tl:dr:
After the pandemic, you can go back to the office, work all remote, or mix the two. The choice is yours. Learn more below.
I’ve been working remotely off and on since 2013.
So I’ve been thinking about how office job companies are going to evolve in response to the pandemic for a while.
As soon as “15 days to slow the spread” gave way to 30 more around March of 2020, I knew we were in for worldwide remote work for at least 18 months while the peoples of the world figure out how to develop and distribute treatments and vaccines. So far, my estimates have been pretty accurate.
In late December of 2020 things started to reach a fever pitch.
And I started work on this post.
I believe there will be three types of strategies organizations will employ to organize themselves in the months and years following a strong consensus that the world can lift any form of lockdown and large groups can meet in person again without fear of an outbreak.
Get back to the office
Remote first
Hybrid
Recently Kim Mai Cutler stole my thunder on this subject (which is what I get for taking so long… not to mention her being waaay better at this than me lol)
Also, @chris herd is awesome on this subject as always
But to quickly summarize:
The “Get back to office” types
Companies in this category hate remote working and see it as purely bad. Not kidding.
They were forced into this and want out as soon as possible.
In fairness, they had to do this quickly, under great duress in a pandemic, and didn't have the time, knowledge of how, or desire to adapt to a remote workforce.
So it’s understandable that things have been a pure negative for them, that's not to say it had to be and hopefully they’re hearts open more over time.
The pure remote types
All in baby. All remote all the time anywhere. Nobody explains the pros here better than @Chris in his epic 10+ tweet thread here
Also make sure you pay attention to what gitlabbers have to say on this topic as they are one of the most successful remote-first companies and have been at it for quite a while.
The previous quote also applies to hybrid models, speaking of which…
The Hybrid
So now that we’ve explored the extremes – what’s in between?
It’s pretty straight forward really. Some days in the office (whether it's HQ, hubs, or a co-working space). And some from wherever else. A recent big fish jumping in here is Salesforce.
But watch out, hybrid isn’t as simple as it seems.
There are also several subtypes of remote / hybrid and @andreasklinger and @gary tan together have an awesome video about the topic altogether.
So what’s your choice? Why? comment below!
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Also, check out the sister article on post-pandemic locations in tech and the tech diaspora so far.