Remote work is the biggest workplace revolution in history and nothing will deliver a higher quality of life increase in the next decade than this. Workers having more flexibility to decide their work schedule, able to operate when they are most productive rather than a fixed time, enables a far better future of work than the one we currently experience. Organizing work around your life is a huge transition with major implications. Gone is the requirement to beg your bosses permission to go to an appointment, it is the ability to drop and pick your child up from work every day with time in the afternoon to go for your recharging run. As such a new way of working is required.
The below is not designed to be a set of commandments.
It’s a starting point that will be improved as remote work grows. If you think anything can be improved or altered, let me know. The Remote Work Manifesto will evolve over time. Much like the Agile Manifesto from which I have taken inspiration it is a framework rather than a fixed set of rules that are to be followed word for word.
We are uncovering better ways of working remotely by doing it and helping others do it as well.
Through this work we have come to value:
1. 🤝 Trust over surveillance culture
Remote assumes trust rather than expecting people to earn it.
2. 🎮 Control your life over living to work
Remote is about organizing work around your life rather than the other way around.
3. 📅 Flexibility of time over set schedules
Remote gives you the freedom to work when you’re most productive to do your best work
4. 🚀 Autonomy in tasks over fixed processes
Remote gives you control over how you complete your tasks. Open objectives give you the autonomy to decide how to do them.
While there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.
Principles behind the Remote Manifesto
We follow these:
- The highest priority is to improve workers quality of life concerns by addressing their life-work balance
- Encourage the transition from a time-based work culture to one that is judged by measurable output performance
- A deep willingness to share and learn from the best practices of other remote teams
- Office and remote based staff must work together in order for the future of work to benefit everyone
- Embrace asynchronous working styles over the instantaneous gratification of synchronous working
- Seek diversity of everything. The less homogenous a team is the more capable it will become
- Remote work is the opportunity to do your best work with the fewest distractions
- Great work is the measure of success
- Issolation if a feature, not a bug
- Great written communication and documentation are table stakes for success. The willingness to read then respond thoughtfully critical to your continued success
- Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential
- At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly
The 2020s will be the Remote Work Decade
Being handcuffed to an office and expected to live in a high cost of living city with a low quality of life is a remnant of the industrial revolution. The devolution of offices into almost factory-like conditions as distraction factory adult kids clubs is complete. The office has literally become the worst place on the planet to get the issolation and focus you need to do deep work.
Make no mistake, remote work is exploding to prominence right now. We are living through the inflection point today. Shortly, workers will realize their power and influence to demand remote work.
I actually think I’m being pessimistic when I state that remote work will be the dominant form of work within a decade. If the right tools exist it will be more like 5 years.
123m people+ working remotely in 2024/2025
There’s a real possibility that’s how soon it will happen. The sooner you make the transition the better. Great workers with an evidenced ability to work remotely will be the most sought after team members in the world within 2–3 years. With that being said I feel it’s critical that I nail my bias for the rise of remote work to the post. Most authors won’t give you firm predictions about where they think the world is headed. I feel that if I don’t provide something that this piece can be market against, it loses weight. Here are the 33 trends I predict will be most important as remote work rises to dominate every workspace:
1. 🏦 Third Space
Office and Working from Home will be joined by somewhere close by that a number of people will use
Supermarkets or local bank branches should emerge as a convenient ubiquitous location option — if they are smart
2. ⏰ 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
3. ⚽️ 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
4. 🚜 Rural Living
World-class 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
5. 🌐 Constant Presence
Asynchronous work lets you have the issolation to do deep work but it’s not always required
Communication solutions which enable presence, like an open mic while gaming, will become more compelling
6. 👨🔬 Bad Tech
Remote will grow so popular so quickly that it will attract people who have no interest in it other than greed — like blockchain/crypto in 2017
Their lack of understanding of remote work will lead to them replicating the bad parts of office working remotely
7. 🤬 Remote Rejection
Certain demographics and generations will reject the transition. Their benefit — that everyone in the office is like them and it’s easier for them to progress — will be their reason
Companies that don’t transition will be left behind
8. 🌍 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
9. ✅ 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
10. 🚘 1 Car Households
The rise of remote will have tremendous indirect benefits towards slashing pollution
Families will benefit from only needing one car slashing cost of living, potentially cutting commuting a lot
11. 💰 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
12. ☠️ The death of Coworking
The last recession was the beginning of the end for bespoke vanity office
The next recession will spell the same thing for co-working spaces
The rise of remote will mean a majority of the 255m desk jobs globally are remote by 2029
13. 💘 Talent Wars
Remote work is the perk that is most sought after by workers globally. This will only increase
Remote-first companies will disrupt every incumbent who doesn’t/isn’t able to make that transition
14. ✍️ Written Communication
the most important skill for workers to cultivate. Reading and understanding also key
Cultural issues arising from misunderstanding meaning behind the way people write becomes a big issue
15. 😴 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
16. 👀 Distraction Avoidance
The home office will skyrocket in popularity. A space at home to get away a necessity
There will be an explosion of people purchasing standalone units for their backyards for this.
17. 🌍 Global Citizens
Individuals with no national attachment become ubiquitous. Challenges of paying people cross border due to compliance and legal issues slowly fade away as the world becomes more borderless
18. ✈️ Retreat Destinations
Global hubs will pop-up that cater to remote teams getaways
Resort-like escapes with a deep focus on team building, collaboration, planning, and efficiency. Hotels with facilitators /coaches who assist teams for the duration
19. ❤️ 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 a deeper purpose in other areas
20. 💹 Fractional Ownership
remote work will make advancement less important/more difficult
Rather than reward being a better title, fractional ownership could enable workers to be more easily rewarded with ownership of their companies/make the market for equity more liquid
21. 💩 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
22. 🌏 Decentralized Opportunity
Remote work will do more for inequality than anything in history. Workers everywhere will find the best, highest paying job
The fear that this will depreciate wages will be unfounded as companies will need more talent than exists
23. ♿️ Accessible Jobs
Remote work will make work more accessible than it has ever been
Nothing will stop workers getting the job they deserve because there will be no obstacles in their way
24. 🛠️ Remote Tools
Companies operating remotely now will have created tools every remote team on the planet needs
Several $Billion Startups to emerge this way
25. 🤹♀️ Multiple Jobs
The gig/freelancer economy will evolve. Remote work allows workers to have multiple employers
The difference in terms of reliability and consistency will be huge, eradicating doubt, lead to better conditions for workers
26. 📈 Remote Jobs
There won’t be enough remote jobs for at least the next 5 years. World-class people will drive the change
They will demand more remote opportunities and realize the influence they have to make their companies give it to them
27. 💾 Remote Infrastructure
The focus on the sexy won’t change any time soon
There is a missing half of remote work that’s neglected because it’s difficult, boring, and unsexy
It will be the most critical. Until that’s solved remote teams won’t scale globally easily
28. 🎴No Code
Will grows to dominate creation
@webflow, @figmadesign, amongst others will democratize access unlike ever before. Remote workers who have an area of expertise and one of these broad skills will be unicorns at first before everyone else realizes the need
29. 🤗 Social Contact
Loneliness, disconnection neither improved or worsened by remote work
A number of people’s main social contact comes at work, with people decided by their bosses hiring policy
Remote work must lead to deeper more meaningful relationships with friends/family
30. 🧘♂️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
31. 👶 Child Connection
Hearing your child’s first laugh, seeing their first steps won’t just be in the memory of one parent
Being there, feeling like your children know you. Dropping them at school each day. Small things that remote gives
32. 🎫 Visa Issues
The problem with workers having to leave a job due to the expiry of their visas will no longer exist
Companies won’t accept losing their best people simply because their right to be in a specific country expires
Remote will be an easy option
33. 🌎 International Talent
Great for developing countries. International companies will access to talent globally
Access to opportunity will be decentralized
34. 👑 Job Title Death
What your job title is will become more irrelevant as remote work becomes more prominent
What you do, what you’re capable of, the tools you can wield will enable you to do jobs that break you free from the shackles of a title
35. 🛠️ Universal Tools
Global workforce that understands and the same SAAS services means technical debt for training =$0
Companies add another seat to SaaS platform and worker uses the same tool they would use if they were in an office or with a different company
36. 👴 Older Workforce
Boomers may be standing in the way of the remote work revolution happening quickly, believe least in its benefits, lack the trust for it to emerge
Ironically, remote work will allow them to work far more easily later in life
Remote Work Myths
The criticism of remote work is largely wrong and driven by people who have never worked this way. If someone has not worked remotely, their criticisms can be largely dismissed. That doesn’t mean there are no challenges, there are.
In order to better understand the challenges we need to address whether, and to what extent these are true. As the office begins to fade from relevance, a vocal minority fight for it’s continued domination as the default location of work. Not only does that miss the point of why remote work is inevitable, it argues in favor of a form of working that is wasteful in every single way. The reason remote work will replace office working is that it is 10X better. The benefits on every side — worker, company, environmental — are so significant that it can’t be ignored.
In truth, the office has last longer than it should have already. Technology that enables the remote work revolution has existed for the best part of half a decade. The requisite communication, collaboration, and documentation tools have existed for so long many have them have already made it to the public markets. At the same time super-fast internet connections being widely available ensure those software work the way they were meant to in any remote location that has access.
1. 🗣 Face to face is always better
Reality: Less office drama as it takes more work to Zoom/write someone to gossip vs meeting someone at the water cooler
Illness is reduced massively as germs don’t spread in an office. Face to face interaction is redistributed from idle gossip to focus on getting work done.
2. 🤝 Some people’s main social contact comes at work
Reality: Your boss selecting your closest social contact is a very bad situation.
Remote work lets you develop deeper relationships with friends/family, more freedom for hobbies to meet like-minded people.
3. ✋ But I made some of my best friends in the office
How do you know you wouldn’t have made those friends remotely?
Gamers meet some of their closest friends online — they have more in common because they have a greater influence on who’s on the other side
4. 👥 collaboration suffers
Reality: collaboration changes
Asynchronous allow more focussed communication while giving people the issolation they need to do deep work. People still come together when they choose to, not every five minutes when they are interrupted
5. 🌐 How can I trust them to work
Reality: remote workers often work too much
If you don’t trust workers to do their professional duty, you shouldn’t have hired them
6. ☕️ Most of our problems are solved in breakout areas
Reality: this rarely happens
Instead, a culture of wasted time to pad out an 8 hour day is explained away by this platitude
7. ☹️ What about the loneliness?
Reality: you spend more time with your friends and family and develop deeper more meaningful relationships
The office leads to shallow/narrow relationships which don’t typically defeat loneliness
8. 👨👩👧👦 Our office and colleague are like a family
Reality: it’s not. The office is a cult designed to make you voluntarily sacrifice your time for the machine
9. ⏰ Timezones are so hard
Reality: timezones take work
The synchronous working conditions within the instantaneous gratification distraction factories that offices have become have led us to believe that immediate answers are required.
This is a failure of planning/process
10. 💪 Teamwork is our Superpower
Reality: meetings and bureaucratic nonsense stands in the way of teams constantly
Communication and collaboration software is now so good it’s comparable.
Not equivalent, but very good
11. 🎼 Our culture is what differentiates us
Reality: culture is largely homogeneous and lacks diversity.
The office is a great environment for some people — everyone is like them, hiring decisions made on the strength of social bonds formed out of hours — terrible for everyone else
12. 🤝 Nothing beats synchronous working
Reality: An excuse for wasting time.
More meetings, more email to make people feel productive. Time is the main KPI.
Output should be the only thing that matters. That is what remote is.
13. 🍺 Advancement is more difficult
Reality: the office makes it easier for certain demographics because promotions are decided not just on the quality of work you do.
Remote work only cares about how you perform. The office still works on politics and who you drink with out of hours
14. 🔥 Our Culture sets us apart
Reality: It is largely homogeneous and prevents you being as diverse as you should be
More diverse teams breed better cultures, offices self-select for more of the same people because you want it to stay the same
15. 👨👩👧👦 We are a family
Reality: This is the cult of office speaking. You might spend most time with your colleagues but when things hit the fan you see that family only sticks together as long as things are up and to the right and you are performing
16. 🥘 We offer food
Reality: You use tools which elongate the time spent at the office to extract a surplus of hours from workers voluntarily
This typically leads to burn out and is a reason why workers end up feeling a lack of purpose from their work
17. 🏓 The office environment is better
Reality: It is if you prefer an adult kids club type of atmosphere dominated by table tennis and foosball
Most workers want to do their work and enjoy doing that. Gimmicks for entertainment are a distraction
18. 🌃 The city is better
Reality: Being in the city forces your workers to have a high cost of living.
This makes it more difficult for them to have a high quality of life. It demand that they are in a specific geographic location rather than where they want to be
Those are the issues before seeing negatives of office working
There are a huge number of those but I’m going to focus on the 5 most important which will mean companies who don’t go remote will be replaced by companies who do very quicky
1. 🌍 Local Talent
The office means you can only hire the best person you can afford in a 30 mile radius around it — remote work means you can hire the best person in the world.
Which company do you think wins with everything else being equal
2. 💥 Distraction as default
The office is a distraction factory, instantaneous gratification of synchronous work makes it impossible to do deep work.
Asynchronous working should be default for every knowledge worker. That’s remote work
3. 🚘 The Commute
On average, office workers waste 22 days of their life a year sitting in a metal coffin travelling to work
This is your time, you never get it back. In that time I now read, eat with family and workout. Health and well-being become important because I have time for them again.
4. 🙋Retention is a huge problem
It is expensive and takes a long time to train each replacement
Companies that don’t go remote will lose their best people to their biggest competitors who offer remote work first.
5. 💰 Real estate costs will be a major red flag for investors
It will be seen as a wasteful, egotistical, capital expense and tell investors you don’t have the best talent possible
Fear of Remote Work Will Kill Companies
You can see it happening already. Scared to act, leading to a paralysis of progress. Innovation is inevitable and those who move to embrace and understand it benefit from a deeper understanding more quickly. Office-first companies will lose most of their best people to their remote-first competitors. As the most talented go remote, the talent gap will increase rapidly. Companies who don’t go remote will die slowly as they bleed their best talent, then quickly as they can’t compete.
Hiring best talent in a 30-mile radius of an office disqualifies you from 99.9% of world’s talent. Each hire lowers the average ability of office-first compared to remote competitor.
Some Statistics to Back up the argument?
🍪 3 in 5 knowledge workers (57 percent) say the option to work remotely is one of the perks they’d most prefer to be offered by an employer.
- free daily lunch (42%)
- unlimited vacation time (39%)
- recreational activities, e.g. ping pong/foosball (25%)
🏡42% of knowledge workers believe they are most productive working from home.
🏢32 % feel they get more done in an office.
👴52% of Baby Boomers say home is where they are most productive, only 38% of Millennials.
🧶 only 11% of Baby Boomers work remotely full time, as opposed to 31% of Millennials.
👩Women are more likely to say they are more productive when working from home (50% vs. 37% of men)
👨Men are more likely to say they’re more productive in the office (35% vs. 27% of women).
❤️ Full-time remote knowledge workers spend more hours, on average, each workday doing meaningful work (i.e., work that has significance/purpose) compared to their office worker counterparts.
- 6.2 hours for remote workers
- 5.7 hours for office-bound ones
💥 66% of knowledge workers think the office will disappear by 2030.
⚡️ 71% Millennials believe the traditional office will be replaced with most positions being done remotely
🏡 84% of remote workers work from home
- coworking spaces (8%)
- coffee shops (4%)
- libraries (0.5%)
- other places (3%)
✈️ 44% of remote workers travel while working between one week and one month per year
🌎 25% do this more than one month of the year
📧 Email me
Interested in remote work?
Building any of these predictions? Got any ideas or thoughts on the most important things that will emerge
I want to help you 👇👇