2020 - Year of remote work in review 🌎
How will the happenings of 2020 affect the future of remote work? 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, as seen in this state of work report, 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, welcoming the future of remote work
- 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
What are your thoughts on the above? Do join the discussion on our community and let us know!