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I spoke to 1,700+ people about remote work in 2020
A few predictions of what will happen in 2021
[ a thread ]
A few predictions of what will happen in 2021
[ a thread ]
Remote competition: @FrancisSuarez is the first person to wield the power of Twitter to attract remote talent Almost every region that has something which would attract people to move there will do the same thing
Incentives for remote talent to move will grow quickly
Async-first: People now see offices are instantaneous gratification adult kids clubs where sync work makes it impossible to get stuff doneTools that enable async work are the most important thing globally remote teams need. A lot of startups will try to tackle this
HQ Slashed: Companies of every size cut their commercial office space by 50-70%People will work remotely 2-4 days a week, and come into the office 1-2 days a week
Companies will provide a great setup at home for their workers
Injury explosion: Companies that don't provide the right tools & equipment begin to get Sued for Millions of DollarsThis rapidly becomes a key point of differentiation between companies they use to attract & retain talent
Local community: Things like @GrowRemoteIrl indicate a future for local communities where remote workers become active in the areas they settleTowns & regions that have been crushed by the rise of the commute to the office will remerge
Remote onsites: 60%+ of companies I spoke to are thinking about how to better use time together physically They will begin flying teams into remote locations for weeks at a time to maintain culture
Several will build flagship locations internationally for this purpose
Personal choice: The smartest people I know personally are all planning to work remotely this decadeThe 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
Remote burnout: The productivity inside the companies we've spoken to has gone through the roofTheir biggest concern is that workers burnout because they are working too hard. Most are looking for ways to combat this
This will be a massive problem in 2021
Universal problems: Doesn't matter the size of the organization, every company is dealing with the same thingWe spoke to early-stage companies, publicly listed tech companies, through to legacy incumbents with hundreds of thousands of employees
All will be more remote
City unbundling: The exodus of SV will be a trend that is replicated in other metropolitan citiesPeople see they don't need the high cost of living – leaving them with no/low disposable income – and the relatively low quality of life living there gives you
Political reinvention: Regions not serving their people will face a reckoning they never expectedCovid has shone a light on dysfunctional government like almost nothing before it
Remote work now gives individuals the opportunity to vote with their feet and leave
Vertical platforms: Horizontal platforms dominated pandemic induced remote WFH. The problem is many are not optimized to be remote work toolsExpect more vertically focussed challengers to platforms like Zoom & Slack that focussed on very specific vertical funtions
Written culture: Documentation is the superpower of great remote teams. The most successful team members remotely will be great writersCompanies are searching for ways to do this more effectively. Tools that enable others to write better will explode
Personal care: A lack of commute gives workers 25 extra days a year to do what they loveWorkers will exploit the freedom they have to organize things more freely in their day
Expect a renaissance of health and wellbeing and the emergence of hobbies & local communities
Output over time: The measure of performance in the office is how much time you spend sat in your seat2021 will see the rapid adoption of PM tools most tech companies have been using for a decade across legacy industries
Private Equity: The hottest trend of the next decade will be purchasing office-first companies and making them remoteReal-estate savings at scale will be eye-watering. Productivity gains will be even more important
Next @Bridgewater & @Blackrock comes from here
Meeting Death: Wasting 2 hours traveling to a meeting will end. The benefits of in-person are eroded by the benefits of not traveling Conferences and quarterly networking events will become more important for cultivating in-person relationships
Bad Tech: Remote grew so popular so quickly that it will attract people who have no interest in it other than greed — like blockchain/crypto in 2017Their lack of understanding of remote work will lead to them replicating the bad parts of office working remotely
1 Car Households: The rise of remote will have tremendous indirect benefits towards slashing pollutionFamilies will benefit from only needing one car slashing cost of living, potentially cutting commuting a lot
Internal community: Team cohesion and company culture isn't impossible remotely – but it's very differentIn the same way companies are finally realizing the power of community externally – internal community may become even more important to a companies success
