REMOTE WORKING

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307 items in REMOTE WORKING

Is the future of EU tech to be an off shoring hub for US tech employers? I’m not sure that Europe would outcompete LATAM, given time zone alignment but wage arbitrage leading to the geographical dispersal of jobs is an accelerating trend for all knowledge work. Lots to ponder.
Issue #393 published 21 Apr 2024
Our friends at cord regularly pull out some great data driven content from their tech candidate matching platform. The main point in this post: the increasing dissonance between job seeker desire for remote (67%) versus the eroding commitment of employers (16%), with downstream impacts on all the conversion KPI’s we care about - offer acceptance rate etc. Very useful blog to share with hiring managers who insist on RTO
Issue #392 published 14 Apr 2024
Remote Work Trends 2024
REMOTE WORKING
Brainfooder Henley Wing Chiu, Founder of Revealera, has conducted a review of Remote jobs since 2020. Some fascinating insights including percentage of jobs remote (going up), which jobs most likely to be remote (Account Execs, S/W Eng, Digital Marketeers), degree of seniority most likely remote and more. It’s a massive blog, stuffed full of fascinating data. Well worth a look for any who cares about remote.
Issue #391 published 7 Apr 2024
Richard Baldwin is a labour market economists who is criminally under-the-radar. His twitter and LinkedIn are both worth a follow. Here he is introducing a paper which analyses the relationship between offshoring (he calls this ‘teleworking’) and AI/Automation. Whilst I’m still in the camp that remote —> offshore—> automated, this paper provides evidence that there is less direct substitution that we think. Academic but accessible read.
Issue #390 published 31 Mar 2024
Richard Baldwin is a very interesting economist who studies globalisation, with a particular focus on how technology creates arbitrage opportunities for companies who want to optimise. His argument here in this 30 minute podcast is that knowledge workers in emerging economies will be the big winners of the shift to remote. I particularly like his term ‘tele-migrants’. Worth a listen and Richard, very much worth a follow on X and LinkedIn.
Issue #389 published 24 Mar 2024
Fascinating research on from HR Payroll firm Gusto, which measured the changes in distance between employees resident post codes and their stated office location. Employees are now living much further away than they were before 2019, especially if they were hired after 2019. Moving away from 5 days on premise unlocks longer distance per employee - we’re much more likely to tolerate a longer, less frequent commutes.
Issue #388 published 17 Mar 2024
Peak Office
REMOTE WORKING
I don’t know about peak office but I think we have reached ‘peak cynicism’ when it comes to RTO - almost none of us believe the C-level when they talk about ‘culture’, ‘creativity’ or ‘productivity as the primary motivator of going back to the office do we? A popular theory as to the real driver is the need to shore up commercial real estate valuations, a point which brainfooder Andrew Spence makes in this essay. Whatever the case, we are once again finding that global financial institutions are overexposed to US commercial real estate markets, and somebody - at some point - is going to be left holding the bag.
Issue #384 published 22 Feb 2024
Whilst we are clearly past ‘peak remote’, the idea of continuing to work in your job in a geographically looser way is going to remain a feature of modern knowledge work, at least until employers figure out a way to train the AI to replace the work performed by digital nomads. Best make hay whilst the sun still shines then - check out this index of the best spots for remote working, in Europe.
Issue #383 published 11 Feb 2024
Doing a multi-country trip in Asia has got me interested in mobile data pricing. It’s obviously a factor in anyone’s remote working experience, especially in places where Wifi is spotty, slow or archaic. This interactive website was super interesting - good use for digital nomads, and also pretty good nurture content for your candidate database who might want to do some nomadism.
Issue #382 published 4 Feb 2024
Does RTO make a difference to the bottom line? Apparently, ‘no impact’ is the verdict from this sample of 457 firms of S&P500 from June 2019 and January 2023. We know that correlation ≠ causation, nor do we know the direction of causality even if we could prove the relationship but research is nevertheless useful ammunition in the contest between employers vs employees. Good summary by the WP, download full report here and ChatGPT it. H/T brainfooder Colin Donnery for the share in the online community.
Issue #382 published 4 Feb 2024
We already know that remote / WFH is primarily a middle class perk, but always useful to validate with research. This report from the NBER correlates advertised salaries with potential for remote, whilst also taking time to note that remote was heterogenous across regions and industries. HBR interprets the report via the socio-economic lens
Issue #381 published 28 Jan 2024
Spoiler alert: this post was hard to read, not because of any technical complexity but because it beats about the bush failing to get to the point, then when the moment comes, fails to make any clear point. Kind of exasperating. But I include it here because it opens a discussion which is interesting across a number of dimensions: the relationship between ‘remotability’ and productivity, and the idea that reported productivity actually maps to external macro conditions, more than working mode. In words, reports of increase remote worker productivity may be a zero interest rate phenomenon (ZIRP)…
Issue #380 published 21 Jan 2024
Another video, another employer brand disaster. This time, the video is a well produced but ill conceived attempt by exec to get employees to ‘voluntarily’ RTO (return to office) by not only selling the business benefits of doing so, but also issuing veiled threats to those who don’t comply. Having watched the original video, I thought the opprobrium was overblown but as we are discovering the power of the backlash is not contingent on the severity of the crime. Have a watch and a read and decide for yourself.
Issue #379 published 14 Jan 2024
The maturation of remote working is well outlined in this short interview with Matthew Bidwell. We’re crystallising our models into full remote, full on premise, hybrid of various flavours, but mostly hybrid fixed with the days dedicated to be in office to everyone. Worth a listen
Issue #378 published 7 Jan 2024
This is based external link shares - so what got the most views on the platform we recruiters love to hate? WFH/RTO/Remote working were the top three, which tells its own story as the how much we were invested in this debate. Top post got 100,000+ engagements btw, I think my best in 2023 was exactly 1/100th that result 🤣
Issue #376 published 24 Dec 2023
Research from Slack, who surveyed 10,000 knowledge workers on working times + productivity self reports. Unsurprisingly, those who work after hours report higher rates of burnout and lower levels of productivity. Other stuff we know: 2 hours of meetings per day is max. Article is good, PDF can be circulated around your organisation if you want to seed a conversation for reducing ‘meeting / email’ load in 2024…
Issue #375 published 17 Dec 2023
‘Working from home is shirking from home’ is an old norm which has been broken by the pandemic and that’s a good thing. 1/4 of all US work days are now working from home and RTO not happening much on aggregate. 30 minutes, packed with great one liners on the intersection between remote working and education, gender, age, geography, pandemic response, home size and the rest. It’s an excellent podcast. H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share.
Issue #373 published 3 Dec 2023
Glad to see somebody making the case that remote is good for reasons other than ‘productivity’. Remote is good precisely because we do less work, hence are far less likely to burn out, quit or otherwise be disaffected if can claim back some of our time from our employers. CEO’s dislike remote for exactly the same reason. Lets have this fight folks, at least it will be on honest grounds! 👊
Issue #373 published 3 Dec 2023
Question of the Day posed by this young TikToker in her first job went viral on multiple platforms, mainly due to disbelieving older people dogpiling her not getting the ‘real world’. The counter argument is of course, that she is making a rather substantial point - we have no time for life when we spend so much time at work, when we also factor in going to and from work. What do you think - do you feel empathy or contempt for this young woman?
Issue #368 published 29 Oct 2023
Another week, another prestige digital company calls its employees back to the office. Here is David Bazsuki, CEO, Roblox announcement, which I felt was well argued and communicated and perhaps a useful template on how to do it if you’re going to do it. Meanwhile, dating app Grindr, who had a rather more brusque approach earlier this summer, now see attrition due to RTO as an opportunity to hire.
Issue #367 published 22 Oct 2023
Stay Saasy may be the best ‘tell it like it is’ blogs on workplace culture. This take on remote work is concise, insightful, fair and resonant. We’re probably a little tired of another blog post speculating on the whys and wherefores of remote, but if you can muster up the enthusiasm to read one more, make it this one.
Issue #365 published 8 Oct 2023
Back to the Office
REMOTE WORKING
Resistance to RTO is continuing from the worker perspective, but the sense that employers are increasingly pressuring employees to come back is apparent. Interview with 3 bosses are who making the case for RTO. Interesting listen. H/T to my old mate and brainfooder Steve Simms for the share.
Issue #364 published 1 Oct 2023
Particularly rate the ‘Liked, Lacked, Learned’ framework of reviews - helps crystallise employee feedback into the sortable buckets which management can then turn into future actions. Great post from the Head of Remote at Doist, on how to do a company retreat. H/T to brainfooder Antonio Arias for the share.
Issue #363 published 24 Sep 2023
Regional variance, cultural differences, significance of commute, standard living conditions and consistency of pandemic mitigation responses are all essential variables too often missing in discussions around RTO. Not so in this excellent article from the Seattle Times, which provides insight and nuance on the challenges to companies and countries alike in dealing with the aftermath of Covid19.
Issue #362 published 17 Sep 2023
Employees care less about employer mission when working remote, an expected outcome as employers are less able to shape the cognitive environment of physically distant employees. At least, that would be my explanation of these findings from Gallup.
Issue #362 published 17 Sep 2023
Employers are getting serious with RTO’s, with presumptive resignations following failure to return to the office, dating app Grindr being the latest to follow Elon Musk’s lead in making a come in or leave ultimatum. 50% of the employees didn’t show and presumably, have now gone. One good thing to know is that the more employers do this, the better the market sorting will be - workers who really prefer remote will gravitate to those employers who also really prefer it. It’s an interesting question for us all as whether our employer could be described as such
Issue #361 published 10 Sep 2023
Cool interactive from JLL, showing the rates of change in office rental space. WFH is global phenomenon but unevenly spread across regions and even within countries. H/T to brainfooder Simon McSorley for the share in the online community
Issue #357 published 13 Aug 2023
The body of research for WFH vs RTO is beginning to build. This piece of research from India is particularly interesting because it recorded job applicant preferences for location of work but then randomly allocated them in order to measure performance vs preference. Full on challenging findings, including poorest performance coming from applicants who wanted WFH and got WFH. Brainfood for sure…
Issue #356 published 6 Aug 2023
Hacker News is a message board which quickly evolved it’s on de facto job board, essentially a monthly comment thread collecting together employers posting (usually developer) vacancies. Great thing about this is that the data is online and scrapable. The rise of remote is clear, but so also is the overall reduction in volume of all jobs in 2023.
Issue #356 published 6 Aug 2023
In the battle for remote vs RTO, workers are going to need all the support that they need, especially as the bosses seem increasingly confident that macro economic conditions will give them the leverage to enforce a return to office. This ‘cost of commuting’ calculator might come in handy, plug in your numbers and make your case.
Issue #354 published 23 Jul 2023
Pre-pandemic, it seemed that economic agglomeration would guarantee the status of ‘superstar’ cities. New York, San Francisco, London, Berlin etc would continue to attract disproportionate percentage of investment, talent, opportunity and economic growth, extending their presence over the national economies they already dominated. Not so any more, as pandemic induced shift-to-remote moved agglomeration into reverse. Highly readable report from McKinsey on empty office spaces, with obvious implications for talent attraction.
Issue #353 published 16 Jul 2023
‘I knew Steph Smith before she was famous’ is my meta claim to fame, and it was a real pleasure to reconnect with Steph in her latest role as podcast host for the Andreesen Horowitz podcast, where I join AJ Thomas and Rob Frohwein to talk tech layoffs, remote working and the impact of AI. Fun conversation, and make sure you follow Steph, one of the best tweeters still on there.
Issue #352 published 9 Jul 2023
Returning for Good
REMOTE WORKING
Fascinating report from office design company Unispace, on where we are at with the remote vs on premise conversation. Discrepancies between employer perceptions and employee desires is hard to explain but they resonate as true; we may have fundamental incompatibilities based on the role we adopt in this discussion. Decent TA, onboarding and retention sections too.
Issue #351 published 2 Jul 2023
Anywhere Workers
REMOTE WORKING
Beautifully presented research from micro-tasking site Fiverr, who surveyed their worker population on remote work. Common theme amongst these insights? On-premise trends seem to follow the remote work (s/w engineers earn most, gender income gap exists etc). And as, we discussed last week, loneliness and lack of community is the No1 issue for the full time remote.
Issue #351 published 2 Jul 2023
If you want to draw the dotted lines from investment management firms like BlackRock and Vanguard, who have significant commercial real estate exposure, who coincidentally also have significant shareholders in mass media publishers, then the motivations driving the manufacture of consent for the return-to-office might become clear. Good discussion on the future of cities, or lack thereof
Issue #350 published 25 Jun 2023
2 years in and has digital nomadism lost its lustre? The absence of community is probably the toughest, under rated challenge, because whilst a rolling stone gathers no moss, it also probably doesn’t gather many friends either. Still, I think it is probably worth a go, but maybe a good idea to time box it. Love to hear from anyone who is doing this / has done this - might be a good one to do for Brainfood Live - let me know if you’re up for seeing a show on this.
Issue #350 published 25 Jun 2023
Nice to see Hybrid get its own report, though I rather hoped that we would have been able to crystallise the significant distinction between those who have the option to going in vs those who must do so on set times / dates by now. Still, this is an interesting report on where we’re at with some notable regional differences. The results of this will be interesting to compare from our own What Do Recruiters Want 2023 research. Worth a look at this folks. H/T to brainfooder Paul Moir for the share.
Issue #347 published 4 Jun 2023
One of the drivers of digital nomadism is (another ‘of course’) global inequality, specifically the wealth of the Global North vs the poverty of the Global South, which makes it make sense for the northerners to head to the south in order to escape cost of living crisis back home. The impact on the local economy and society? For some it is opportunity to repatriate some of the acquired wealth, for others it’s just another form of getting priced out of their homes. Great read from a great blog
Issue #346 published 28 May 2023
The median digital nomad is a 34 years old single white man, with progressive values, who works in tech and, of course, loves coffee. Does this comport with your perception of the term?? Fun bit of research on the demographics of people who have profiles on Nomad List, as well as their preferred / favourite destinations.
Issue #346 published 28 May 2023

When engineers sit near their coworkers, junior engineers receive more on-the-job training, but senior engineers get less done.

There probably isn’t a more succinct explanation for the generational divide on remote working. Important study validating the anecdata which most of us are now familiar with: workers who know what they are doing already don’t want the interrupts involved with office life, but inexperienced workers need it to for knowledge transfer. Quite academic but scannable report. PS: as an addendum read alongside Generative AI at Work from last week, where inexperienced workers bridged this gap with AI. We’re in a fascinating moment in the world of work.
Issue #343 published 7 May 2023
The legendary Suzanne Lucas takes SHRM CEO Johnny Taylor to task with this take down of his interview with the Wall Street Journal where his response to an employee request to WFH was to offshore the job to India. So many things to think about here - does HR have a particular responsibility to place people-above-profit, is the CEO really a performance artist expert at trolling the industry and….might he actually be right that remote is an milestone toward the inevitable destination of offshoring? All three might be right.
Issue #340 published 16 Apr 2023
Meta Layoffs
REMOTE WORKING
Are remote workers really more productive? Mark Zuckerberg seems to think that maybe they are not, especially those who have not previously built trust relationships by being on-premise before. We’re all going to hate this narrative, as many of us are happily working remote right now, but we are still very early on in this experiment and we’re only now collecting the performance data of the remote workers who we newly we hired as remote in 2022. Great essay, lots to think about, have a read.
Issue #337 published 26 Mar 2023
Brilliant TikTok from an IT worker who was refused permission to work from home….and so took his employer’s instructions literally but deleting his work apps off his devices and being uncontactable whenever he was off premise 🤣. A great example of workers rebellion, but also points to an important point about boundaries.
Issue #336 published 19 Mar 2023
Perhaps no other city has exemplified the tech boom and bust as much as San Francisco. Once the most expensive real estate in the world, SF is undergoing a post Covid transformation as tech companies move out, and tech workers demand remote. Interview with Mayor London Breed on how the city can turn around its fortunes. Whether it can or can’t will be a bellweather for other superstar cities of the before times.
Issue #334 published 5 Mar 2023
What happens when a company makes a permanent decision to shift to remote only? Turns out, that employees do indeed migrate to warmer climes where friendly tax regimes means more money in the pocket. If this report from Yelp is an example of a trend, then shift to remote will be redistributive force nationally and globally. Lots to think about here, especially if you operate in a location agnostic role.
Issue #334 published 5 Mar 2023
There’s a reason why NY Mayor Eric Adams made an early call for RTO - it's costing local government billions of tax revenue from the moribund office and night economies. I suspect most of us here would strongly resist any call to return to the office, but the wider point of contraction of economic activity brought about by remote needs to be acknowledged, and it’s implications - the hollowing out of metropolitan centres, decline in innovation and the collapse of real estate value fully considered. Whether this is an opportunity to level up for the regions or a catastrophe for countries who have converted housing into de facto pensions is an open debate…
Issue #333 published 26 Feb 2023
Let’s have something from the Office of National Statistics for a change of tone 😉. This is actually a fascinating and accessible analysis on the state of remote working in the GB, with some clear divergences on social class, age and economic region as to who actually does work from home. [Spoiler] it’s rich, highly educated, 30 somethings in London, basically.
Issue #332 published 19 Feb 2023
…speaking of which, what happens when you do actually reverse your remote working policies? This is a new challenge for employers, especially as more recent employees may have well joined on the basis of the job being remote. Have we inserted the requisite waivers into employment contracts? Can an employee sue for false advertising? Somebody is going to.
Issue #332 published 19 Feb 2023
10 out 10 for effort in creating this interactive report, but 2 out of 10 for execution - it’s way too difficult to navigate, and you might do better by simply downloading the PDF here. Content is great though, especially as it a leadership survey of 13K+ C-suite and HR leaders on what concerns them most in 2023. There’s a critique of hybrid in here - the manufacture of consent for the reversal of remote, incoming…
Issue #332 published 19 Feb 2023
Startup heroes from yesteryear are always going to be susceptible to good ol’ days thinking, but Steve Blank’s provocation here likely has merit. The sample here is of very early stage startup, where high intensity, information flow and iteration rate are critical components to speed to market. No question it’s easier to do that when you’re all stuck in a tiny room doing the startup grind 24/7. Remote is better, but only if the work is predictable and the collaboration intensity is low…
Issue #332 published 19 Feb 2023
A superb long read from Wired, detailing the lofty ambitions for digital nomadism which often diverge from the rather more prosaic and strained reality. Particularly interesting is that this story is coming from the perspective of service providers for digital nomads - the local authorities, the community organisers, the businesses which provide accommodation and facilities. The problem at root, is the very lack of rootedness. Nomadism is a form of transience and connections with local people and place will always be more tenuous for it. It’s brilliant anthropological read - and a must read, for anyone thinking about taking off for sunnier climes. H/T to brainfooder Paul Gresia for the share.
Issue #328 published 22 Jan 2023
Any post with Ronald Coase in it is likely to feature in Brainfood as default, and this post from the Economist draws heavily on the Coasian question of why a company exists at all? Seems like technology is going to increasingly blur the lines which separate the market from the company, an observable phenomena, I think, which most of us now have some direct experience. This matters because it probably means that companies will get smaller, and we will do less recruiting, at least in the traditional sense of hiring external FTE’s. We have an urgent need to expand scope (hint: internal mobility, workforce diversification)
Issue #328 published 22 Jan 2023
I had the good fortune of visiting Lisbon late last year and doing the fireside chat with my buddy brainfooder Pedro Oliveira was one of the highlights (Pulvo afterwards obviously even better). We’re talking location agnostic pay, increase of candidate fraud and anticipating anti-digital nomad legislation. 25 minutes, great conversation
Issue #327 published 15 Jan 2023
Hard truth: remote working increases the surface area for candidate and employee fraud. I suspect the unstated reason behind a lot of the manager led calls to return to the office is motivated by the suspicion that workers aren’t working as much as they say they are. Now Satya Nadella certainly has a point that there is a great deal of ‘productivity paranoia’, but there is surely also a non-trivial degree of employee dishonesty. I wonder whether installation of bossware might be a future condition of WFH - would you accept it, if it were? H/T to brainfooder Colin McNicol for the share in the fb group
Issue #327 published 15 Jan 2023
One of my favourite TikTokers to follow is a guy called Cliff Tan, an interior design guru whose thing is to break down horrendous home arrangement according to feng shui principles. It’s not all eastern mysticism though, as this Freakonomics episode talks about classroom design, open offices, and cognitive drift. A must listen for anyone who is responding to the call back to the office….
Issue #326 published 8 Jan 2023
Prediction - Evidence - Prescription formula of this post works exceptionally well - setting the template of how predictions posts should be. 12 of them to review, including focus on the reduction of the ‘cost of then collaboration’ which I am sure we have all by now have had direct experience of. Excellent PDF from Asana, download.
Issue #325 published 1 Jan 2023
Second example I’ve seen of this type of job offer scam, which has become a successful template for fraudsters. Here is how it works: remote job advert, full interview process, professional looking offer, additional bonus of stipend to provide office supplies for the new hire for home working. A small payment is then made to the new hire’s bank account (to further increase confidence) before ‘payment problems’ occur which prevent procurement of promised office supplies. Employee needs to pay for this himself, to be reimbursed in the first pay cheque, which of course never arrives. It’s a fascinating read, and example of how remote working opens up the aperture for criminal innovation. HN thread for more discussion here
Issue #323 published 18 Dec 2022
With the recent news that San Francisco is facing a budget deficit of $728 million, it is worth considering the motives politicians have for calling us ‘back to the office’ - cities might well start going bust. Remote working has eliminated the commute, which in turn eliminates the incentive to move closer to the city centre in order to reduce said commute. The result may be an ‘urban doom loop’ for metropolitan centres with profound consequences for hiring, talent intelligence, employer branding and the rest.
Issue #323 published 18 Dec 2022
Excellent study on the percentage of UK advertised jobs which present flexible working options. We know that flexible work not only means different things to different people, but also that it unevenly distributed across job categories, demographies and geographies. A digestible, intersectional study on the changing nature of work.
Issue #322 published 11 Dec 2022
What was initially dismissed as a scaremongering tactic by CEO’s who wanted employees back in the office, the phenomenon of fraudulently working for more than one employer is real; indeed it is growing to such an extent that an online eco-system is developing to cater for those who want to do more of it. The response from employers has so far been to increase investment in bossware, which might not be as unreasonable as we might to believe. Nice video on the phenomenon with some additional resources in case you want to find out more…
Issue #321 published 4 Dec 2022
Employee Cost Calculator
REMOTE WORKING
Decent tool on the homepage of Deel, in which calculates ‘cost of employee’ in different countries based on the salary you set and the local taxation and employer obligations. Not sure if I’ve seen a comparable offering, surprising that someone has built a startup focused entirely on this, a FundApps for employer tax. Just an idea.
Issue #320 published 27 Nov 2022
This is the power of Microsoft - combining survey data from 20,000 respondents, with metadata from MS360, LinkedIn and Glint to figure out what really makes a productive worker, team and company. The revelations are not revolutionary, but well worth chewing over one more time. H/T to brainfooder Martin Warren for the share
Issue #317 published 17 Nov 2022
Talent in Tech
REMOTE WORKING
In recruiting and in tech startup there are a lot of socially popular viewpoints which are frequently voiced and defended. So great to hear some real talk from a recruiter who is not afraid to call out founders for their overconfidence in hiring and to underline the trade offs involved in remote working. Great listen folks.
Issue #318 published 17 Nov 2022
Interesting development of a new concept - the video call centre, in which customer service staff are in a different country from the customers, with the interactions taking place via a Zoom like interface. I’m a fan, even though the hosts seem to have doubts. The bottom line is restaurant work is immigrant dependent, and if we don’t want more of ‘those people’, then we better get used to a virtual service.
Issue #318 published 17 Nov 2022
By now, we’re all familiar with the value of written communication in a remote work environment. Here is another way of understanding why - writing makes cultural information explicit when we can no longer rely on implicit transmission that takes place in person. It’s also perhaps the reason why training and personal development is much more difficult in remote only - we don’t have the implicit methods of knowledge acquisition, such as emulation. Atli Thorkelsson talks about this in Recruiting Future podcast (hear it below), worth listening to that, as well as giving this rather academic piece from the Royal Society a a review (see the discussion at the end if you don’t want to crunch through the dense copy).
Issue #318 published 17 Nov 2022
I think one of those podcasts in which we can all resonate in some part with. Includes the example from Trip.com, one of the largest experiments conducted on remote vs hybrid, previously featured in Brainfood. Have a listen here. H/T to Bas van de Haterd for the share.
Issue #316 published 17 Nov 2022
Natasha Scott embarked on van life as a digital nomad, but her experience was nothing like social media told her it would be.
I’ve heard good stories and bad stories about van life. I’ve also not heard anything at all from some who have gone on the road and entirely disappeared off grid. Love to hear from recruiters who have genuinely gone digital nomad - how was it for you? Hopefully better than Natasha’s story.
Issue #316 published 17 Nov 2022
I think one of those podcasts in which we can all resonate in some part with. Includes the example from Trip.com, one of the largest experiments conducted on remote vs hybrid, previously featured in Brainfood. Have a listen here. H/T to Bas van de Haterd for the share.
Issue #None published 30 Oct 2022
Natasha Scott embarked on van life as a digital nomad, but her experience was nothing like social media told her it would be.
I’ve heard good stories and bad stories about van life. I’ve also not heard anything at all from some who have gone on the road and entirely disappeared off grid. Love to hear from recruiters who have genuinely gone digital nomad - how was it for you? Hopefully better than Natasha’s story.
Issue #None published 30 Oct 2022
Sid Sijbrandij, CEO and cofounder of Gitlab, was perhaps the first prominent leader to publicly criticise hybrid as fundamentally inefficient. He should know, because he tried it before moving to full remote when no one showed up to the office. Some lessons we have to learn by ourselves. H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share.
Issue #315 published 23 Oct 2022
What can data analysis from 30 million jobs postings tell us about the state of remote work? Superb report from our friends at datapeople - who were kind enough to provide me with the un-gated version - and relevant for any conversation you have with hiring managers on flexible working, candidate pipelining and gender equality. Must read folks.
Issue #315 published 23 Oct 2022
Great report from our buddies at Workable, comparing the data collected from 2020 to 2022 on office culture, remote working and candidate expectations of employers. Beautifully rendered website too. Must read folks.
Issue #314 published 16 Oct 2022
If we can’t beat them we might as well join them eh? This list of countries which support Digital Nomadism might come in handy. The overall effect might be small but the migration of jobs will be followed by migration of people, only this time it will be from Global North to Global South. Who wants to join me in Mauritius? H/T to brainfooder Ivan Harrison for the share.
Issue #313 published 9 Oct 2022
Two elements of remote working merging into one - the clear efficiency of having workers deliver their work from their own premises - with the logical end destination of those workers coming from the places where the labour costs are going to be lowest. Remote work revolution might be for a single generation, as the jobs migrate out.
Issue #313 published 9 Oct 2022
Think about this extrapolated to the entire Global South and you can see that perhaps the early warnings that the remote work revolution will turn out to be stepping stone to the permanent offshoring of highly skilled knowledge work. Great reading - as employers, remote workers and recruiters, we should be able to see it from all three sides.
Issue #312 published 2 Oct 2022
Fascinating piece of research from Bangladesh, where the email communications from HR practitioners of at large non-governmental organisation were analysed for email frequency, new recipient volume and whether emails had attachments. Key insights? Hybrid work produced greatest variance in the number of email recipients, lending credence to the theory that workers become siloed in remote. Summary is great, and you can also download the full the paper here
Issue #312 published 2 Oct 2022
OK so more on fine print of the job ad and indeed the employment contract. What happens when you see a job advertised as remote, but they don’t declare all the caveats? (i.e. must be available to come into the office once per week). Indeed, what happens when the employer changes the policy after job offer - does this invalidate the contract? Remote working gets more complicated. H/T to brainfooder Denys Dinkevych 🇺🇦 👊 for the share.
Issue #311 published 25 Sep 2022
r/Overemployed
REMOTE WORKING
Fascinating thread on a fascinating subreddit community dedicated to becoming fraudulently ‘overemployed’ - taking on multiple full time jobs whilst pretending to the full time on only one. Maybe a form of social protest against ‘the man’, a response to the cost-of-living crisis, inevitable exploitation of the weak spots in a remote working world, or just clever outsourcing. After all, if we are really committed to ‘results driven management’, why should we care if the work just gets done?
Issue #310 published 18 Sep 2022
Hostile De-globalisation
REMOTE WORKING
Fascinating thread from the essential Gergely Orosz (follow on Twitter) who reports on the impact of hostile de-globalisation on hiring decisions made by companies who might have previously fancied themselves as ‘hire from anywhere’ businesses. Future of remote will be WFH in-country, not work-from-anywhere. Going to write about this in the Substack essay this week - subscribe here
Issue #310 published 18 Sep 2022
…so does all remote work - how do deal with it is another matter. Two egregious examples here, first of an upworker using someone else’s LinkedIn profile to win a bid, second the unverifiable nature of who was actually doing the work. Love to know how anyone is going to solve for this, a precursor to future all of us are going to see.
Issue #309 published 11 Sep 2022
I’ve been a critic of the maximalist approach to hybrid working as a failure of leadership motivated primarily by conflict avoidance. Energy price inflation will end it, as it’s also the most expensive way to run a business. First essay on the Substack, take a read.
Issue #309 published 11 Sep 2022
‘Digital presenteeism’ perfectly captures the sense of pressure remote employees feel to allay fears that they are working hard enough; equally interesting was how employees do it - responsiveness on email, constant presence in communication channels etc. No solutions in post but important concept for managers to know if you want to get the best out of your remote staff - have a read here
Issue #307 published 28 Aug 2022
Rather more tough-in-cheek than has been received by many others, this interview with Malcolm Gladwell presents theory through biographical lens - what has worked for one may work for others, but not for all. Great listen, podcast as whole well worth a follow.
Issue #306 published 21 Aug 2022
Work From Home Is Good
REMOTE WORKING
Passionate and well written response to Gladwell’s condemnation of remote working (listen that podcast below), which will resonate most with the educated, knowledge worker class that most of us probably are. We do like our walks in the park during the day and it does matter that we can do an errand without taking a half day off. First world problems are problems nonetheless…
Issue #306 published 21 Aug 2022
This is a brave share by a LinkedIn user who got scammed out of thousands of dollars from what looks like a fake remote job offer. This story got me thinking about fraud, and in particular how the shift to remote has created opportunities for enterprising criminals to exploit new territory where we are all exploring for the first time. We love remote, but opportunity for fraud has increased with it.
Issue #306 published 21 Aug 2022
The other side of digital nomadism - of economic development in general - is gentrification and change for the local population who may not want it. It’s an old story with a new twist, as countries try to balance competing the workers, whilst doing right by their people. Story from Mexico is one which could be from anywhere which has sun, beach and internet. Spanish language article but Google translate works pretty well.
Issue #304 published 7 Aug 2022
Immigration might well be robbing Peter to pay Paul but if the frame of your analysis is your nations economic health, it is surprising that not more countries are more aggressively courting the digital elite. Overview of 25 countries who are doing it
Issue #304 published 7 Aug 2022
The alternative to hybrid is basically ‘radical remote’. No less a figure than Vitalik Buterin takes a break from building the next era of the Internet to writes a post on how he does his remoting, which is to be brutally sparse with your luggage and wear a lot of Uniqlo….
Issue #304 published 7 Aug 2022
Has anyone actually done this? I love the idea of office space being repurposed for collaborative work togethers - be great to hear from anyone who has actually gone through the interior redesign process. Let me know if you have!
PS: isn’t WeWork primed for the mother of all come backs in this context?
Issue #304 published 7 Aug 2022
The shift to remote continues to produce counterintuitive outcomes. You might have thought that the reduction of staff-on-staff interaction would reduce the frequency of bullying simply by reducing the time we spend with each other; however, it turns out, you can bully via remote, especially passively aggressively….
Issue #303 published 31 Jul 2022
Interesting research on the wealth distribution effect of remote working - as employers flex out their workforce, they are carrying higher paying jobs into regions which previously paid far less. This is a genuine levelling outcome, so long as the pay scale is ‘geo-neutral’ (evidence either side on whether remote jobs are being location adjusted)
Issue #303 published 31 Jul 2022
Companies need a new kind of middle manager: the synchronizer.
We are getting better at understanding the challenges of remote work - the loss of osmotic information transfer requires constant ‘synching up’ (a.k.a meeting overload) to keep everyone on the same page. What if we had a class of person to do this? Outstanding read. H/T brainfooder Colin Donnery for the share in the fb group
Issue #302 published 24 Jul 2022
2 and a bit years into the pandemic era and we are beginning to see a clear picture on it’s impact on urban agglomeration. The ‘superstar’ cities of 2019 are no more, many of them suffering the largest fall in population in their recorded histories, whilst second tier cities seem to be growing, absorbing the outflow of talent. US data again but I suspect the pattern is repeated everywhere. Significant implications for hiring - take a read.
Issue #301 published 17 Jul 2022
Interesting story on the use of job advertising as a ruse to collect personal bank details from ‘successful’ job applicants. It’s a pretty crude scam but not implausible that some might fall for it. Facilitated by remote, fraud of this type is likely to continue to grow in scale and sophistication. HN as ever with more stories of recruiter scams
Issue #301 published 17 Jul 2022
I’ve been interested in ‘digital body language’ ever since I first came across the term and I think we likely don’t pay enough attention to it at all. Did you know that the position of your webcam alters the angle of your face, impacting how friendly you come across? We use video all the time but have not learned how to optimise on it.
Issue #300 published 10 Jul 2022
Whenever you survey employees they are going to validate remote; most remarkable statistic here is that 87% of workers would take remote if offered it, a super super majority. Employers and politicians are going to have to gear up for a long term challenge if they persist in calls to back-to-the-office. Accessible report, here. H/T to brainfooder Stephen Kennedy for the share.
Issue #299 published 3 Jul 2022
We know already that remote is both less attractive and more challenging for entry level talent. This post makes the claim that workers need twice the amount of upskilling if they are remote vs in office. Does this comport to your experience? It’s probably a decent heuristic, given when absence of ‘osmotic information transfer’. Some tips for managers on what to do about it, here
Issue #299 published 3 Jul 2022
Talking in person is very different from talking via video. What is the difference? We spend too much cognitive energy trying to figure out the missing information- micro-expressions, tone, touch, even smell from the others - rather than working on the task. Evidence is building for innovation advantage of in person
Issue #298 published 26 Jun 2022
Working from home is bad for business and workers; after all, if your job can be done from Brighton or Parramatta or Chatswood, it can probably also be done from Bangalore or Johannesburg, for a lot cheaper.
I leave the quote in so you know what kind of post this is before clicking on it. However, remote as a stepping stone to offshoring is logical reasoning and - the inevitable outcome of a global shift to remote.
Issue #298 published 26 Jun 2022
Do you work across different time zones? How best do you do this? My own view is that one of the most challenging aspects of remote is managing time zone - even when is overlap, we are often in different times of the day and therefore in different moods….
Issue #296 published 12 Jun 2022
Companion piece to the above article, a post from StackOverflow describing the flight of tech workers from traditional metropolitan centres to so called 2nd tier cities, a movement confirmed by LinkedIn’s Workforce Insights post this week. Optimistic notes on the redevelopment of the small city - again, something to consider if your business is thinking of hiring to location.
Issue #296 published 12 Jun 2022
The collapse in the value of commercial real estate - and the follow on collapse of residential real estate that places workers closers to the office - is something political leaders are keen to avoid. Some mathematical modelling from Colombia University suggests 32.5% decline in value in commercial real estate in New York and a permanent reduction of rental income from commercial leases. Not an easy read, but one bookmark in case you need ammo for those conversations on remote vs on-premise.
Issue #296 published 12 Jun 2022
One of the most interesting (and de-motivating!) features of remote working is this sense of fatigue in doing too many video meetings. All of us have experienced this, so very useful of WebEx to conduct some research on why this happens and how we can adjust our behaviour to mitigate against it. Accessible and necessary reading folks.
Issue #296 published 12 Jun 2022
This is a cool series from Range - focusing on effectively running remote teams. This one, with Hong Quan, is about building chats remote teams. Have a listen here.
Issue #295 published 5 Jun 2022
We don’t want to let remote working go but I suspect that the worm might have already turned in the tussle between boss vs worker in the WFH debate. Musk won’t be the only one who is going to be using the moment pull people back to office. We might be quitting for work that will soon no longer be there. More good stuff from BBC Worklife tho
Issue #295 published 5 Jun 2022
Elon Musk on Remote Work
REMOTE WORKING
“let me be super clear”
Elon Musk was indeed super clear in his two email salvo to Tesla employees, leaked to Internal Tech Emails, (which is a fascinating account to follow btw), clearing out remote working as an option. Come back to office, or you’re fired. Whatever you think of Musk, he is a live player.
Issue #295 published 5 Jun 2022
‘At Will’ Hybrid is a failure of leadership but it seems like it is still the most common way in which employers are operating, as of April 2022. Some interesting data here from HRDrive, which have reproduced Envoy’s report in sufficient detail for it to merit inclusion here. Get the full report here for the price of your email or just read the good-enough summary here. H/T to brainfooder Ivan Harrison for the share
Issue #293 published 22 May 2022
The ‘impact over hours’ mantra is something I agree with but it will broadly lead to the reduction of hiring of FTE - why bring on fixed costs if you don’t have them truly ‘on-demand’? Nice e-book from our friends at Blinkist, good to read as a comparator to Dr John Sullivan’s critique above. H/T to brainfooder Deborah Caulet for the share.
Issue #293 published 22 May 2022
Dr John Sullivan dropping the truth about the advantages of in-person collaboration - for the persons doing it, proximity and visibility are going to be career boost. Only a problem for those who’ve chosen the non-choice of ‘hybrid’ though - notice how these challenges go away once we have the courage to make the real choice of remote only or office only. Have a read
Issue #293 published 22 May 2022
Burnout prevention
REMOTE WORKING
Did you know Gitlab CEO Sid Sijbrandij ran a youtube channel? I didn’t until I saw this, which made me think it was worth highlighting to the community. Gitlab has been of course, the poster child for the pandemic economy, so maybe worth paying attention to what the CEO has to say…
Issue #292 published 15 May 2022
Last couple of weeks I’ve featured a number of posts which provided evidence for the ‘innovation advantage’ of on-premise teams. So here is a more optimistic take - there is such an advantage, but it seems that advances in communication & collaboration tech is gradually reducing this deficit. Technical but easy reading, have a go here. H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share in the fb group.
Issue #292 published 15 May 2022
Himalayas App
REMOTE WORKING
Another remote job board, this time also including the companies tech stacks. So obviously focused on engineering roles & candidates - useful for recruiters to identify potential business development or candidate source sites. Check it out.
Issue #292 published 15 May 2022
There are powerful arguments for and against remote working. Call from the EU to reduce energy dependency by WFH might be an argument more obviously repurposed to mitigate climate change, as well as to oppose Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Brainfood for sure. H/T brainfooder Caroline Hunter for the share.
Issue #291 published 8 May 2022
Remotewide
REMOTE WORKING
If we are still totally up for remote (and as employees rather than employers, why wouldn’t we be?), then this site might be useful place to find new work, with the twist that every job posted has location agnostic pay.
Issue #291 published 8 May 2022
Our results suggest that virtual interaction comes with a cognitive cost for creative idea generation….
Consider this a companion piece to the first article in the newsletter. Technical but accessible research paper on why video conferencing inhibits creativity - it’s about the lack of eye contact and the consequent failure to efficiently ‘coordinate conversation’. Evidence that there is indeed an innovation disadvantage for on-premise vs remote teams. Have a read here, download the paper here
Issue #291 published 8 May 2022
One of the most important pieces of research on remote working I’ve yet come across - this company basically ran an enterprise wide A/B test (with control) on WFH, tracking employee and manager sentiment, working patterns, collaboration behaviour, messaging behaviour and performance. Lots of interesting insight, include the employee driven synchronisation without management mandate. Essential reading folks - download the PDF here
Issue #291 published 8 May 2022
Having been to 4 in-person events in the past 4 weeks, I’ve come to realise how much human touch is important to human health. Not sure the Metaverse is going to fix this one, we need to be physically present! H/T to brainfooder Jo McCatty for the share.
Issue #290 published 1 May 2022
I think recognition of the inherent challenges of ‘hybrid’ is what made Brian Chesky move to hybrid maximalism - it’s still going to be problematic, but now the employees will need to own the circumstance. Excellent post again from BBC Worklife on how informational divergence between workers inevitably leads to tension,
Issue #290 published 1 May 2022
If there is one company which is going to be able to enable work from anywhere, it would be the one which enabled live from anywhere. Blog post based on a Letter to Employees by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on their new global policy, including location agnosticism (albeit in-country) on salary. Laudable stuff but I suspect only companies with insuperable market dominance will be able get away with this type of maximalist approach to remote working. I doubt also-rans will get away with it. Have a read here
Issue #290 published 1 May 2022
Two new concepts to learn:
‘Vocal Synchrony’ - how people in groups synchronise their speech to facilitate collaboration, which results in greater ‘Collective Intelligence’ as ideas are exchange fluidly between synchronised group members.
It’s basically saying remote work is bad for both of these things, which is probably true. Bit technical but well worth a read.
PS: my solution to all this is to atomise work and reduce the requirement to collaborate. Because lets face it, we won’t leave remote
Issue #289 published 24 Apr 2022
The hard reality is that managers have no role to play in a truly distributed working culture, where self directed, autonomous workers organise and collaborate without a human overseer. That’s my take on it anyway, others have a different view.
Issue #289 published 24 Apr 2022
Like for like comparison on the strengths and weaknesses of on-premise vs remote. The consistent structure is super useful in surfacing up potential challenges with either case. Again quality content from non-HR management. Have a read.
Issue #287 published 10 Apr 2022
Interesting research yet again from Microsoft, whose tracking of internal data on MS Teams is providing insight on the evolving rhythms of work as we habituate to remote first, asynchronised way of working. Are you experiencing a ‘triple peak’ of work during your working day?
Issue #287 published 10 Apr 2022
“Studies of 10,000 office workers conducted last year by Future Forum, a research group backed by Slack, suggest that women and people of color were more likely to see working remotely as beneficial than their white male colleagues”
Was the office always optimised for a certain type of worker? You know it was. Nice read, some ammo for those who want to resist to return to the office.
Issue #285 published 27 Mar 2022
Pretty much the best slide deck on the decisions facing employers right now about working mode. Perfect level of information density + concision. You are going to need to download this. H/T to brainfooder Colin Donnery for the share in the fb group
Issue #285 published 27 Mar 2022
Fun conversation with Ollie Henderson on the future of talent and remote work culture. Ollie is a great interviewer and I am very much looking forward to his book on the Future of Work. Have a listen here
Issue #284 published 20 Mar 2022
Deliberately changing synchronous exchanges to asynchronous ones.
…is probably the most resonant pro-tip in this straight forward how-to from HBR. This means actively avoiding mixed in-person + remote meetings - everyone needs to separate, go to a different room and get on Zoom. Sounds crazy until you realise it isn’t.
Issue #284 published 20 Mar 2022
One condition of remote working is that we tend to report it positively, particularly if we have had prior experience of on premise and would prefer not go back. 2000 remote workers surveyed in this annual report by Buffer, one of the first employers to go remote first pre-Covid, when it was certainly a radical thing to do. Contrast this with iCIMS Class of 2021 Report, worth reading both together.
Issue #284 published 20 Mar 2022
Microsoft - by consistently monitoring the sentiment of their 30,000+ workforce - have become one of the thought leaders of this great shared experiment we are living in. This 2022 Work Trend Index Report reveals five urgent trends business leaders need to know about hybrid work - it excellent, primary source material.
Issue #284 published 20 Mar 2022
I’m always going to have a bias for anything that references Mark Granovetter. This short post is a lament for the decline of ‘peripheral friendships’ and why they are critical for information flow, especially for job and career.
Issue #283 published 13 Mar 2022
Been waiting for a post like this - comprehensive breakdown of the things you have to be think about when you’re hiring a true remote first, remote anywhere team. Brainfooder Jessica Zwaan with the outstanding knowledge drop.
Issue #283 published 13 Mar 2022
The four rituals are:
  1. Schedule no agenda breakout periods in recurring meetings
  2. Schedule 5 mins optional small talk period prior to meeting
  3. Schedule co-working sessions
  4. Replace Friday stand up with a game
Schedule, schedule, schedule. You got to book it in folks, otherwise it will not embed. Easy read, easy do.
Issue #282 published 6 Mar 2022
Colorado Excluded
REMOTE WORKING
The iron law of regulation is the production of unexpected consequences. When the US state of Colorado mandated the publication of salaries for job ads, a lot of employers responded by saying ‘folks from Colorado need not apply’. Here’s a database of those employers, in an effort to shame these employers into doing better. Tough situation for the individual job poster - I suspect in many cases might be instructed not to publish the comp. Worth a Brainfood Live I think - let me know in reply to this email if you want me to do show on this.
Issue #282 published 6 Mar 2022
Fraud risk has been dismissed by remote working advocates as irredentist propaganda by those who can’t do without the control provided by a return to the office, but there is no doubt the reducing proximity and synchronicity in a remote first set up, will indeed increase opportunity for fraud. Amazing story by the BBC, worth anyone’s time to read. For the record, I suspect this guy wanted to create an actual business, but was hiring before he got the deals in. Still fraud. H/T to brainfooder Colin McNicol for the share in the fb group.
Issue #281 published 27 Feb 2022
This is a very cool resource for anyone currently working in or managing a remote team. How do you actually forge bonds with folks you only ever see on chat or VC?. Team coherence will become increasingly important as we hire more people who have never / may never meet. Some of theses playbooks might help. Great complimentary read to the Princess Leia bonus earlier.
H/T to brainfooder John Carlo Alarcon for the share.
Issue #280 published 20 Feb 2022
What We Lost
REMOTE WORKING
Artfully written lament on the what we lose when we shift to remote. In essence, it is the loss of osmotic information transfer that comes from simply being in the physical presence of the other. We have 5 basic senses, and only use 2 of them when we Zoom. Great post, which also manages to lead with a relevant reference to Princess Leia, which you have to applaud.
Issue #280 published 20 Feb 2022
Apocryphal or not, this type of incident is not beyond imagining, especially in the world of remote work / remote hiring where there is far less information exchanged than in on-premise hiring. An edge case for sure - for now. H/T to brainfooder Chris Yea for the share in the fb group.
Issue #278 published 6 Feb 2022
I’ve come to expect cliche when I see listicles like these, even if they are in my now favourite format of a twitter thread. But reading this effort from Joris Luijke, quickly disabused me of my preconceptions. It’s an excellent, cliche free thread, mainly on the impact of remote working.
Issue #278 published 6 Feb 2022
“Most developers see their path with startups as just another step in their career in order to get to Google or Facebook,” said Campos. “If someone is very money-driven, there’s nothing we can do.”
The shift to remote is simultaneously a (re)globalisation of the labour pool; but instead of relocating workers, it’s a relocation of the jobs, with implications for employers, economies, businesses and people on both sides of the exchange. This post casts a negative view - US employers playing the predatory role; a more generous analysis might that this could be seen as form remittance, with those extraordinary wages being earned and spent in local economies.
Issue #277 published 30 Jan 2022
Cool to listen in on podcasts on remote working, 4 or 5 months after they were released. How do we talk about working from home? Has our language changed? Has the mood? Listen for yourself, 20 minutes easy listening.
Issue #276 published 23 Jan 2022
Total Rewards
REMOTE WORKING
We have a great conversation on Brainfood Live last Friday on ‘setting salary for remote teams’. One of our viewers (thanks Pavania!) shared a notion page on how her company does it. Now as Pavania works as a Total Rewards Analyst for Remote, it is probably worth paying attention to this document.
Issue #276 published 23 Jan 2022
GitHub users were demonstrably more active on weekends and outside of regular work hours than they were in previous years. Concomitant with this proportional reallocation of time, COVID-19 also precipitated a jump in overall activity. 
Quantitative research on how the shift to remote dispersed working time throughout the week, in some cases increasingly the absolute workload as a consequence. Abstract here, full report is technical but accessible here.
Issue #275 published 16 Jan 2022
So here’s why salary transparency isn’t going to fly with location agnosticism. Employers will price remote anywhere jobs so that they can only be done in countries with lower cost-of-living. This will lead to job flight for any kind of work which can be done remotely. As OP says, ‘small, stable countries with favourable timezones’ have a once in a century opportunity. It should mean a more equitable world though - and a moral test for those of us in the global north as to whether we walk the talk when it comes to global DEI.
Issue #274 published 9 Jan 2022
“Digital body language” is such an important concept to embed into our communication behaviour. Great deal of this advice is about being more conscientious on how we ask questions, how we respond to questions, as too often we just externalise without thinking… ‘how can this be read?’ It’s more work to do before we press send, but also great training for a skill we all have to get better at. Must read folks.
Issue #274 published 9 Jan 2022
Compensation in a remote first / remote friendly / remote only(?) world is going to be on the core challenges for HR in 2022. I pretty certain that two progressive movements of salary transparency + location agnosticism isn’t going to fly. Here are 10 companies who don’t agree though.
Issue #273 published 2 Jan 2022
Excellent short series on the challenges and solutions of Hybrid way of working. Manages to steer clear of the cliché which is already marring the conversation on hybrid, OP has produced some insightful, practical work here. Make sure to check out Part I (HR)and Part II (Leaders) also.
Issue #271 published 19 Dec 2021
Akira Kurosawa’s 1950’s classic is the inspiration for this timely post on how team mates can share the same moment, but experience very different things. True enough when in-person, the ‘Rashomon effect’ is exacerbated in the world of distributed teams. Essential reading for anyone who cares about ‘synching up’. Watch the movie too - its timeless.
Issue #270 published 12 Dec 2021
Tulsa Remote Report
REMOTE WORKING
Has anyone been to Tulsa? They were one of the very earliest places to think about ‘destination branding’ and in particular, the idea of relocating remote workers to the city. What sounds like a contradiction makes sense when you give a seconds thought - why do the same work in an expensive city when you could do it in more reasonable city for the same pay? 2021 report on progress, worth everyone’s time to read.
Issue #269 published 5 Dec 2021
Has the Hybrid Hype cycle has already peaked? When collections like this appear on LinkedIn, it’s a decent sign that it has and we’re on our way to the trough of disillusionment. Hybrid was always going to be the most difficult of configurations to make work. Some of us are going to make it work though, so good news that this post contains a few handy tips how-to
Issue #268 published 28 Nov 2021
The daily stand up has become a common ritual for many of us now working in distributed teams. Designed to connect team mates, unblock problems and increase velocity, they can also become deeply problematic and damaging for employee morale. Super interesting thread from engineers who talk about how they do (or don’t) do stand ups.
Issue #265 published 7 Nov 2021
One of the best visualisations on the remote work as it illustrates the differential across different industries. IT/Software services lead the way, whilst some industries (i.e. Retail) simply can’t. Read this alongside material on labour reallocation and we can get some sort of sense as to which industries will continue to be candidate short.
Issue #263 published 24 Oct 2021
Wonderfully written pre-mortem on what can go wrong with our great experiment in hybrid working. Make a note of every point because they are the speed bumps we’re going to hit down the road.
Issue #262 published 17 Oct 2021
Another outstanding report, this time from Slack, which surveyed execs and employees to assess their relative sentiment on workplace flexibility. No surprises in the results, so this document might prove a useful artefact to circulate internally or to invoke in conservations you may need to have. Download the pdf here
Issue #262 published 17 Oct 2021
Superb essay on the need to reframe the conversation on office vs remote, which starts by challenging the basis of the argument for remote (how do we measure ‘productivity’ anyway?) before moving onto a reconsideration of how to measure knowledge work. Must read
Issue #261 published 10 Oct 2021
Simple question which turned in a viral thread as contributors answered with their ‘remote team traditions’. Some are bad, some are good - take some time to browse through, there will be something here that you will be able to use.
Issue #261 published 10 Oct 2021
Short survey report from the WEF on employee attitudes towards remote working. There’s a few interesting charts in this, particularly the country comparison of what employees want vs what employees expect to happen.
Issue #260 published 3 Oct 2021
Online gaming was the pre-covid example of where real connections, relationships and community could be built entirely remotely. It should come to nobody’s surprise that we will be turning its mechanics and experience design the more we shift to remote. Great example here from Shopify.
Issue #260 published 3 Oct 2021
This is an interesting post. You may not agree with every answer OP gives here but we have to agree the answers are full and considered. 12 questions asked about ‘how to do hybrid’ - Remote Working Revolution author Tsedal Neeley responds.
Issue #260 published 3 Oct 2021
Impactful thread on how one CEO implemented rituals to help connect distributed team members. I found myself agreeing to every one, but especially 1, 6 & 8. It’s for remote working but…I suspect some of these culture building techniques would for any arrangement.
Issue #259 published 26 Sep 2021
So fresh from the awesome Day 2 of RecFest, I’ve been told my talk on Bad Ideas from Day 1 of RecFest is now live on Youtube. I haven’t watched it yet but if the thumbnail preview is anything to go by, it’s got to be pretty good!
Issue #258 published 19 Sep 2021
Not to be outdone, brainfooder Adriaan Kolff has also publishes his company’s MatchHR Employee Handbook, this time on coda. MatchHR are a fully distributed recruitment agency, who have transitioned from being an on premise business - an interesting journey a lot of us might be taking, so check out their learnings here
Issue #258 published 19 Sep 2021
Remote's Public Handbook
REMOTE WORKING
Remote - perhaps the most perfectly positioned HR company for the post pandemic world - has published their internal handbook - culture, hiring, communication, code of conduct, business ops - it’s all there, for public view. Valuable for three reasons - 1) insight on how remote first organisations operate, 2) direct inspiration on a number of relevant areas and 3) great EB for candidates.
Issue #258 published 19 Sep 2021
those who are eager to return are likely to find themselves disappointed when the things they miss most – quick chats with colleagues, big brainstorming sessions, team solidarity and socialising – are still not happening.
It’s basically a bad idea to use nostalgia as a basis for policy. Excellent piece by the BBC, who’s ‘Worklife’ series is consistently good. Have a read
Issue #258 published 19 Sep 2021
“Nothing changed except the computer I use and the sites I access,” says Nobles, who tried moving his desk to a new spot in the room when he joined Microsoft, “just to make the experience feel a little different"
One of the unanticipated challenges of hiring in hybrid, is how to make the new hire feel that there’s a change. High touch with the line manager is the critical factor. Excellent post from Microsoft (whose internal research on hybrid is also available here)
Issue #257 published 12 Sep 2021
Fun skit on how zoom habits might accidentally migrate to in-person meetings. Comedy of course but perhaps something to think about as I suspect we are going to take some time to phase shift between the two modes. H/T to brainfooder Colin Donnery for the share
Issue #256 published 5 Sep 2021
Superbly produced podcast on the future of remote vs office. The two co-hosts have superb rapport. Have a listen here. H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd, who is fast becoming the singular source for cool podcast recommendations.
Issue #256 published 5 Sep 2021
When you sign a contract of employment you gain the security of being paid by one employer, in exchange for your freedom of being potentially paid by anyone else. Perhaps the resistance against remote working is ultimately a recognition that workers will be able to more easily circumvent this bad idea. Some have always done this - now there is a platform to help others to it too.
Issue #254 published 22 Aug 2021
Curiously under appreciated blog post, which manages to take a much discussed argument and give it a few new wrinkles, specifically that we have ingrained WFH / WFA whether we like it or not. Persuasive commentary on where we are at.
Issue #250 published 25 Jul 2021
Some questionable data (digital nomad visa for Australia - say what?) and incoherent categorisation (public safety + human rights surely are separate, even antagonistic categories yet considered to be one and the same here) on this index of remote working locations, but I include here as I think it is a good example of the sort of presentation and interface we need when creating tables of any kind - rankable, sortable, easy to use. Just needed better data science at the top of the funnel. H/T to brainfooder Jo McCatty for the share in the fb group
Issue #250 published 25 Jul 2021
Snapshot from jobs paying over $100,000 from Ladders. In line with the idea that remote working is ideally suited to experienced workers; also notable that the second most highest paying cities are also those which contain the work that most ‘remote-able’. Wish Ladders would publish the data rather than just the results, but this short post is still worth a read
Issue #249 published 18 Jul 2021
Remote working is for experienced employees, and the early entrant talent know it. Only 19% of college students prefer remote only work environment. We are getting close to the moment where we have to choose what kind of employers we want to be.
Issue #249 published 18 Jul 2021
70% of all offices pre pandemic were open plan and they stress us out. File this one under: another reason why the employees are not going to return to the office….
Issue #248 published 11 Jul 2021
The underestimated challenges of remote working collected together in this excellent essay from brainfooder Dorothy Dalton. There is pressure particularly on management - whose purpose and value - might be fundamentally challenged by distributed way of working. Must read
Issue #248 published 11 Jul 2021
Another useful resource to review as we slowly transition from lockdown to a kind of return to office in some degree. The entire almanac contains resources which are going to be useful to us here - check out People Ops segment - so check this out. H/T to brainfooder Todd Raphael for the share
Issue #248 published 11 Jul 2021
Decent effort at the landscape map of tech tools optimised for remote work; useful not only for the potential discovery of new tooling (each has a cameo review) but also in the categorisation, which can help us visualise the stack as we’re building it.
Issue #248 published 11 Jul 2021
The Hybrid Hype Cycle
REMOTE WORKING
Will your business survive the inevitable trough of disillusionment? Excellent short thread of where we are with hybrid work, what the predictable challenges are going to be, and some speculation as to what outcomes will endure.
Issue #247 published 4 Jul 2021
The coming trauma of hybrid is at root a tension between two fundamentally opposed ways of organising work - centralised vs decentralised, or more aggressively, headed vs acephalous. Long list of companies who are doing it the acephalous way, complete with their handbooks of how they do it. Must read
H/T to brainfooder Aaron Lintz for the share in the fb group
Issue #247 published 4 Jul 2021
Excellent report on the ‘war for talent 2.0’ - the global competition for job relocation in the era of the ‘anywhere jobs’. Digestible 47 pager, particularly relevant to the UK given the high percentage of jobs which could be done from anywhere.
Issue #246 published 27 Jun 2021
The unfolding complexity of hiring a world of remote - a new state law in Colorado requires businesses to disclose the expected salary or pay range for remote positions - and so companies are discouraging applicants from that state. Don’t hate the player, hate the game….
H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share
Issue #246 published 27 Jun 2021
‘Full time employment’ is an agreement you sign so that your employer can monopolise your time. You are not just working for your employer, but you are actively prevented from working for any other employer. That remote working erodes management surveillance on whether you are breaking this agreement is a primary motivation for the call to ‘return to the office’……
Overly cynical take? Perhaps. Have a read
Issue #246 published 27 Jun 2021
As we inevitably start the slow migration back to some form of office location, the time to review how we use that space is now. Great case study here from Reward Gateway, who studied the activities which actually go on in employees work and remodelled their workspace to suit those activities. Digestible post, and great framework included.
Issue #245 published 20 Jun 2021
Andreessen Horowitz getting into the media business with the launch of Future. Early evidence suggests quality of the original content is high. Good example is this post, outlining the evolution of remote working, and projecting its complicated ‘multi-player’ future.
Issue #245 published 20 Jun 2021
Perhaps the biggest upside for a shift to remote working is access to the global talent pool. But the promise doesn’t come without operational challenges, as this outstanding post outlines. Must read for anyone charging ahead recruiting ‘remote anywhere’
Issue #245 published 20 Jun 2021
Destinations here are ranked by growth rates of check-ins made to places by tens of thousands of Nomad List members using live data analyzing 132,360 trips to 10,171 destinations….
…in case you were thinking about it. And I know you have been thinking about it.
Issue #244 published 13 Jun 2021
Brainfooder Neil Morrison is an infrequent yet superb commentator on the world of work. Here he is coming out in typically robust style on the politics and privilege of WFH, in short its evangelism by an elite with the option to choose. Great reading.
Issue #244 published 13 Jun 2021
Amazing long read on how to apply the anthropological lens to the challenges of the new workplace. Some brilliant ideas emerge from the case studies pulled out by the author, especially the idea of ‘humming’ for dispute resolution. It’s going to need 10 minutes of your time, but trust me, you need to read this. HN thread here as ever, has great supplementary commentary.
Issue #244 published 13 Jun 2021
We are beginning to understand that there is a spectrum of options that exist between the binary opposites of ‘fully distributed’ vs ‘fully centralised’. This post provides some clean lines between these hybrid options, extremely useful as we begin the transition to the next stage of the pandemic response.
Issue #244 published 13 Jun 2021
The Hybrid Work Paradox
REMOTE WORKING
Anyone else get the sense that MSFT are perfectly positioned to be the big winners of the shift to hybrid? They have the communication tech (Teams), employee experience platform (Viva), social network (LinkedIn), enduring dominance of the enterprise (Office) and crucially - the size/scale/distribution to experiment with almost every use case. Important post from CEO Satya Nadella on the future of work for Microsoft - and as they build the tools to help make this a reality for themselves, expect them to productise and roll them out to us.
PS: this guide on hybrid work for leaders is also useful.
Issue #243 published 6 Jun 2021
Hybrid work gets a resounding endorsement from Josh Bersin, who, as ever, brings plenty of firepower to his argument with this 10 point argument extolling the virtues despite growing pains. Even if you disagree with his optimism (for the record, I do), you’re going to find value in understanding each of these points. Must read folks
Issue #242 published 30 May 2021
Do Recruitment Agencies particularly need an office? Interesting observations by brainfooder Ross Clennett on the role an office plays in culture formation, information transfer and - morale. No one loves the commute, but what else do we lose if we lose the office? Have a read here
Issue #242 published 30 May 2021
Interesting perspective from which to view the remote working angle - what happens when we start commuting less? Implications for the commute, office and night economy, as well for national ‘levelling up’ plans. Tension between employer and employee are clear though - what is optimal for one, is suboptimal for the other. Brainfood Live on in this later this month - register here.
H/T to brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share
Issue #241 published 23 May 2021
Millennials born between 1980–85 know how to work across generational divides
Are you a ‘geriatric millennial’? New term for us which will inevitably become denigrated as another example of generational stereotyping, but before we get to that point, it might be useful to sit on the idea for a bit; perhaps there is something uniquely useful with being a ‘digital immigrant’ - a person with knowledge of work pre and post internet, pre and post office. What do you think - is this you? It’s kind of me. Have a read
Issue #241 published 23 May 2021
War for Talent 2.0 folks - is the competition for skilled labour fought regions rather than companies. Tourist hotspots or rural idylls are currently leading the way on this. Watch out for legislative countermeasures - this war will also be fought with tax law. PS: Barbados or Western Cape are my favourite spots so far - what are yours?
Issue #240 published 16 May 2021
Is there a tension between the needs of the business vs needs of the individual workers? Marx might say ‘do you even have to ask??’ This story - where CEO Cathy Merrill publicly shared thoughts on the potential limitations to career progression of staff who remained remote - triggered a strike by staff outraged at the implication. Staff twitter campaign here, Glenn Gutmacher on how to get past the the paywall here, and follow the Brainfood Live channel here - because we’re going to talk about this, from the POV of the CEO’s…..
Issue #240 published 16 May 2021
Bottom line up front: Productivity down by 20%, mainly due to increased requirements for co-ordination. We probably need to significantly redesign work to fully exploit the advantages of location agnosticism. Accessible summary here, full report downloadable here. H/T to brainfooder Colin Donnery for the share in the fb group
Issue #240 published 16 May 2021
Keeping teams aligned, deciding what to do with the office, figuring out what software to use — the hybrid workplace will come with hurdles.
Collected from interviews with European startups founders, this short post outlines some of the challenges we are going to face. As I’ve said before, hybrid is clearly a bad idea but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to do it 🤣
Issue #239 published 9 May 2021
Remote Work Report 2021
REMOTE WORKING
2020 might have been the ‘year of Gitlab’ as everyone rushed to learn how to do remote on the fly, so it pays to pay attention when they roll out nuanced report like this on remote work. Particularly interesting: disparity between employee reports on remote work vs remote workers perception of employer support of such work. This is a report that is not afraid to draw conclusions - have a read
Issue #239 published 9 May 2021
Packed full of interesting ideas on how to plan the ‘return to the office’ or at least, return to some form of predictable rhythm of work. Rightly critical of the rose tinted narrative of the office being a place of amazing creativity, but not dismissive of the value of having an office. Excellent easy reading, with plenty of deep dives linked throughout.
Issue #238 published 2 May 2021
How To Do Hybrid Right
REMOTE WORKING
Deep analysis, great case studies and one outstanding framework of analysis on what jobs require what circumstance to be optimally effective. If you read one thing on brainfood this week, read this.
Issue #238 published 2 May 2021
Osmotic communication, true to its name, suggests that humans can passively absorb info as they do tasks, just like plants absorb water through soil.
Probably the best workplace blog going right now. Dropbox have wonderfully positioned themselves as a thought leader in the new way of working. Must read
Issue #236 published 18 Apr 2021
Put this one down as reason No1 why ‘hybrid’ is a bad idea. I’m giving it 6-12 months before litigations start driving organisations to bite the bullet and choose full remote or full on premise. We’ve known for a long time - intuitively and via research - that proximity with the boss is the most important single factor to career progression.
Issue #235 published 11 Apr 2021
This newsletter - like the vast majority of content and discourse about our industry - is heavily centred in the Anglo-sphere. This collection of cameo portraits of 9 workers from under represented parts of the world is a fascinating window into the lives of others, who share with us the challenge of working from home during pandemic. It’s a great read
Issue #234 published 4 Apr 2021
Superb report from Totaljobs, & BCG, surveying changing attitudes of 208,807 workers from 190 countries. Particularly interesting findings: countries with poor pandemic response directly correlates with greater appetite for remote working. Accessible and fascinating - read it here. H/T to brainfooder Glenn Southam for the share
Issue #234 published 4 Apr 2021
Recent poll I ran on LinkedIn had over 1000 response, with some version of Hybrid coming out on top as 75% likelihood to happen in their business. And yet the new default is going to come with significant cultural overhead, which are only beginning to catch a glimpse of. As ever, we can learn from those who have already tried it - great post here by brainfooders Archie Hollingsworth and Louise Ware on their journey in experimenting with different modes of work
Issue #234 published 4 Apr 2021
Superb interactive website from Microsoft, showing the insights derived from their 2021 Work Trends internal survey. Particularly impressive is the recognition of both the inevitability of hybrid work and the inherent challenges to cultural cohesion that will come with it. Lots of work for us in TA / HR here. The full report is downloadable here, but I recommend you also dive right in and have a play on the website - this is reporting as it should be done
Issue #233 published 28 Mar 2021
Amazing essay which manages to weave together ideas like introverted cultures, makers vs managers schedules and the value of ‘human micro-exchanges’. At root is the idea that the argument for full return to office (see Goldman Sachs post), full remote or any number of hybrid variants in between, split along lines of neurodiversity. Fascinating speculation folks - have a read here
Issue #232 published 21 Mar 2021
Automattic - the software company behind Wordpress - has been a remote first / remote only business from inception. This account from the candidate perspective of the hiring process is the insider view of how to do remote first hiring. Few things to note: pre-assessment candidate access to company chat channels, where prospective hires can interact with existing employees. H/T brainfooder Simon McSorley for the share in the fb group
Issue #231 published 15 Mar 2021
Back To The Office
REMOTE WORKING
The data for Elad Gil’s claim is somewhat Trumpian (‘people tell me….’) but no reason to doubt the guy is super connected at least in SV tech, and others have claimed the same; that remote utopianism has given way somewhat to back-to-office romanticism. The possible models outlined toward the second half of this post make it really worthwhile - especially the nuance of options 2A and 2B. H/T to brainfooder Pedro Oliveira for the share in the fb group.
Issue #230 published 7 Mar 2021
Final of the 3 posts on remote working this week - the response of cities, regions and countries to the remote working revolution. War for Talent 2.0 is here folks - this time fought along entirely different dimensions. Regions with a history of tourism already have the inside track. H/T brainfooders Jennifer van Riet and Bas van de Haterd for the share
Issue #229 published 28 Feb 2021
As I was saying….how to pay - and how to tax - is the coming crisis on the remote first future. Pressure to maintain or increase tax revenue is going to be one of the main factors in the ‘back to the office’ movement. Also related. H/T to brainfooder Romuald Restout for the share in fb group.
Issue #229 published 28 Feb 2021
This week I want to look at some evidence that one of the most important functions of cities is to introduce us to new people. I’ll go on to argue being close seems to be very important for initiating and consolidating new relationships, but that once they’re formed it’s no longer so important that you stay physically close - at least from the perspective of facilitating innovation.
We are learning more about the nature of remote work. This outstanding post outlines the difference when working remotely with people you have previously met in-person, vs those where the Zoom call was the first contact. Relevant, especially for early entry talent, new team formation and likely a whole host of other anthropological angles we’ve yet to uncover. H/T brainfooder Bas van de Haterd for the share in the fb group
Issue #229 published 28 Feb 2021
Remote, on-premise or hybrid? The story follows design consultancy R/GA as they progress through the options, wrestling with competing demands of convenience, collaboration and culture. Hybrid is the path most of us will follow, but will it be ultimately revealed as the cowards choice? It’s another must read folks. H/T brainfooder Jacob Sten Madsen for the share in the fb group
Issue #227 published 14 Feb 2021
Hiring at GitLab
REMOTE WORKING
I stated in my review of remote, that Gitlab was crossover star of the 2020, blazing the way forward with its open source, remote only culture. Gitlab resources on remote working became the go-to for the rest of us, who suddenly had to transition to the new way of working. They continue to lead here by publishing their internal handbook that the current recruiting team at Gitlab uses to hire. Obviously must read folks. H/T to brainfooder Tris Revill for the share
Issue #227 published 14 Feb 2021
I’m beginning to believe multiplayer gaming might be the future of corporate culture in a remote first world. AR / VR is still too clunky, and not always on, and flat screen video interaction is not immersive enough to support the making of strong social bonds. Might start a brainfood Twitch channel - anyone in?
Issue #226 published 7 Feb 2021
Fascinating report from Kim-Mai Cutler on the incremental yet accelerating dispersal of tech startups, as companies move from Silicon Valley or - in many cases - never start there. With Rents collapsing in ‘superstar’ cities worldwide, in a stunning reversal of urban agglomeration which many thought was inevitable only 12 months ago. H/T Brainfooder Martyn Redstone on the share in the fb group
Issue #225 published 31 Jan 2021
Interesting report from Harvard Business School and NBER, which analysed the impact of informal ‘across the desk’ knowledge sharing and how it impacted sales performance. Perhaps the best argument for a return to office is the findings - it’s the un-trackable, unscheduled, randomised flow of information which can give individual performers the edge. Have a read
Issue #223 published 17 Jan 2021
Josh Bersin is always worth a read, even in snap shot posts like this. Quick takeaways: remote is better for college educated, older workers, who are more likely to have the work type and the material means to make remote work work. Interesting challenges ahead, for companies, for society. Have a read here
Issue #223 published 17 Jan 2021
Amongst the hundreds of remote work articles posted in brainfood this year, you might be surprised that I picked this one as my favourite for the year. The early pessimism in tone was prescient, and I suspect that the OP’s conjecture on the nature of full time work might be equally so. Some of the best stuff on remote work came from remote workers working this way pre-Covid - might be an idea to pay attention to what they have already learned.
Issue #220 published 27 Dec 2020
I’ve referenced this piece of research a number of talks I’ve been given recently so I thought I’d best share it with the community here in case you’re not already familiar with it. Some useful bits, including the occupational classification table.
Issue #218 published 13 Dec 2020
"Working" Remotely 2020
REMOTE WORKING
What if remote working secures productivity gains only for those who were previously on-premise? Intriguing research on this recent paper from Harvard University which suggests that there may be a novelty factor involved in the positive assessment of remote work. A bit technical so the abstract is here, full report here
Issue #215 published 23 Nov 2020
Wonderful post on the ‘smile curve’ and the inevitable commoditisation and offshoring of knowledge work, accelerated by the radical shift to remote. A challenging future ahead - on the one hand, long overdue economic rebalancing on a global level; on the other, will the WEIRD populations tolerate the relative drop in standards of living? Today’s politics gives us some indication as to what that answer might be. A must read folks
Issue #215 published 23 Nov 2020
Interesting research from Dropbox, whose content team are regularly finding ways to dive a little deeper than most on the implications of the shift to remote. This study on focus presents more questions than answers, but maybe the right questions are most important right now. Have a read (and see if you can make it through without being distracted)
Issue #214 published 16 Nov 2020
Check out LinkedIn’s own virtualised onboarding programme. Can’t disagree with any of their moves here - they all make perfect sense - and serve as a sense check for all of us if we’re missing any here. Accessible, practical, high value reading. PS might be useful if more of us published these types of ‘how we do it’ type material
Issue #214 published 16 Nov 2020
The story of the week is this proposal from Deutsche Bank to tax the WFH 5% of salary in order to support those who cannot do WFH. The reaction has been, fair to say, fairly emphatic, but I suspect this will be the first in a recurring wave of legislative attempts by governments i to reverse the shift to remote working. Meanwhile, governments in other regions, actively compete to do the opposite. ‘The war for talent’ is being reborn with an entirely new meaning along an entirely different axis. H/T to brainfooders Glenn Southam and Pedro Oliveira for the share in the fb group
Issue #214 published 16 Nov 2020
Tons of good stuff here, include ‘desire paths’, instituting digital commutes and - most importantly - inviting fewer people to your zoom meetings. Smart, useful, well referenced. H/T to brainfooder Joanne Lockwood for the share in the fb group (and get well soon Jo!)
Issue #213 published 9 Nov 2020
Long but excellent overview of the pro’s and con’s of remote working - in particular for those companies who have gone to WFA (work from anywhere). Cons include compensation, career progression, as well as brainstorming, enculturation and personal development….we into the skepticism phase of remote working yet? Have a read though, and make up your own mind - this one is one to keep
Issue #212 published 2 Nov 2020
Chris Herd is becoming something of a master of the twitter thread on remote work. Obviously he has an agenda but his musings are worthy, especially on the pressure to ‘out-remote’ your competitors. Read in combo with the McKinsey report above
Issue #209 published 11 Oct 2020
Please don’t hate on the boss (pictured) who probably just did the interview because of the software supplier quoted ‘BBC’ and cited him as a satisfied customer. Real talk: how do we achieve accountability with newly remote hired staff? Lot of people are doing this with bossware, so this guy is not in any way an outlier. Have a read
Issue #208 published 4 Oct 2020
Not only a fantastic interactive reading experience, but a really careful and effective case study on a company which may become the canonical example of radical remote. Must read. H/T brainfooder Denys Dinkevych for the share
Issue #208 published 4 Oct 2020
This is a brilliant post on three different levels 1) practical, with some do-it-today tips on how to improve your hiring process, 2) visual, in explaining through pictures and 3) conceptual, with the introduction of a truth about recruiting we don’t hear often enough - it’s really all about trust relationships. Must read folks
Issue #207 published 27 Sep 2020
More problems with remote working: young people are going to be missing a ton of information on how to get better at their work. How do we deal with this? Early career opportunities must be on-premise? A Brainfood Live topic if ever there was one.
Issue #205 published 13 Sep 2020
It should come as no surprise that the folks best suited for remote working are those who have been pushing for it even before Covid-19. Superbly accessible report from OfferZen on not only how developers feel about working from home, but why. Have a read here. H/T to brainfooder Anthea Hartzenberg for the share
Issue #205 published 13 Sep 2020
Love this ultimate guide to remote working from brainfooder Jose Kadlec; comprehensive and accessible deep dive into the immediate considerations of remote working - that is, what kit, set up, apps and tech do I need to ace the game whilst working from home? Its a must read
Issue #204 published 6 Sep 2020
Persuasive analysis from Gitlab’s Head of Remote: you actually need a person full time managing your business’s transition to remote work, because ‘it’s not a binary switch’. The organisational characterisations in the second half of this post are somewhat harsh but ….I suspect quite fair. Time to stop making it up as we go folks. H/T brainfooder Iwo Szapar for the share.
Issue #204 published 6 Sep 2020
Managing remote employees is very different from managing team members in an office. Here are 11 tips to help you in better at doing it. Outstanding resource folks. H/T Adriaan Kolff for the share in the fb group
Issue #203 published 30 Aug 2020
Beyond Remote
REMOTE WORKING
Outstanding essay on the nature of distributed work, providing necessary nuance in a debate which has morphed into binary opposites of ‘remote only’ vs 'back-to-office’. Hard to argue with the OP’s analysis that our future, will be ’heterogeneously implemented’….
Issue #202 published 23 Aug 2020
Outstanding screed against remote work, listing the various reasons why it’s overrated, including its incompatibility with large companies, the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ phenomena, the unavoidable rupturing of company culture and in the end, the obvious threat of offshoring the work. Read, alongside Li Jin’s post earlier in this newsletter and together a picture of the decline of the company as our primary method of organising labour begins to emerge…
Issue #201 published 16 Aug 2020
The New World of Work
REMOTE WORKING
The remote world of work is here to stay, and there’s a clear willingness to adapt to that new world – at least in the adoption of new technology. But in order to really succeed in this new model of work, we need to loosen up on the traditional operational practices, and start thinking about different solutions and practices so we continue to set ourselves for success. In short: the new world of work requires a new way of thinking.
Must read report on the attitude of HR to remote work. Key insight? The appetite for change is there, something we’d usually have to make the case for.
Issue #200 published 9 Aug 2020
Do you pay ‘market rate’ regardless of the location of the employee? Do you compensate for WFH set up? Do you reduce pay based on reduced commute costs? Plenty of brainfood here in this essential post every manager needs to read. H/T to brainfooder Viktoriya Vasileva for the share
Issue #199 published 2 Aug 2020
Microsoft - by mandating every employee to use the same Teams platform - might be uniquely positioned to commentate on the true implications of the global shift to remote work; some key findings in this summary post: meetings have increased in frequency, but reduced in duration (hurray!); also, change happens fast when it comes from the employees up vs managers down. Some must read corporate anthropology.
Issue #199 published 2 Aug 2020
Well written report from HBR on the implications of the phase shift to remote working; especially pertinent? the potential demise of ’weak ties’ which correlate with ‘random’ connections more easily made in person than online.
Issue #198 published 26 Jul 2020
This post is here primarily for this chart - a very decent way of visualising which flavour of remote working you’re going to try. It’s going to be easier to go all in or all out, naturally, but at least with this, you’re going to know what your choices are.
Issue #197 published 19 Jul 2020
Fascinating thought bubble collected from a number of user stories, (including one from brainfooder Adam Posner) which gives us yet another unexpected second or third order impact from Covid-19. The barriers between personal and professional will surely never be the same again. Have a read, here
Issue #196 published 12 Jul 2020
If you’re returning to the office this week you might be able to relate. I’m guessing none of us were as isolated as OP but her extreme experience might prove a useful guide on what to look out for when we return to ‘normal’ (spoiler alert: normal is not going to feel normal)
Issue #195 published 5 Jul 2020
Will Covid-19 lead to the long overdue global redistribution of wealth? According to this writer, it’s already happening, as remote working advocates inadvertently lay the groundwork for the large scale offshoring of all knowledge work. It’s a persuasive argument.
Issue #194 published 28 Jun 2020
Challenging reading for a ‘remote only’ advocate like myself, but this is essential material for all of us who are currently wrestling with configuration of our teams. The three problems? - all management is indirect, you can’t hire junior people and you get way less creativity / unplanned wins. All true, I think. Have a read here. H/T Pedro Oliveira for the share
Issue #193 published 21 Jun 2020
Important report from UpWork’s Chief Economist with a very telling twist - comparing survey results of 1500+ business owners pre Covid (Nov ‘19) vs post Covid (April '20). Accessible 7 pager with a clear message: despite teething issues, Remote Working is working. Download the report here. H/T Pedro Oliveira for the share
Issue #192 published 14 Jun 2020
Stripe’s decision a year ago to experiment with a ‘co-equal’ remote hub has proved prescient, and now puts them far enough ahead of the curve that they can now do a retro, whilst everyone else is still trying to getting a grip. Accessible read, essential for anyone wrestling with the shift to remote working
Issue #191 published 7 Jun 2020
As we begin to emerge from lockdown, big questions are being asked on what the standard operating model of business should be: remote, hybrid or co-located? An interesting angle from this post which argues for the existence of an essential ‘gravity’ to a businesses which is missing when you don’t have a physical HQ. What do we think - do companies have a soul and - if so - must it be at a physical place? Even as a remote only advocate, I’m kind of thinking…..maybe it does. Fascinating conjecture: have a read here
Issue #190 published 31 May 2020
The post about this post was featured in Issue 184, but not a bad thing to review the original, especially as its from Matt Mullenweg, the founder of Automattic, makers of Wordpress and famously a remote only business before it was cool. It’s the 5 Levels of Autonomy folks - where are your business at on this pyramid? H/T to brainfooder Ivan Harrison for the share.
Issue #189 published 24 May 2020
The Office Is Dead
REMOTE WORKING
A study by SquareFoot, which specializes in helping businesses find office space, found that companies in New York City spend an average of $17,020 per employee annually on office space
Coinbase, Shopify, Twitter, Facebook …all going remote first, there is a sense of inexorability about the movement towards permanent remote. This post outlines the business logic (its cheaper!) but there are many pro’s and cons were only just finding out about. Have a read of this post, and join the sometimes heated debate with other brainfooders in the fb group.
Issue #189 published 24 May 2020
‘Boundary violations’, 'energy shots’, 'micro-transitions’ - sometimes we just need the right words to help us understand what we feel. Excellent post from the Beeb which gives us the vocabulary on how to become more effective as a remote worker
Issue #188 published 17 May 2020
It’s become cool to malign McKinsey & Co (remember the ’War for Talent’ folks?), but sometimes they come up with the goods. This is an excellent post combining the theoretical with the pragmatic on what to do to maintain your agile teams MO when we’ve all had to shift to remote. Must read. H/T Adam Gordon for the share in the fb group
Issue #186 published 3 May 2020
Tired of remote work how-to posts? If you read just one more, make it this one. Real experience, real know-how and a real taxonomy of the types of remote working in this outstanding post by Martin Fowler. H/T brainfooder Pedro Oliveira for the share
Issue #186 published 3 May 2020
We need to get better at co-ordinating work without ‘mandated synchronicity’. Outstanding post which provides us with both the language and framework to do this better. H/T John Rose for the share in the fb group
Issue #185 published 26 Apr 2020
One gets the impression from this post that there is much regret as to the phenomena, though an appeal to the return to the phone comes across as a lament for a world now long gone. Video chat fatigue is real but perhaps more to do with how we are using them rather than the medium itself (see post below for perspective on this)
Issue #185 published 26 Apr 2020
Claire Lew is becoming a must follow thought leader on remote work. Another superb post on how to lead during times of Covid-19. Especially good on asking better questions as a manager. Must read folks.
Issue #185 published 26 Apr 2020
The Remote Work Report
REMOTE WORKING
GitLab have become the poster child of distributed only movement. Reports like this continue to embellish the brand - a dissection of the state of distributed work and, importantly, what the key motivators are for both employees and employers in this new normal. H/T Randy Bailey for the share in the fb group
Issue #185 published 26 Apr 2020
The Coronavirus - and China’s unprecedented response to it - might just be the black swan event that accelerates a trend which has so far left the country behind - remote working. Efficiency, productivity, health not to mention security gains to be had from locking down 46 million people are going to be too obvious to ignore for the worlds second biggest economy. Fascinating read from Bloomberg.
Issue #174 published 23 Apr 2020
Fundamental truth in productivity? Adapting tools you’re already using is more efficient than purpose built tools which no one has yet used. Zapier remote hiring, via Trello. Nice to see some human white gloves in the middle of all the automation also. 
Issue #80 published 23 Apr 2020
Outstanding resource put together by brainfooder and HR community leader Anna Ott and her awesome Secret HR Society. Notion might also be the best collaborative tool to maintain this type of crowdsourced documentation
Issue #180 published 23 Apr 2020
Plenty of us need more ideas on what to do with the kids, now we are facing weeks if not months of lockdown with the little cherubs. Green Parent to the rescue with this well linked blog post packed full of ideas on what you can do.
Issue #180 published 23 Apr 2020
Succinct and valuable post on the most important questions to ask when creating and updating your crisis response plan. Can’t argue with any of these - make sure you have missed one and take a look here
Issue #180 published 23 Apr 2020
‘Implementation Intentions’, 'Time blocking’, 'Operational Transparency’…..some new terms for us to learn as we wrestle with productivity challenges of remote working. Excellent post for those who want to get better at it
Issue #180 published 23 Apr 2020
Remote Work Survival Kit
REMOTE WORKING
Massive guide book on how to do all this stuff. Get it downloaded- easy to skim, easy to deep dive. H/T to brainfooderJoanne Lockwood for the share in the fb group
Issue #180 published 23 Apr 2020
Emergency Emails
REMOTE WORKING
Communication, communication, communication - the mantra in times of crisis. Well what do you do if you’re the one tasked with doing the communicating? You check out this awesome resource for handy crisis email templates of course. H/T to Jenny Handy for the share.
Issue #180 published 23 Apr 2020
Buffer are a company who walk the talk when it comes to remote working. Drawing from data from 3500 respondents, this report delivers some interesting insights, particularly the challenge of mixed colocated / remote working environments. The arrows point to an all or nothing future for remote working. H/T to brainfooder Martyn Redstone for the share in the fb group
Issue #175 published 23 Apr 2020
How to hire software engineers? 1. Be a fully remote tech company and 2. Pay base salary as if they were on site in SF.
1200 applicants alone for this job at Basecamp - no shortage of tech talent here. Competitive advantage for hiring for fully remote businesses will force the issue for others. Have a read here. H/T brainfooder Pedro Oliveira for the share
Issue #175 published 23 Apr 2020
Timely and important post from brainfooder Lars Schmidt on what HR leaders should be doing to prep their business for a potential lockdown. Have a read here PS: wonder whether it might be an idea to crowdsource something here - watch this space.
Issue #177 published 23 Apr 2020
Great report from FYI for these reasons: cool presentation, accessible tone, undeniable value, especially the somewhat disorganised yet very good tips section, but mostly for the inclusion of the photo’s of respondents remote working set ups and pet companions. H/T to brainfooder and uber content submitter Denis Dinkevich for the share
Issue #153 published 23 Apr 2020
All teams become distributed teams over time
Never thought of this before, but of course it’s true. Lots of little nuggets of wisdom like this in this accessible post, written by practitioners with relevant experience. Have a read here
Issue #165 published 23 Apr 2020
Useful 8 point guide that provides some practical recommendations on what we can do to protect the health of our people and our businesses. I suspect at least half of these will likely not be rolled back post outbreak, so this phase shift for us in HR. Must read.
Issue #178 published 23 Apr 2020
Brainfood Larder
REMOTE WORKING
It seems a lot of you have had to enforce WFH protocols following the global outbreak of COVID-19; there has been a corresponding surge in requests for information on Remote Working. Brainfood Larder is our best friend here - a searchable archive of every article ever posted in brainfood, including dozens on remote work. Take a look here - and bookmark the page - gets updated every issue.
Issue #178 published 23 Apr 2020
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent nearly 1 year in space, and he has some advice on how to deal with isolation. Pretty sound advice, particularly keeping a hobby (that is not work or entertainment) and doing a journal. Have a read
Issue #181 published 23 Apr 2020
Working from home is a security & privacy nightmare, as this story rather explicitly demonstrates. As ever, efficiency vs privacy is the trade off and you can always bet that a naked man somewhere is going to stage a virtual break in on your digital room.
Issue #181 published 23 Apr 2020
If you are about Zoomed out right now - then believe me - I understand. Step forward hero of the hour, Creative Technologist Matt Reed who created a bot to take his place on unnecessary video calls. Great story, and probably actually useful
Issue #184 published 23 Apr 2020
Bit of an advertorial for the Teams product, this report from Microsoft nevertheless provides some interesting insight on behavioural change triggered by the mass movement to remote working. Easy read, so do it here. H/T Martyn Redstone for the share in the fb group
Issue #184 published 23 Apr 2020
Zoom team-selfies, like the one below, taken by giddy corporate executives who have been long-time remote working laggards, are polluting Twitter and LinkedIn feeds….
….and are a surefire sign you’re a Level 2. Excellent post on our shared reality. H/T John Rose for the share in the fb group
Issue #184 published 23 Apr 2020
This case study series by LinkedIn is rather good - 4 to 5 cameo portraits condensed into a paragraph each - enough to get a takeaway on each one. Some excellent ideas from the likes of HelpScout and Automattic. Essential reading if you have or planning to increase your distributed workforce. Take a look here
Issue #133 published 23 Apr 2020
Accessible explainer post on the two paradigms of scheduling - ‘managers schedule vs makers schedule’. Rings true for anyone who has struggled with deep work in the traditional office environment. This is excellent, so have a read here
Issue #161 published 23 Apr 2020
This fellow Billy Barr has been living alone in a cabin in a Colorado mountain ghost town for the past 50 years. He offers advice on how to find and maintain happiness in isolation. And it is indeed excellent advice
Issue #182 published 23 Apr 2020
You know I’m a fan of big lists. H/T Alexandru Gotoj for making perhaps the biggest one of all - as comprehensive a list for remote working that I’ve seen. Great original share in the fb group (which you are welcome to join btw).
Issue #182 published 23 Apr 2020
Foiled prototyping. Factory photos stalled by secrecy. Travel bans that slow decisions. The tech industry’s most important hardware maker is still figuring out how to manage a remote workforce as the Covid-19 outbreak disrupts its operations.
Fascinating journalism on how the notoriously secretive company is coping with working from home. Must read
Issue #182 published 23 Apr 2020
Sometimes a massive list is the most useful thing, especially when it is sourced, linked and placed on a single website. Superb resource in case you ever needed to build a business case for the inevitable future that is remote working.
Issue #160 published 23 Apr 2020
The virtualisation of recruiting means first impression are going to change. Instead of business suit, you are going to need a decent HD webcam + good lighting. Big implications for D&I here
Issue #183 published 23 Apr 2020
What do you do when you onboarding has to be remote? Accessible guide, beautifully presented in this interactive website. Not just flash either, there is some solid advice in here too. Have a read
Issue #183 published 23 Apr 2020
This is a much better post than the title suggests - it’s a commendable attempt at mapping the landscape of remote working startups. Some good thinking on the taxonomy, as well a undeniably appealing 2 x 2 matrix. Have a read
Issue #183 published 23 Apr 2020
In these challenging times, it’s worth remembering that some of our businesses are pretty resilient - outlasting emperors, revolutions, foreign invasions, civil wars and yes, epidemics too. We’ll make it through this
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
Never to let a catastrophe get in the way of sales outreach eh? This recruiter continues to do his part to fortifying the industry’s reputation as the most awful people on the planet. From the frequently funny-yet-shameful subreddit, Recruitinghell…. have a read ….and don’t do this.
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
If you’re a parent, working from home when your default is working in an office might bring another challenge - what to do with the kids. Thankfully, the good people at Princess Awesome have created an open source doc packed full of ideas on what you can do. Check it out here
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
Fascinating line of thought from Abe Winter, who points out twin effects of quarantine and near certain recession in many parts of the world. I think…..he might be right.
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
Embarrassing WFH Moments
REMOTE WORKING
Have you had an embarrassing work from home moment yet? You’re going to - so you might as well share your story and have a smile or two at some of these others here. Btw: there’s a ton of great resources on this network generally
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
Excellent company policy template includes guidelines employees should follow to mitigate the spread of coronavirus. Use it if you haven’t got one better. Part of this resource hub from Workable - super useful
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
Cuppa
REMOTE WORKING
“Social distancing” is already manifesting into new etiquette when it comes to meeting and greeting people. It also brings in the challenge of loneliness which we might all be beginning to feel a little right now. So why don’t you grab a virtual coffee with folks who follow your twitter? It’s Chatroulette, only with people who already like your chat. I’ve signed up
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
Excellent post from the CEO of my favourite video conferencing tool, Whereby (better than Zoom I’m telling ya). Particularly relevant for companies suddenly in remote only mode: 1) don’t tolerate ambiguity - it’s a massive productivity killer and 2) create daily rhythm and rituals.
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
Great to read stories like this from brainfooders who are sharing their experience of shifting to remote only mode. My advice: read widely on posts like this from Anita Lettink
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
@HungLee/Covid19
REMOTE WORKING
Twitter has become a great resource for cross referencing breaking news. I’ve curated a public list of folks epidemiologists, public health professionals & scientific journalists who are sharing reliable information about Covid19. Follow it here
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
This has got to be the toughest year for the events business so this post is for you: Vimeo handy guide on how to plan & deliver a Virtual Event. This is an opportunity folks - someone is going to crack this at some point - we might as well try and do it now.
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
Now you are a ‘distributed collaborator’, can you be an effective one for you and your colleagues? The UI needs an update but this remains the de facto manual for how you can do so. Must read.
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
Superb essay by Will Oremus on how this global phase shift from colocated to remote work will reshape society. Amongst the many important insights, this one stuck out for me: only some of us have the type of work which can be done remotely and a remote first future will leave a lot of us behind. Must read
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
The Remote Manifesto
REMOTE WORKING
GitLab have been one of the first ‘remote only’ businesses to not only advocate for remote work but also to share knowledge on how to do it well. Their guide for All-Remote - a position many of us now suddenly find ourselves in - is an essential resource for us to bookmark and read.
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
Remote Work Wiki
REMOTE WORKING
Notion have become something of a darling of online colloboration & knowledge sharing in the past two years and it’s pretty easy to see why: the interface is familiar but the functionality is extensible. This wiki on remote work is a particularly good example of how to use it. Also pretty relevant content, given the circumstances
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
If you need to craft a response document to your customers and employees on your Covid-19 policy, this crowdsourced collection is as a good a place as any to start. Also is an expanding document so one to bookmark for long term use. H/T to brainfooder Lars Schmidt for mobilising the community for this effort.
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
KnowYourTeam is a cool product and Claire Lew is an even cooler CEO, not least for opening up this guidebook for managers of remote working teams. Tons of actionable tips in this accessible 60 page PDF.
Issue #179 published 23 Apr 2020
What is it like to work as a recruiter for a remote first / remote only company? This is the question that brainfooder Kristiine Kukk asked the good folks at Toggl recently. It’s an excellent, insightful interview.
Issue #154 published 23 Apr 2020
The Remote Work Report
REMOTE WORKING
Is the office is dead? It might be by 2030 according to the respondents of this survey from Zapier. The rise of remote work is inexorable and employers had better learn how to shift to it. BTW more on remote working in the Brainfood Larder
Issue #163 published 23 Apr 2020
Fascinating piece of research from our buddies at ESMI, and brainfooder Matthew Mee, whose annual Talent Attraction Scorecard paints a picture of a movement of talent away from the big cities. Agglomeration effect going in reverse? Remote working and impossible house prices make it that way.
Issue #163 published 23 Apr 2020