Remote work opportunities are on the rise. US Census Bureau documented that more people are working from home.
The largest programming community website Stackoverflow added a remote checkbox to their jobs page recently.
It is hard to ignore effects on recruiting.
While certain companies continue to rule out remote work (Netflix, Yahoo, Slack(!)), many others are embracing it. There are also some companies that are stuck somewhere in the middle. A prime example of this is Microsoft, there are several prominent technologists working remotely for Microsoft. However, there is no obvious way to search for a remote position in Microsoft’s careers site. Does Microsoft allow remote work? It depends…
Will the remote work trend continue or will we see companies telling employees to come back to the office (Yahoo, IBM)?
Due to the high cost of living in major tech hubs such as the Bay Area, Seattle and New York, it is not uncommon to see compensation packages (salary, bonus and equity) for experienced IT workers reaching $400K a year. On the other hand, anectodal evidence suggests that there are plenty of IT workers located elsewhere willing to accept a smaller comp package as long as they can work remotely.
Let me put on my captain obvious hat for a second…
Given that
- there is a talent shortage in the tech industry
- and it is projected to continue
- and IT worker comp packages are reaching new highs
- and IT worker comp packages are one of the biggest cost items in most companys’ balance sheets
Then
- all other things being equal, remote work trend should continue to accelerate simply due to basic laws of supply and demand.
There are also less obvious signs of remote work revolution like a larger company that does not allow remote work acquiring a startup that actively encourages it. Microsoft’s Github acquisition is a good example. This seems to be happening to companies of all sizes across various industries effectively reversing anti-remote work policy.
The prediction sounds reasonable:
The future of work is Remote.