The "Remote Work Experience"

The "remote work experience" will differ with each company due to differences in culture, attitude and expertise.

Established, successful companies will struggle to move to more flexible work arrangements:

"It was working fine the old way."

"Don't fix what ain't broken."

Newer, leaner, companies without a lot of baggage and expensive commercial real estate leases will lead the charge towards great remote work experiences.

Many startups will be "remote first" from inception, so remote work will be in their DNA. To these companies, remote work simply equals work! There are no fat cat executives and overbearing managers to try to convince.

Companies that's don't adapt and innovate are mercilessly replaced.

Companies like:

AOL

Sears

Yahoo

Myspace

Blackberry

Blockbuster

All household names. All behemoths in their day. Now just memories.

Established companies with cash to spend who struggle to adapt may end up acquiring companies who have great "remote work cultures". If you can't build it, buy it.

Anyone who has lived through acquisitions knows how difficult it can be to integrate products, cultures and teams.

This will be even MORE difficult if the acquired company has their team scattered all over the world.

You can't just buy another company's culture but I think that's how some companies will TRY to remain relevant in this new world of remote, flexible, people-first, work environments.

They may lose their top talent if they do not offer location AND schedule flexibility. "Work from home" will eventually turn into "work from anywhere, anytime". Remote work is likely to come in phases as discussed in this article.

A company's remote work experience will become an important differentiator for job seekers who will ask, "How remote is your company?"

About the Author

Joe Giglio is a 25 year veteran of the software industry. In his career, he has worked for a local dial-up ISP, startups of all sizes and a well established, slow moving enterprise. There were important lessons learned along every stop.

His guiding principles are: Remote first, quality driven, customer champion and lifelong learning.  He was an introvert and practiced social distancing long before it was cool!

He currently resides in North Carolina and is always interested in new opportunities, meeting quality people and learning about exciting projects.  

Contact Joe Giglio: [email protected] | Website | Twitter | LinkedIn