💧 Create "water cooler" moments while remote

Good Morning,

As we approach the end of the year, travel plans for 2024 have been top of mind. It’s been particularly exciting to think about places to potentially work from without needing to actually take PTO. (Don’t worry, I plan to use plenty of true vacation days as well.)

Even though I’ve been remote the last several years, I haven’t experienced many of the travel & hospitality organizations that cater specifically to remote workers. Hoping to do more of that in 2024 - if for no other reason than to report back here 😊

So if you have any recommendations for me to look into, send them my way!

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Featured companies:

Agero: 11 remote jobs
World Wide Technology: 74 remote jobs
Cityblock Health: 12 remote jobs

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Need to Know

🏡 “Bi-residential living” takes off with remote work
People with the means to have second homes are now spending much more time in their second communities, having more fulfilling experiences in places that would have otherwise been more rare destinations. (Forbes)

📉 Fewer people are working primarily from home
As we’ve covered, many companies have pushed return-to-office policies, and stopped hiring for completely remote roles, which is pushing the number of fully-remote workers down. But the ensuing pushback from employees means hybrid arrangements have a very strong foothold in the labor market.

I took serious issue with LinkedIn’s coverage of this Axios article last week; LinkedIn’s claim was that “Fully remote work is less appealing” which is obviously false and wasn’t backed up by the Axios article or the Morning Consult data cited.

So I decided to chime in. I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that in picking a fight with LinkedIn, my post calling out their deceitful clickbait only had 9 organic views in the first day. But after sharing some comments and tagging the author, I like to think I prompted the headline change to a less-declarative, “Is fully remote work less appealing?”

Friendly reminder to keep an eye out for remote work clickbait! (Axios)

👯‍♀️ Workplace friendships look different when remote
Many people who developed work friendships in offices throughout their careers are concerned that this concept will go away with remote work. With less in-person time, it may be inevitable that work friendships decrease a bit; but with the right approach, leaders can still facilitate important social connections.

While this article shares a few other ideas, here are two simple strategies that leaders can incorporate to help employees continue to develop social ties, which often make their work experience more enjoyable:

• Plan specific in-person office days and times for those with hybrid schedules, optimizing for cross-team collaboration

• Plan in-person extracurricular activities (like volunteer work) to bring people together outside a traditional work setting

At the end of the day, remote work allows people to take back ownership of their time. Sure, there will be fewer workplace friendships if people aren’t in offices 40 hours every week. But in exchange for better work-life balance, and having more freedom to spend time with people you choose to be around, it’s not too much of a sacrifice. (Charter)

🔎 Google searches for “remote jobs” hit a record high in August
Traditionally, January and February see more hiring than any other months, so I’ll be curious to see if this record is surpassed soon. As we’ve seen, though, fewer remote jobs are available, which may reduce the likelihood that candidates search for them. (Google Trends)

🚗 How US commutes have changed
On an average workday, most US workers still commute. But their commute has changed in some big ways: commute times aren’t as long, driving speeds are faster, and fewer people are taking public transportation.

Citing information from the data company Replica, The New York Times put together an interactive graphic (image below) that shows how commuting speeds have changed since 2019.

In 2019, the average one-way commute time peaked at 27.6 minutes, and 5% of the workforce used public transportation. Today, the average commute time is 26.4 minutes, and the share of workers taking public transportation has been almost cut in half, down to 3.1%.

These changes translate into millions of hours more every year that people spend how they please, whether for more time to themselves, more time with loved ones, or even… more time working. (New York Times)

💧 How to get those water cooler moments back
A top concern leaders have about remote work is the lack of the serendipitous conversations that happen in traditional offices. While it’s impossible to bring the daily water cooler back, there are still ways to ensure those conversations have space to occur.

One proven idea from the Flex Index blog is to devote time before and after virtual meetings to casual conversations. Spend the first 5 minutes of meetings in intentional casual conversation, and set up post-meeting “huddles” so that smaller teams can have more intimate conversations, debrief, and maintain momentum after larger meetings. (Flex Index)

Stuff We Like

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

• Radical Candor: a proven method to manage employees

  Everyone appreciates a boss that can get to the point, right? There’s more to the concept of “radical candor” than just that, but this distillation from First Round Capital summarily captures what the concept’s creator has found works best for managers: giving guidance by caring personally and challenging directly.

• WorkDaze: a newsletter with a fun take on work

• The best silent mouse options for your home office
  I got a silent mouse years ago and I love it. For those who live and work near others, these could reduce desk noise considerably depending on your job. My Logitech M590 isn’t included on this list and may have been discontinued, but it’s similar to the Logitech M650.

Are you following Remote Source on social channels? For more up-to-date action, and of course, the best remote work memes, follow us wherever you spend more of your time: Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), or LinkedIn.

Cheers,
Grant

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