💘 A dating app for remote workers

Good Morning,

If you weren’t spending Labor Day on a yacht, I hope you were still able to relax over the long weekend.

Last week we added more companies to the job board! Keep an eye out as we continue to add more location-flexible openings for you.

📈 Executives say remote work will grow. In a recent executive survey, results showed that, despite executives loudly pushing for a return to the office, they expect remote work to succeed and grow in the next decade. See survey results below. (Harvard Business Review)

🍓 Smucker’s has a unique RTO plan only requiring employees to be in office during designated “core weeks.” As long as employees are in-office during those weeks, and they pay for their own travel to the office, they can live anywhere they’d like.

It’s better than many other RTO policies. But employees don’t pick core weeks, and their executives are holding firm to the outdated belief that in-person interactions are a prerequisite to success. Here’s an annoying excerpt from the article:

“Smucker’s chief people officer, Jill Penrose, faced a dilemma: How could she tell corporate employees who successfully did their jobs remotely for years that working at home no longer worked?”

Well, Jill, it sounds like you’ve answered your own question: that would be lying to your employees. 🤦🏻‍♂️ (Wall Street Journal)

💘 There’s now a dating app for digital nomads: Fairytrail. Since it’s less likely for singles to find like-minded frequent travelers on Hinge, Bumble, or other popular apps, this app was made just for people with location flexibility.

It uses an adventure-matching feature, and uses “fairytale characters” to highlight personality traits. 93% of users are fully remote or aspire to be.

I haven’t used this but it’s a fascinating idea. Would love to hear from you if you have Fairytrail and found it useful - or terrible! (Yahoo Finance)

🎙 CNET recently updated their list of WFH essential products. They recommend a Dell webcam, a Shure microphone, the Sennheiser AirPod alternatives, a Ninja coffee machine, and more to optimize your work from home experience. (CNET)

🏝 More WFH may lead to more work on vacations. Given the adoption of WFH and blurring of personal & work boundaries, employees may be more likely to check into work while on vacation. The Hustle newsletter compiled statistics that show this lack of work-life separation:

• 60% of US professionals are working more on vacations

• 37% are logging on multiple times per day during vacations

• 63% are taking shorter-than-usual vacations

They do mention one policy that increased adherence to vacation time: a mandatory week off for the entire company, as tested by PwC. Drastic, but effective. (The Hustle)

📉 Office tenants are renewing leases for far less space. At the beginning of 2023, 49% of companies required workers to be in the office full-time. Today, that’s already decreased to 39%.

CoStar, a leading authority on the commercial real estate market, shared that the US office vacancy rate was 9.5% before the pandemic and is 13.2% today; they expect it to be over 17% by 2026.

Over half of the commercial real estate (CRE) leases signed prior to 2020 are still active today. The long-term nature of these contracts is likely the biggest reason that the CRE market hasn’t collapsed overnight. Fortunately for the overall economy, this cushions the downfall, and gives companies, cities, and investors more time to plan for a new long-term way of working. (Wall Street Journal)

🌁 Unique coworking spaces are popping up in San Francisco. Yoga studios, empty storefronts, and backyards have all been converted into coworking spaces that allow people to separate work from home while in relaxing environments.

These “low-commitment” alternatives are far more appealing to many than commuting to larger office spaces just to find comfortable places to work. (CBS)

⏱ Only half of employee office visits are for 6+ hours. Before the pandemic, 84% of office visits were 6+ hours. While companies are more often dictating a number of days that employees come into the office, employees are firmly maintaining their daily flexibility when adhering to those policies. (Washington Post)

For all the new subscribers lately: we share this content and more on social channels throughout the week - from companies hiring, to new WFH policies, to random content creator skits we find.

So for more frequent remote work intel, join us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

Enjoy the short week!

Cheers,
Grant