Thread by @chris_herd

$100B+ companies are delaying their return to office plans again

By the time offices open, people will have worked remotely for 2+ years

A few prediction on what happens next

[ a thread ] 💻🏠🌍

💫 Worker Choice: millions of workers will never go back to the office full-time

Companies who let workers choose where they want to work will dominate the next decade

☠️ Office-first Death: companies who go ahead with return to office plans will be crushed

All their most talented people will leave for companies who care about their quality of life

💰 Salary Wars: employers penalizing workers for where they choose to live will faces huge troubles

At some point trying to pay people doing the same job less than you did before may become illegal discrimination

🚜 Rural Living: many people, particularly those with families, will move to have more space, bigger homes outside big cities

Their will be a rebirth of ‘Second-tier cities’ and areas forgotten about as people left for opportunities only available in metropolis

🎡 Hybrid Conflict: what companies think hybrid work is and what workers think it is are two different things

Workers think it means being able to work remotely whenever they want

Companies think it means telling workers when they must attend

Huge resentment will happen

📫 Micro Coworking: spaces close to home will rise rapidly for people who don’t want to or can’t WFH

This will be a home on every street, kitted out with the right furniture, great coffee, and on demand fitness equipment

🛑 Async Emerges: remote work has lasted so long people are fatigued by the office being replicated remotely

Being in video calls all day makes you feel busy but crushed productivity

Most companies are looking to become more async as a result

🚘 Commuting Death: no matter what companies try workers will never accept commuting 2H a day again

Companies who don’t realize this will push their best people out the door

🧶 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

✅ 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

✍️ 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

🚌 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

⚖️ 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 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 on how to maximize effectiveness

🌍 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

🔋Worker Burnout: remote workers burning out because they work too much will has to be addressed

Wellness days will becomes the norm – company giving people surprise days off the recharge

💩 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

🧘‍♀️ 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

Interested in what all this might look like?

Firstbase.co