality of communication’ &amp;&amp; ‘collaboration in person’ &amp;&amp; ‘water cooler chat’<p>Many have realized these were excuses 
 Output over time: the measure of performance in the office is how much time you spend sat in your seat<p>The measure of performance while working remotely has to become output. Tools that enable this to be tracked more accurately are something we are asked for a lot 
 Written over spoken: documentation is the unspoken superpower of remote teams. The most successful team members remotely will be great writers<p>Companies are searching for ways to do this more effectively. Tools that enable others to write better will explode 
  Flattened orgs: middle management is in trouble, an unnecessary bottlenecks which serve no tangible purpose inside async organizations<p>Companies need coaching and facilitators to maximize organizational effectiveness 
 Company Resorts: Several companies are thinking about creating resort like compounds where work happens in person<p>Expect these to be built in incredible locations and focussed on providing the best on-site experience possible 
  Remote Laws: Many companies are beginning to operate under the assumption that the choice to work remotely will become a legal right<p>This will give workers the option to choose where they work, and many companies are acting before they are forced 
 Meeting Death: Wasting 2 hours traveling to a meeting will end. The benefits of in-person are eroded by the benefits of not traveling<p>Conferences and quarterly networking events will become more important for cultivating in-person relationships 
 Internal community: Team cohesion and company culture isn’t impossible remotely – but it’s very different<p>In the same way companies are finally realizing the power of community externally – internal community may become even more important to a companies success