🙌 Bloomberg goes pro-WFH

Good Morning,

I’m thankful you’re all with me on the right side of remote work history.

Last week Bloomberg published an article that finally accepts that WFH can financially benefit companies. And if social media comments are any indication, the people loved it. More on that below.

First… addressing Black Friday + Cyber Monday:

Go ahead and bookmark remotesource.com/blackfriday. I’ll keep this page updated as more sales open up. Tons of brands have already launched “Black Friday” sales, so there are plenty of deals worth checking out today.

And for simplicity’s sake, Cyber Monday deals will be on the same page next week.

Remote Source Job Board

Featured companies:

Keeper Security: 41 remote jobs
Bugcrowd: 10 remote jobs
Bayer: 92 remote jobs

🤝 Find Remote Jobs Here

Need to Know

🙌 Remote-friendly workplaces perform better financially.
A study analyzing 554 public companies found that, between 2020 and 2022, fully flexible employers grew revenue at a substantially higher rate than those who were not fully flexible.

After last week’s article about companies lacking data when requiring RTO, this is an incredible follow-up that further solidifies remote work as a financially smart move for employers.

And the fact that Bloomberg published this, of all media outlets? It’s… *chef’s kiss*

Bloomberg and others have been showcasing the opinions of commercial real estate investors and lenders for years now, without any data to justify a widespread return to office. Mike Bloomberg himself has given anecdotal, opinion-based slights toward remote work as well.

After years of calling out these senseless arguments, it finally feels like the first domino has fallen. Data beats opinions, every time.

For any skeptics: the study was completed by Boston Consulting Group and Scoop Technologies, and included 554 companies across 20 sectors; growth was normalized against industry averages to avoid skewed results. (Bloomberg)

🪦 Harvard research says WFH could decrease risk of cardiovascular death
The #1 cause of death in the US is “heart-related conditions,” which can be positively impacted when workers are able to work from home more frequently.

The study further said that employees over 45, and those with higher cardiovascular risk scores to begin with, had more significant reductions in their risk scores when working from home. (Fortune)

💼 The total number of fully remote job postings is down from two years ago
But the good news is that “hybrid” jobs are substantially higher. The drop is attributed less to a broad shift in policies, and more to reduced hiring within commonly remote industries. This means positions like software development, HR, and marketing are seeing fewer remote job openings. (MarketWatch)

PS: looking for a remote or hybrid job? Check out the Remote Source Job Board.

🌐 WSJ readers share how to build culture while remote
Editors published over a dozen suggestions made by readers about how remote and hybrid organizations can establish a strong company culture. These are some of our favorites:

• Make the effort to connect people who wouldn’t normally meet during the regular course of business. It may be best to assign certain people to organize virtual events or in-person meetups to facilitate this.

• Maintain consistent schedules if you’re working both in and out of the office. This allows for easier scheduling and a lower likelihood you’ll be wasting time in the office on Zoom calls.

• Managers need to show trust up front with employees. Starting a working relationship by forcing an employee to prove they are actually working is a recipe for disaster. At the same time - because no company is perfect - employees would be wise to keep track of their work in case any question about their effort arises, intentional or not.

• Further, focusing on outcomes versus inputs is important:

• Employees often want management to overcommunicate. Whether that’s in the form of more routine company updates, more calls, more texts, more emails, or anything else, is at the discretion of each employee.

Ultimately, every company is made up of individuals with their own unique preferences. The overarching theme is that if managers listen to their employees and understand their wants, they will have the ability to shape a workplace - virtual or not - that empowers employees to do their best work. (Wall Street Journal)

🏰 How leaders can avoid “Ivory Tower Syndrome”
This term is used to describe what happens when leaders become disconnected from the day-to-day operations of their company, leading to resentment among employees. Four tips from a CEO:

• Prioritize being physically present when possible.

• Create a culture of engagement and empowerment. “How do you expect your team to embrace a mission or culture that they don’t see or have any input on? How can leaders know what their people need and want without asking them?”

• Seek feedback from diverse sources.

• Invest in continuous learning and development.

Leaders need to show employees they are listening to them and supporting them. Andrea Couto, a Vice President at Betterworks, says “Pivoting from ‘managing’ employees to being coaches and performance enablers will be key.” (Forbes)

Stuff We Like

The catch-all section for anything we find that could be useful for remote workers.

• Newsletter Recommendation: Landed! by Bonnie Dilber
  Bonnie is a recruiting leader at Zapier, one of the first prominent remote-first tech companies in the past decade. She has a devoted following on social platforms, and her newsletter is sure to provide insight to those looking for remote jobs.

• The Elgato Teleprompter

  For those who are frequently presenting, this teleprompter will allow presenters to maintain natural eye contact without missing a beat. Elgato is known for making professional-grade products for creators, like lights, microphones, and more. This will round out their lineup nicely. As a disclaimer, these are only available for pre-order today.

• How to stand out to LinkedIn recruiters

  In this post by the Chief Product Officer at LinkedIn, it’s revealed that:

  • “Open to work” status makes a person more likely to be contacted by recruiters (okay, this was obvious).

  • Recruiter dashboards account for “open to work” recency, meaning that job seekers who just turned on “open to work” are more likely to rise to the top of recruiters’ candidate results. So if you’ve been looking for a job for a while, it may be smart to turn this status off and back on again.

  • The LinkedIn recruiter algorithm also takes into account recent profile edits and recent job applications. So, again, these may be smart to complete if you’ve been actively looking for a while.

Big week for remote work data enthusiasts.

Including the studies in this newsletter, we now know empirically that remote work leads to: happier people, environmental benefits, higher company revenue growth, and a decreased likelihood of cardiovascular events. Should we label office work a population health risk?

We’re collecting these studies like infinity stones. Or Pokemon. Or pie slices this Thursday, your pick.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Grant

*Denotes a sponsored or affiliate link. Any paid sponsorships, products, or services are thoroughly vetted by us before we make recommendations to readers.