Gradually, Then Suddenly

Remote working can be great for companies that are large and/or in the development/web service sector. In large companies most people already interact remotely (i.e., emails and calls). With all that this entails: clear communication, well documented processes, etc. So a good part of the work is already remote, in some sense. You only need to understand what part of the rest can be made remote.

Companies that work primarily with development/web service probably already work in good part with (remote) software. So working remotely is an easy step.

In short, I think that basically companies like Facebook are the one that have it easiest in being remote-first companies. And the ones that would get the most benefit from it. So, it is great that they adopted a remote-first approach, when they literally had no alternative.

However, we should remember that there are still lots of companies and people that will never thrive in a remote-first environment. And these might very well be the majority.