What's driving the 'Remote Work Revolution'?
What is causing the 'Remote Revolution' and why will it continue to grow and become increasingly popular as a form of work?
Well, I can give you hundreds of facts on the benefits of remote work and why it's being adopted in small and large organisations, like increase in productivity, talent retention, cost savings etc.
Those facts are well studied and documented, but I want to look at global trends, cultural shifts and socio-economic influences which I believe are the lesser spoken of drivers of this revolution. Or at least should be.
Disclaimer: these are my opinions and not extensively researched. Feedback and criticism are more than welcome. Go ahead. Tear me apart.
To illustrate my thoughts let's simplify this into two categories:
"What's going up"? and "What's going down"?
Category One:
What's going up?
- Urbanization.
- Congestion.
- Property prices.
- Cost of living.
- Gas prices.
- # of gen z workers.
- # of millennial managers.
- Travel seekers.
- Health and wellness awareness.
- Environmental awareness.
- Cases of workplace harassment.
- Government intervention in workplaces.
- Job Automation.
- Collaboration-tech innovation. (Think Oculus).
- Access to online tertiary education.
- Access to internet.
Category Two:
What's going down?
- Trust in corporations.
- Local talent pools.
- Hierarchical management practices.
- Passive employees.
- Cost of travel.
- Cost of internet.
- Cost of collaboration technologies.
It's obviously clear the "what's going up?" list is significantly longer. Some are positives and some are negatives and I truly believe a global remote working revolution has the potential to significantly shorten the negatives and better level out the two categories. (if unsure how a trend relates, pop a comment and I'll explain)
History has taught us that whenever a single force of power gain's too much control, an opportunity for revolt is created- a tipping point. Corporations have had that power for centuries, well before the industrial revolution. Power over the people, and in many cases over the government. Today however people are more aware, more informed and empowered. On top of that, they are inspired by the 'purpose driven' culture of today. Communities around these sentiments are formed and slowly but surely these communities are being heard and 'felt' by corporations who are desperately needing to adapt while they face a talent attrition rate never before seen. (Take one look at the list and answer for yourself - "why would I work for you if I could freelance?")
The industrial era is over. The manager's era is over. The distributed, open-source, peer-led era has begun, and it is thriving. There are worlds of innovation that have been created by these communities, to mention a few; online marketplaces, crypto, crowdfunding and the blockchain. Movements like open-source have enabled the development and evolution of technologies through mass collaboration and accessibility. Even Microsoft, once known as the most secretive and protective tech company has realised it's time to embrace open-source and allow for cross platform functionality. I mean, they bought GitHub. #satyaknows
The youth of today (I'm so old you know) are on a constant search for meaning, experiences and recognition more than ever before, (no wonder there's a new 'employee recognition' software out every week). It's not just co-working anymore, it's co-living, it's co-everything (see We-Co). It's nothing new in practice or philosophy, (think kibbutz or socialism), it's our basic human instinct as social beings to search for and create like-minded communities for ourselves.
What is new is that these communities and sentiments are 'growing up' and slowly but surely are taking over the workforce. By 2025, millennials will account for 75% of the global workforce and already 28% of millennials are managers.
I don't know how far away we are from things like universal basic income, but what I do know is - The future of work is changing at a pace much faster than we perceive it to be, and organisations need to adapt, be agile and of course...
Embrace the future of work.
Customer Operations Expert
4 年I wrote a similar article after being a remote manager this past year. Hope this trend continues!!
Remote Work Consultant || Founder @ Remote Collective || Empowering Women Entrepreneurs ?? | | Community Builder
5 年I completely support what you wrote here and believe we need to be having more conversations like this in order to benefit from the shift in work as companies, not be surprised and held back because we aren't prepared for it.