🏡 The remote impact on home architecture, design, and price

Good Morning,

Why is remote work a topic amid the Silicon Valley Bank failure?

Leaders at SVB recently said remote work might contribute to “reduced productivity and/or significant disruptions in our business operations.”

At the time they made these comments, they knew the risk management practices they put in place were drastically ineffective and they were actively seeking ways to save their balance sheet.

(Here’s a great 1-minute explainer video if you’re not caught up on the bank failure.)

Dan Schwabel, Partner at Workplace Intelligence, says “Remote work itself is not the cause of performance issues. What likely contributed to SVB’s collapse was a lack of effective leadership, communication, and management practices.”

Am I saying leaders who blame remote work for their problems are destined to fail? No, but I am definitely saying remote work shouldn’t be the scapegoat if company performance takes a dive.

Jobs

Yesterday we passed 11,000 remote job openings on the job board!

You’ll also see about 50 more companies that are hiring remotely.

Among those added, we included more cybersecurity companies because they’ve generally seen continuous growth despite the lackluster economy.

The job board now includes 25 cybersecurity companies and over 1,000 total cybersecurity job openings.

Need to Know

Remote work is drastically changing new home design and architecture.

In this article from Insider, remote leaders, architects, and a Zillow trends expert weigh in on the features that are reshaping homes.

First, home offices are mentioned in even more listings than one year ago, and listings with home offices or “Zoom rooms” sell six days faster and for 1.6% more than similar homes without them.

Given the prevalence of video calls, having a designated background - like the colorful example from the article, below - is of utmost importance to many.

There are four more trends mentioned in the article:

• Keeping work and home “divided, but connected.” An example they shared is using Dutch doors for office entrances, which are split in half so the bottom can remain closed while the top opens.

• Two-office homes. Interest in these homes are growing substantially, and often people are turning less-frequently used spaces into offices.

• ‘Flexspaces’ are getting more clever. One remote worker put a foldout couch in her home office instead of a bed. This way, it still serves as a guest bedroom but looks less like a bedroom on video calls.

• Lighting has become more important. From the source, color, and intensity of the light itself, to the color schemes of items in the background, the impact light can have on video calls is being taken into consideration in ways it never had before.

Elsewhere

• Average savings from WFH in 12 American cities (Fortune)

• As Americans work from home, Europeans and Asians head back to the office (WSJ)

• 5 ways to increase your visibility at work (Forbes)

• How working from home has boosted golf (Stanford)

• The most common WFH problems, and how to solve them (Entrepreneur)

Thanks to those who followed along during SXSW and a special shout-out to anyone who subscribed as a result of our conversations.

It’s always refreshing to hear from those with similar views, who have lived and breathed remote work’s benefits and are working tirelessly to bring that way of living and working to millions more.

Cheers,
Grant