Trends Shaping the Future of Remote Work

I've spoken to 4,000+ companies about remote work since March 2020 Here are the most common things I've heard 👇 1. 🏢 HQ Obliteration: Return to office has stopped, companies have cut back the real estate they could, and will cut a lot more as leases expire. The majority of workers will work remotely at least part-time and the amount will grow 2. ⭐️ Access talent: The first reason they are going remote-first is simple – it lets them hire more talented people. Rather than hiring the best person in a 30-mile radius of the office, they can hire the best person in the world for every role 3. 💰 Cut costs: The second reason is because it makes them more cost-efficient. Rather than spending $10K-$20K per worker a year on office space they can provide a worldclass remote setup for less than $1,000 a year 4. 🌐 Universal problems: doesn’t matter the size of the organization, every company is dealing with the same thing. How do we operate as a global business? Equipping teams and managing assets is a huge pain point 5. 🏭 ESG Considerations: many companies care massively about the environmental impact eradicating the office – and the commute – has. 108 million tons of Co2 less every year. Boards are looking here as well 6. ❤️ Quality of life: companies also know they don’t need workers to waste 2 hours a day commuting to sit in an office chair for 8 hour. Companies have seen reducing commute frequency leads to happier more productive workers 7. 🚀 Outcomes vs. Time: the measure of performance in the office is how much time you spend sat in your seat. The measure of performance while working remotely has to be output. Companies are moving slowly here 8. 🎡 Hybrid Conflict: what companies and workers think hybrid means are two different things. Workers think it is being able to work remotely whenever they want. Companies think it is telling workers when they must attend. Big problem 9. 🛑 Bad Software: companies continue to use software and tooling designed for in-office teams causing issues for distributed workers. New tools developed by remote-native startups are emerging but not being adopted fast enough 10. 🔐 Tech & Security: in the old world the edge from a security perspective was the office, now it's every device. This creates big security risk and vulnerabilities as devices are lost. Companies lack good solutions

I’m excited to share a new paper just published in Organization Science with my co-authors, Melissa Valentine, Katherine DeCelles, and Justin Berg. For years before the pandemic, remote workers were treated like second-class citizens. 👕 Pajama jokes came easy. 💭 Assumptions came even easier: less committed, less hard working, less promotable. And that was despite solid research from folks like Nick Bloom and Prithwiraj Choudhury linking remote work to a host of benefits, including higher productivity. But the "status gap" between remote workers and in-office workers was deeply entrenched. Then the world went remote. And suddenly, something shifted. We studied employees who'd been working remotely pre-pandemic inside office-first cultures. As they watched their colleagues experience remote work, many for the first time, they described seeing the "playing field level out." The surprising part? At the core, it wasn’t about adopting new technologies. Too often, leaders treat technology like a magic fix: ✅ Install Slack. ✅ Roll out Zoom. ✅ Problem solved. Remote worker "inclusion" is reduced to a software rollout. But at the core, the shift wasn’t about new tools. It was about *how* people used them. Before the pandemic, most of these organizations ran on what we call an “in-person default.” The office was the center of gravity. Digital tools were more like duct tape: patched on for remote folks. Then the default broke: 🟣 Teams started using async by default. Remote workers no longer had to prove they were “always digitally on.” Green dots stopped being proxies for productivity. And loyalty. 🟣 Decisions were documented, not whispered in hallways. Remote workers spent less time hunting for scraps of secondhand intel. 🟣 Digital tools became places to connect, not just coordinate. Remote workers didn’t just dial in—they belonged. And with those shifts, remote workers gained relative status in their orgs. Many remote work critics still confuse proximity with presence. And presence with productivity. Tossing Slack and Zoom at the problem doesn't fix the problem. ✅ It’s about designing for async by default—in both remote and hybrid orgs ✅ Making work documented and accessible (easier than ever with AI) ✅ Using virtual tools for connection, not just coordination I’m grateful to all our participants for sharing their experiences, to our wonderful Senior Editor Mandy O’Neill, and to the distributed work experts who I've learned so much from over the years: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Jen Rhymer, Paul Leonardi, Pamela Hinds, Nick Bloom, Tsedal Neeley, Justin Harlan and the Tulsa Remote team, Sacha Connor, Brian Elliott, Michael Arena, Lauren Pasquarella Daley, PhD, 🧚🏻♀️ Rowena (Ro) Hennigan, Lisette Sutherland, Hancheng Cao, Phil Kirschner, Daan van Rossum, Danielle Farage, Kelly Monahan, Ph.D., Nick Sonnenberg, Annie Dean, Molly Sands, PhD, Laurel Farrer, and many, many others. Link to the full paper in the comments👇

Calling my 2025 predictions — saying the things out loud that a lot of us are thinking: 1. The "full-time vs freelance / consultant" divide will disappear. Top talent will flow between both freely, own their time. 2. Location becomes irrelevant for expertise, timezone alignment stays crucial. Asynchronous work will make work more efficient. Less avoidable live meetings 😅 3. Super-specialized nano / micro agencies emerge, tapping into trusted networks. Think 3-person teams doing what 30-person agencies did, or 30-person teams doing what 300-person agencies did. 4. Portfolio-based hiring overtakes resume-based. Show me, don't tell me becomes the norm (including during interviews!) 5. AI doesn't replace intelligent jobs. It replaces tasks, and transforms roles. How good are you at using AI tools matter more over many old-school skills. 6. Reputation becomes currency. Personal brands, peer reviews, and public feedback will play a larger role in career growth than traditional titles or tenure. 7. Skills > Degrees. Next-gen companies will not care for degrees, they will prioritize demonstrable expertise over formal education. 8. Work-life blur becomes the norm. As remote and hybrid work mature, the separation of work and personal time will fade. Success will hinge on personal boundaries and intentional downtime What else will change in work in the next 1 to 5 years? #2025trends #futureofwork