The Remote Work Decade
Hey everyone,
Earlier this weekend, I was reading a two Twitter threads that contained a bunch of predictions related to the future of work and living as influenced by the pandemic.
There’s a lot to unpack there, but I wanted to comment on a couple of the tweets:
WFH Dominance: The majority of workers will work from home a majority of the time by the end of this decade. Employers will be responsible for ensuring the health and safety of teams operating at home.
I am hopeful for this and totally on board with it. For me, one of the biggest positives from the last 6 months has been the fact that the virus has decimated any excuse that employers have had for not supporting a remote-friendly culture.
Having the flexibility to work remotely has always been important to me, but I’ve often found when interviewing for jobs that recruiters will say stuff like “we just can’t support remote employees” or “we really like all being in the office together.”
I think reasoning like that is much less convincing at this point. I’m grateful to be in a remote role now and hope that WFH continues to become ubiquitous. The downstream effects of just this one change are pretty staggering to consider, several of which are covered in other parts of the threads.
Child Connection: Hearing your child's first laugh, seeing their first steps won't just be in the memory of one parent. Being there, feeling like your children know you. Dropping them at school each day. Small things that remote gives.
Although there are no kids on the horizon for us, this tweet really struck me. Being able to focus more on family is a big part of the reason why I’m so big on remote work and entrepreneurship.
When I was growing up, my dad was often out the door for his 30-minute commute before we were even awake. My parents worked hard for me to have a good upbringing (for which I’m very grateful), and this was part of the deal. That said, for a while I’ve been thinking that it would be great to be able to drop future kids off at school, or even homeschool them.
In this case, I think the second tweet could be a result of the first. Regardless, I’m looking forward to see how the future of work is shaped by coronavirus.
What are your predictions for how work and life will change? Reply to this email and let me know.
Pete’s Picks ✅
Podcast Episode: I was recently telling some friends about this episode from the Indie Hackers podcast featuring Sam Eaton of Crave Cookie. Operating in/around Fresno, CA, Sam and his sister have sold $1M of cookies in their first year of business, and they do delivery only. Super interesting story, and I even managed to email a bit with Sam after the hearing the episode - super nice guy.
YouTube Show: Worth It is my favorite series on YouTube. The (very funny) hosts try a food at low, medium, and high price points and determine which is the most “worth it” at its price. The new season just started up, so I had to give it a shout. Here’s today’s episode.
This Week’s Video 📹
I Automated My Wife’s Job
Cheers,
Peter