I've spoken to 2,000+ people about remote work in the last 12 months

A few predictions of what is likely to emerge before 2030

[ a thread ] πŸ’»πŸ πŸŒ
🚜 Rural Living: People will move to smaller cities, have a lower cost of living & higher quality of life

These regions must innovate quickly to attract that wealth. Better schools, faster internet connections are a must
⏰ 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
⚽️ Hobbie Renaissance: Remote working will lead to a rise in people participating in hobbies and activities which link them to people in their local community

This will lead to deeper, more meaningful relationships which overcome societal issues of loneliness and issolation
🌍 Diversity & Inclusion: The most diverse and inclusive teams in history will emerge rapidly

Companies who embrace it have a first-mover advantage to attract great talent globally. Companies who don't will lose their best people to their biggest competitors
βœ… Output focus: time will be replaced as the main KPI for judging performance by productivity and output

Great workers will be the ones who deliver what they promise consistently

Advancement decisions will be decided by capability rather than who you drink beer with after work
πŸ’° Private Equity: the hottest trend of the next decade for private equity will see them purchase companies, make them remote-first

The cost saving in real-estate at scale will be eye-watering. The productivity gains will be the final nail in the coffin for the office
😴 Working Too Much: Companies worry that the workers won't work enough when operating remotely.

The opposite will be true and become a big problem

Remote workers burning out because they work too much will have to be addressed
✈️ Remote Retreats: purpose built destinations that allow for entire companies to fly into a campus for a synchronous week

Likely staffed with facilitators and educators who train staff of how to maximize effectiveness
❀️ Life-Work Balance: The rise of remote will lead to people re-prioritizing what is important to them

Organizing your work around your life will be the first noticeable switch. People realizing they are more than there job will lead to deeper purpose in other areas
πŸ’© Bullshit Tasks: The need to pad out your 8 hour day will evaporate, replaced by clear tasks and responsibilities

Workers will do what needs to be done rather than wasting their trying to look busy with the rest of the office
πŸ§˜β€β™€οΈ Health & Wellbeing: A lack of commute will give workers 25 extra days a year to do other things

Workers will exploit the freedom they have to organize things more freely in their day. Afternoon runs, morning meditation, 2 things a lot of people I know now do
πŸ€– personal RPA: robotic process automation will transform work for individuals

No-code tools that enable workers to built bots that automate menial parts of their roles will be huge
πŸ’€ Death of HQ: the office is dead but offices will persist. They’ll be used less frequently then hardly at all

Co-working, subscription clubs, will emerge that let workers who prefer that mode of work to operate from there
🚐 Remote Living: Work from anywhere RVs will become huge business

Associated business parks and services will spring up. This will happen even more rapidly as self driving tech emerges

Expect a @Tesla product in this space
βš–οΈ lifework balance: massive increases in part-time and freelance work

A recognition that we no longer have to sacrifice work for living, we can organize work around our lives
🎟 Remote Visa: small nations coming together in order to attract remote workers at different stages of the year

Huge opportunity to synchronise education to enable families to be more fluid in their locations
πŸ›‘ Meeting Death: wasting 2 hours travelling to a meeting will end. The benefits of in-person are eroded by the benefits you get of not travelling

Conferences and quarterly networking events will becomes more important for cultivating in-person relationships
πŸ’ƒ Personal choice: the smartest people I know personally are all planning to work remotely this decade

The most exciting companies I know personally all plan to hire remotely this decade

~90% of the workforces we've spoken to never want to be in an office again full-time
✍️ Written over spoken: documentation is the unspoken superpower of remote teams. The most successful team members remotely will be great writers

Companies are searching for ways to do this more effectively. Tools that enable others to write better will explode
Interested in why these companies are talking to me?

FirstbaseHQ.com

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More from @chris_herd

23 Jun
fear: offshoring from remote work

reality: renaissance of states, cities, towns, and places forgotten about as people left in pursuit of opportunity only available in big cities where they can now return to due to remote work
many of the people who fear this have no idea how high wages are in the places they think jobs will disappear to
and some people genuinely argue that a $10K-$50K expense of an office is going to keep jobs here? $10M-$50M per 1,000 person company

after a global pandemic that literally proved almost any job can be done remotely over 15 months of a global pandemic
Read 7 tweets
9 Jun
Back to the office, hybrid or fully remote?

I spoke to 1,000+ companies over the last 6 months to find out more about their plans

This is what I learned

[ a thread ] πŸ’»πŸ πŸŒ
🏒 HQ’s are finished: companies will cut their commercial office space by 50-70%

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

Companies doing this have seen their workers decentralize rapidly, leaving expensive cities to be closer to family
Read 23 tweets
8 Jun
Remote work is about access to opportunity

I’m from a small city in Scotland. Never stepped foot in SF. Likely never have to

No longer an obstacle to success πŸ”₯
I still live in that city in Scotland

At no other time in history would I be able to do what I’m doing from this location

Remote work will do this for millions of other people globally as well ❀️
I can stay closer to family and friends

My daughters can grow up near their grandparents

Remote work is the most important quality of life improvement in at least a generation
Read 4 tweets
8 Jun
the benefits of in-person meetings aren't going to be as big as some people remember and the time they waste getting there will lead to massive resentment
this will lead to people questioning WTF they are doing traveling 2H to and back from a meeting that is 30 minutes long

flying overnight for a 30-minute meeting? finished

some people think there will be a pullback to the norm

but that assumes both parties want this

they won't
"well that's the price we pay for collaboration"

you mean that thing that has continued remotely during a global pandemic, which everyone was forced into overnight with no processes in place to make it work?
Read 15 tweets
6 Jun
If it’s β€˜entitlement’ for 95%+ of people who never want to work in an office again full-time to want remote work going forward

How would you describe the less than 5% of people who want the return to the office trying to force it on everyone?
Workers everywhere have fought to keep companies alive during a global pandemic in the most difficult circumstances imaginable

During it, they discovered a higher quality of life they prefer

The know their job can be done remotely – they did it!

Good luck walking that back
Remote work doesn’t mean work from home

It means work from wherever you do your best work

If that’s an office – great! Enjoy the office

Nobody will force you to work from home but they want to force people into the office in the name of β€˜collaboration’
Read 6 tweets
3 Jun
Several tech giants will be disrupted by remote work

What happened to companies that didn't adopt computers? Implement Software? Embrace the internet

Same thing happens to companies that don't embrace remote work

theverge.com/2021/6/2/22465…
.@pmarca wrote "why software is eating the world" a decade ago

Companies are about to be eaten by remote work

9 in 10 people never want to work in an office again full-time. Full-time office companies face the biggest exodus of talent in history

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
This is a replay of eCommerce vs. physical stores

Physical retail is no longer economically viable because eCommerce is more convenient, cheaper, and it offers far more flexibility, control, and choice.

Virtual-first companies crush office-first companies
Read 12 tweets

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