🇺🇸 Remote work powering the US

Good Morning,

Are remote workers going to ruin Disney World?

The answer is a resounding “no,” but I guess some people think it’s possible.

That, and much more, in today’s issue.

Hope you aren’t reading this on a commute to the office!

Remote Source Job Board

Featured companies:

thatgamecompany: 23 remote jobs
Descript: 13 remote jobs
Vimeo: 15 remote jobs

🤝 Find Remote Jobs Here

Need to Know

🏢 Larger companies = less fully in-office
This is one of the most surprising data points I’ve seen this year. Early in the return-to-office era, some of the biggest companies were the first to force employees back into the office. In doing so, many advocated for 5 days of office attendance, returning to the pre-pandemic “normal.”

It appears those large companies have only won half the battle - as they have the lowest rates of fully remote work. But they lost other half, with the lowest rates of fully in-office workers.

If we define hybrid work as a form of remote work, then the larger a company gets, the more likely they are to allow at least some remote work.

Quite validating to see that so many large organizations realize the importance of employees’ location flexibility, even to a small extent. And with new technology and growing employee demands, those companies will only offer more remote days from here on out. (Flex Index)

🇺🇸 Remote work helps the US stay ahead of Europe
America’s economic growth is superior to Europe’s - there’s no question about that. But in the last half-century, there has been a lot of debate about why Americans work more than Europeans - on average, workers in the US log 15% more hours every year than their European counterparts.

There are arguments to be made about tax policy, unions, general regulatory environments, and geographic access to vacation spots. There’s no clear answer to this debate, and we won’t have one anytime soon.

But now with the advent of remote work, there’s an interesting new data point: in 2023, full-time employees in the US worked remotely 1.4 days every week, compared to .8 days for employees in Europe. This means Americans and European workers are working, on average, an identical number of hours in the office every year.

Those extra 15% of hours Americans work that Europeans don’t are hours that Americans work remotely, from places far more comfortable than the office. (The Economist)

🎆 Remote work’s impact on Disney World
The hospitality industry has continued to recover well in the last few years, and is expected to outperform the US economy in 2024.

Disney World is no exception. The “Most Magical Place on Earth” is obviously known to be a fun family getaway, but adults who continue to crave the Disney experience and have the ability to work remotely have been able to visit the park more frequently. According to one expert, many adult Disney fans that work remotely have moved to Orlando just to have easier access to the park.

Funny enough, not everyone appreciates the mix of work and play. One reddit user shared a picture of their work setup from a sparsely-populated Epcot cafe, yet drew criticism from some users that they were taking up space that families and guests would otherwise use.

It’s a debate that will surely never end. Should vacation places prioritize guests who are there strictly for leisure, versus remote workers? My answer is clearly no - if someone gets triggered when they see a laptop on vacation, that’s a problem they need to sort out internally. (NBC News)

💵 Stripe CEO vouches for remote work
In today’s RTO environment, it’s especially appreciated when CEOs speak in favor of remote work. Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, is required to be in an office more frequently given his role at Stripe, but he thinks strongly that remote work should be an option when possible, and says if he wasn’t in his current role, he’d try to be remote all the time.

He provided nuanced comments; while he said that in-person work can help build culture at smaller, early-stage companies, he also said the existing debate has become “overly religious.”

Further, a benefit of remote work he’s found - perhaps accidentally - is the reliance on “writing culture” where having more communication in a written record helps people learn faster from their mistakes. (Fortune)

🚙 Was the office job the right choice?
This 26-year-old Australian IT worker was interviewed about his decision between two jobs: one government IT job that only allows one day of WFH per week, and a nonprofit IT job that allowed for 4 days of WFH each week.

The government job pays $13,000 more annually and has more clarity in terms of future financial upside. But he gets less sleep and has less time for working out or other hobbies on days he commutes - his office is one hour from his house!

He hasn’t made a concrete determination whether it was the right move or not. It’s a nice read because as much as we advocate for remote work, the truth is that with today’s career options, there aren’t always going to be perfect solutions for every individual, and these debates will be prevalent. (Business Insider)

Stuff We Like

🌏 Best places in the world to travel solo
Remote workers often have the luxury of taking longer vacations since they build in some work time while they’re traveling. If you need some ideas for your next big trip, Vogue outlined 13 ideas specifically for solo travelers. Some that caught my attention were biking through the Argentina wine country, visiting adventure lodges in New Zealand, and island-hopping in the Philippines. (Vogue)

🤷🏻‍♂️ Managing with surveillance software
As the headline states, “surveilling employees erodes trust — and puts managers in a bind.” Often managers don’t have a choice when leading remote workers and being given direction to monitor their activity. These tips from HBR can help:

• Be transparent about using monitoring for developmental feedback

• Train supervisors on how to deliver feedback derived from monitoring in a developmental, non-punitive way

• Highlight the benefits of performance monitoring — and deliver on your promises

In the best cases where these software solutions are implemented, they’re only used to flag employees who are truly phoning it in. As we’ve said before, remote work works best when employers trust their employees and measure output, not hours being “active” at their workstation. (Harvard Business Review)

✅ Cal Newport’s case for “Slow Productivity”
This productivity author talks about the endless drag of to-do items and “frenetic activity” that bog down employees, and in turn, the companies they work for.

He has several ideas for workers to get out of this cycle; ultimately the goal is to have enough devoted time to perform high-value activities well, and to say no to the activities that will hamper your progress.

For instance: block off one hour for independent work every time a meeting is put on your calendar. Or when a colleague asks you to complete a task, give them a completion timeline that represents twice as long as you think it should take you. This gives you flexibility to manage your own priorities while ensuring the task is done properly, with minimal sacrifice on your end. (Wall Street Journal)

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