I have remote job from last 3 yrs and planning to go full remote. My only worry is that i shouldnt have to go back to Office based job again.
Recently all companies started calling people back to office.
What is future for the remote work? I dont think it will go away.
What is your thought?
I have no statistics. I'm basing this on looking for remote jobs in 2017 and 2024, and there's no comparison on what I'm seeing, really. There are so many more open positions than there were.
I imagine (again, without hard data) that it would be easier to negotiate a position listed as on-site into being remote, compared to doing that 10 years ago. Why? Because it's not considered crazy and impossible anymore, now that we've all done it.
On the other hand, more people (like yourself) want remote jobs, so there's more people going after that supply of remote work than there was before.
Still, I think on balance it's quite a bit easier to find a WFH position than it used to be, and I would not worry about the future.
This is not true. Some companies that were never remote to begin with played around with trying to go remote for some years without getting serious about it, and then stopped playing that game.
I think there are still, and will always be companies that can organize around online collaboration and communication as part of the core functioning of the organization. Done properly, a physical location will only be a hindrance because it will result in some section of the organization that is not fully engaged in the online dynamics.
When the organization is fully committed to being remote, there is no "calling people back" because there is nowhere to call back to.
First of all, people have genuinely different preferences when it comes to remote - some thrive in that environment, some need other people around. Same with companies too. Some companies will thrive in a fully remote setup because of remote-friendly cultures, and some won't who will be doing RTO. So I see a high chance of sortition between fully remote and hybrid/RTO companies.
Second, the hybrid/RTO companies will necessarily be present in tech hubs (like SV). For fully remote ones, there are again a few types. There are ones who see workers as mere replaceable cogs, and they will hire in the cheapest possible areas (India, Easter Europe, West Africa etc). For cogs-seekers, if timezone is a constraint, they might go to LATAM. Then there are other remote-first companies which will look for "culture fit" and language skills - they will first hire in Canada or UK/Ireland, depending on their timezone needs. A Canadian worker in Toronto is much cheaper than an American one in Nowhere, US[1]
Finally, if one is a superstar, then they will be in demand no matter where they are or what working style they prefer. Companies will always bend over backwards to accommodate their preferences.
[1] Across my entire company, 75% of the new eng headcount in the last year is in Canada or Ireland. We laid off multiple US eng as well. Canadian pay rate is much lower than even the lowest tier US rates.
Middle stage (anywhere from 100 to 1000 employees), I think there's a lot of space for remote. You're competing for talent with everyone at that point, and you're not cash-rich... the amount you spend on office space could also be spent on another engineer or couple of salespeople.
Large stage, I feel like Stripe's hybrid approach will be the model. There will be in-office roles in key geographies where pay is better, and there's an expectation of being in the office at least a few days each week. There will also be a "remote" option, and entire teams will be remote. Salaries will probably be a bit lower and promotions beyond a certain level will be tougher.
What's influencing my perspective: I'm at a mostly remote company with ~500 employees, and while ICs are generally remote all the time, there's some expectation on managers and above to occasionally travel into the office. And I've got some friends working at Salesforce in Denver who see it's tough to get beyond manager level in any non-hub office, and the few Directors are regularly traveling to SF. No VPs based in the non-hub offices.
My hope for the future is that we basically pay for commuting time, so then employers can decide if it's worth asking someone to come in when they live farther away. Also seems like management does go in more for political reasons but I think that's specific to the org. I'm a huge fan of the way Automattic sets up their culture where it's remote-first so you don't end up with that two-tiered system - you can go in to an office if you want but everything has to be done online so there's a record to look back on later
More mature and larger companies can cut huge expenses by getting rid of their offices and then outpace any of their competitors not doing that.
For the rest, it's kind of like uber. Anyone with the right skills and equipment can do the job from anywhere, but you're self employed. This doesn't work out for everybody, it drives pay down. Why pay SF wages when workers don't have SF cost of living? It's going to work a lot like call center outsourcing, information workers will be where they're competent and cheap, and it doesn't matter where in the world that is. If you've been freelancing a while you know what's coming. If you've been a salaried employee, get ready to make trade offs. Sounds great to be remote, and it is, but you're competing with people all over the world for that job, and many of them don't need a quarter million dollars a year to do the job.
I personally think it's a fantastic thing. A lot of people don't like it when pay goes down. I personally don't care what my pay is, only what my standard of living is, and if I live somewhere cheap and have a higher standard of living with lower pay I'm happy. Costs do need to go down, and some of you reading this are ridiculously overpaid (and many of you know it) which is not sustainable and wasn't going to last forever no matter what happened. A good effect of this is that if you do work that requires you to be somewhere it will come with a premium, physical workers are going to be getting a pay bump without having to have a union negotiate it for them or a cartel agreement to keep pay high.
A lot of people don't like change. Any change creates some who benefit and some who lose out. But it's happening and can't be stopped.
I've been hearing murmurs that perhaps the future will hold rate cuts for remote employees, or standardization of wages regardless of location (at least in the US, which will lead to rate cuts in CA, NY, WA, and a hand full of others).
There are companies that have always been remote, even before COVID. So fully remote work won't go away. My recommendation to you is to focus on earlier-staged startups, if you have an interest in that and the necessary grit. There are also sites that focus on remote jobs that can help guide your search.
Companies see more benefits to them to have people in office. And at the end of the day, the point of us working for them is for the benefit of the company.
This is such an odd thing to say. It's very plainly untrue.
We have 4 developers. 2 are just performing. 1 is Ok. 1 does whatever he feels like. And one seems to be focused on something else.
So, its not clearcut if remote is good or bad. It depends on the developer.
My team was entirely remote who was performing better then the team which was entirely working from office.
Worst case you can always ask someone "hey can you show me what you did last week?" and it should be clear if someone isn't handling their responsibilities.