2020's been a tough year for most businesses & industries. We've been away from our families & friends, not to mention the drastic health consequences that many had to face due to Covid.
But the biggest positive coming from this situation was the emergence of remote working. It's been a terrific year for remote work, fast forwarding what was supposed to happen in 10 years to just 10 days!
So here's a round up of the biggest wins & fails for remote working this year:
Everyone got a taste of remote working & most enjoyed it
Surveys indicated:
- Productivity is same or higher when working remotely
- More hours put in per day
- Majority don't want to go back to office full-time
We surveyed 892 people ourselves & here's a quick read on what they had to say 👇
I spoke to 892 individuals about:
— Hrishikesh Pardeshi (@hrishiptweets) November 17, 2020
⚡️ how they are coping with sudden remoteness
⚡️ how prepared were their teams
⚡️ their company's remote work plans & policy changes
Here's what they have to say 🧵👇
Large companies announced permanent remote work
- Companies like Quora, Dropbox, Pinterest, Fujitsu, Square Enix went remote-first meaning all processes & collaboration would align to working remotely first. Working in-office would have secondary preference.
- Companies like Slack, Reddit, Siemens, Square, HubSpot have given employees the choice whether to work remotely or in-office.
- Companies like Twitter, Slack, Facebook, Microsoft decided to offer permanent remote work as an option to select employees depending on their role, location etc.
Many countries offered remote work visas
Quick list:
- Antigua & Barbuda
- UAE (Dubai)
- Barbados
- Germany
- Bermuda
- Portugal
- Georgia
- Estonia
Migration from large cities to tier-2 cities & towns
- Large-scale shift from crowded cities like San Francisco & New York to cities like Austin & Miami (detailed article here)
- 'Staycations' became popular. Spike in long-term Airbnb stays (>28 days) after mid-2020.
Absurd suggestions on taxing remote workers & forcing pay cuts
- Companies asking employees to take pay cuts (10-15%) to work remotely permanently
- Facebook announced pay cuts for employees if they re-locate
- Deutsche Bank recommended 5% privilege tax for remote workers
Too much work taking a toll on mental & physical health
- Working long hours & not being able to separate work from personal life emerged as the biggest problems
- Companies forced employees to take paid-time off & also offered extended weekends/rest days
Lowest pollution levels in decades because of fewer people commuting
- Greenhouse gas emissions dropped 9.2% in the US to the lowest levels since 1982
Extra tax rebates announced for people working from home
- Germany offered tax rebate of €600 exclusively for heating & electricity bills
- Canada announced additional tax relief of $400 for remote workers
Countries relaxed their laws to support WFH
- Countries like India simplified compliance to facilitate work from home or work from anywhere
- Germany is pushing to make WFH a legal right
- EU is pushing for 'right to disconnect' as a fundamental right
It's been an incredible year for remote work and thanks for this informative recap. Here's to more such great news in 2021 🎊
Stella Russo
Remote Work Experience
No prior remote work experience. Working from home only after the Coronavirus crisis.
Enjoyed reading this brief summary, @Hrishikesh 💯
BTW, have you thought about adding a social media share button for posts?
Justin
Remote Work Experience
Have been working as part of a remote team for the past two years on my latest venture Quidli since Day 1 with varying levels of successes and failures ;)
It's on my list, should be live soon :)
Hrishikesh Pardeshi
Remote Work Experience
I have worked remotely on and off. For some time, back in 2014, I was freelancing and taking up remote projects. During the first half of 2019, I was working as a remote co-founder.