🚙 Commuting: part of the workday?

Good Morning,

We’re running another Texas coffee shop giveaway!

This one will be for Austin, which according to Axios has the second-highest percentage of remote workers in the country.

We’ve partnered with @Austinfoodstagram for this coffee shop tour and giveaway. If you’re in Austin, give her a follow and be on the lookout for the post this week!

🚙 Should commuting time count as part of the workday? Generally, bosses say no and employees say yes. One strong argument for employees is that remote workers actually work more hours in a day when they aren’t commuting.

The lack of clear productivity measurements for knowledge workers ensures this will always be debated - so consider tracking your individual productivity if there’s a chance you’ll be asked to go back into an office. And here’s one more data point to discourage RTO: the average American spends $8,500 annually on travel to/from an office; that figure is 31% higher than pre-covid. (Fortune)

🌎 Check out these 10 unique products for remote workers, ranging from conveniently-shaped storage devices (that’s a red USB drive below) to desk organizing tools and more. (Yanko Design)

🏢 W.P. Carey, a major real estate investor, is exiting the office real estate market entirely. The company cites remote work as the primary reason for the plan to sell all 87 of their office properties by the end of this year. W.P. Carey had intentionally reduced its exposure to the office sector for the last several years, but this will allow for a faster shift in their strategy. It’s another signal that office values are expected to decrease substantially over time. (CoStar)

☁️ Salesforce CEO touts remote work again, kind of. Salesforce keeps waffling on their remote work stance. Some background:

• In February 2021, the company announced that remote work was there to stay

• In November 2022, many employees were required to come back into the office three days a week

• In March 2023, Benioff went on Kara Swisher’s podcast and said many employees are more productive in the office

• In June 2023, the company tried to lure employees back by donating to charity

And at Salesforce’s recent annual conference, Benioff told MSNBC “I'm a remote worker. I've always been a remote worker my whole life,” followed by, “I don't work well in an office. It just doesn't work with my personality.”

While the continued back-and-forth is frustrating, and office-bound Salesforce employees are surely annoyed at the hypocrisy, a statement like this is a step in the right direction and gives hope that the company shifts back to their initial remote-first announcement from February 2021. (Insider)

🌳 A new academic study says remote work can significantly reduce an office employee’s carbon footprint. The bigger impacts are only achievable when individuals are able to incorporate more sustainable energy sources and energy management practices into their daily routines, like using electric vehicles, and turning off appliances throughout the home when they aren’t needed. (Scientific American)

❌ Remote work decreases workplace sexual assault and harrassment. While this seems obvious given less in-person interactions, it’s useful to have reliable data on the subject. This August 2023 survey commissioned by 19th News and SurveyMonkey found remote workers were about half as likely as office workers to have experienced sexual assault or harrassment in the past three years. (19th News)

🧑‍💻 Globally, baby boomers want remote work more than other generations. In an international survey by Fiverr, 40% wanted remote or flexible work arrangements, whereas only 29% of millennials and 32% of Gen X respondents said the same. Additionally, 76% of respondents said their current working arrangement required them to be in an office more than they would prefer. (Fast Company)

Writing this newsletter from a great coffee shop in Scottsdale, AZ called Sip. It has “the trifecta” - coffee, food, and alcohol - and as you might guess, it’s a popular place to work from.

Here’s hoping that with the remote work boon, these kinds of places will be even more common across the country in the coming years.

Cheers,
Grant