Ah, remote work. What once was a fad for many has become an indispensable factor in many people’s lives.
Welcome back, [First Name]. I wanted to take a different approach for this new edition of our Job Stacking newsletter. Let’s look away for a moment from what your individual approach to the Job Market is, and focus instead on how the remote job has been evolving in the last few years. Let’s get to it.
The Future of Remote Work
You can’t really traverse a dark, foreboding forest without a map, or at least prior knowledge of the terrain. Same thing goes with the job market.
Remote work is a cornerstone of our modern day life. The issue is, I feel, that it has become increasingly muddled to digest just exactly where do we stand regarding that topic. A lot of personalities in Tech have called for “Return to Office” policies numerous times, but this has also received heavy pushback from employees as well.
This is an incredibly complex topic, but if I had to go with a glimpse on the whole matter, I’d say that economic shifts, mixed with known cultural issues, have granted us an incredible opportunity to keep taking advantage of remote work, and we shouldn’t squander it.
Shift Happens
Lame pun aside - if I asked you what’s the cause for a rise in remote working policies, what would you say? You’d say that it’s the pandemic, obviously. But what if I told you you were wrong?
Don’t misunderstand me, the pandemic was a huge catalyst. But it’s not the only cause. Back in the 2000s, remote work was already gaining a lot more traction than usual. A Stanford Study titled “The Evolution of Remote Work” found that the rate for working from home doubles every 15 years or so. Which means that, since the 2000s happened, we were due for a spike in interest by 2020.
This is due to another factor: the introduction of the personal computer.When you’re able to transport yourself with a machine that can facilitate every task, it becomes harder to argue in favor of having a specific work area.
Which brings me back to the “Return to Office” policies. Yes, employers are and will always try to put pressure on employees to ditch remote work - but the bigger the appetite for working from home is, the less likely it is for a company to realize that they’re losing potential workers to competitors with better policies.
So, what would I say on the matter? Despite the numerous attempts, and headlines trying to decry the “absolute collapse of remote work”, indicators point to the contrary. Remote work has been proving to be growing, with facts proving that employees can find numerous avenues to pick a schedule that best suits their needs.
But I know that people need to look at more than one source to verify something. I actually made a whole video detailing the rise of remote work and why it’s here to stay - as well as a detailed analysis on job market dynamics and why workers find it difficult to get noticed by companies in the present day.
You can check it out on my Youtube Channel if you’d like to take a look. As usual, I’m always available for a call if you ever want to talk it out and discuss your current issues with Job Stacking.
Until the next time,
Rolf.
