❌ Shopify improves remote life, axes tons of meetings

Good Morning,

Did you know? 97% of remote workers would recommend remote work to others. Even though adoption has plateaued lately, it won't be too long before more of those remote workers move into management roles and remote policies become the norm.

Need to know

Shopify told employees to cancel their meetings.

Many studies have shown that the recent shift to remote and hybrid work has resulted in more meetings among colleagues, and Shopify was no exception. In a drastic policy change to counter this trend, Shopify's CEO instructed employees to cancel all recurring meetings with more than two people.

His rationale: "If you say yes to a thing, you actually say no to every other thing you could have done with that period of time. As people add things, the set of things that can be done becomes smaller."

Squared Away uses remote work to grow military spouses' careers.

This virtual assistant company employs military spouses who want to have their own careers but are geographically uprooted due to their significant others' assigned locations.

I love the notion of helping people work from anywhere, and I look forward to new business models that focus on employing and supporting workers who have no choice but to be remote. If you're ever looking for a virtual assistant, keep this company in mind.

This dynamic tool uses your preferences to suggest remote work destinations.

Created by payroll company Remote.com, the tool uses sliders to shift various factors like internet and safety up or down based on personal preference. Unfortunately, it won't factor in your pick between beaches and mountains, but the city descriptions can help you with that.

When adjusting for my own preferences, I keep seeing Madrid and Auckland show up near the top of the list. Check it out and let me know if it inspires any future trips!

Elsewhere

• Getting rid of remote work will take more than a downturn (New York Times)

• Revitalizing culture in the world of remote work (Harvard Business Review)

• The hybrid work revolution: how to make it work for your business (Forbes)

• A remote work community in the Tuscan mountains (Euronews)

• Everything you need to work from home like a pro (Wired)

More on those portable displays for traveling that I mentioned last week: I keep getting ads for Espresso monitors. I'm tempted to buy one, especially given how thin it is compared to other options on the market.

Here's an informative YouTube unboxing review for their 15" monitor. Could be really useful on those extended workcations!

Cheers,
Grant