The events of 2020 have provided a massive boost to the acceptance and adoption of remote work, especially in industries where it is relatively easy to implement. Many proponents are calling it the future of all knowledge work, and that it will soon proliferate everywhere. “The office is dead”, as some proclaim. I personally don’t think that this will be the case (at least not in the near term future), nor will it be good overall for all knowledge work to be remote. Instead remote and in-office style work will co-exist, and the specific characteristics will decide which is best in each market.

People have discussed the pros and cons of remote vs. on-prem a great deal, especially in recent months. But one important thing about most of these tradeoff analyses is often missed, and that is who the beneficiary is. Some differences are more obvious, such as the elimination of the commute (which mainly benefits the employee) and the reduction in physical office costs (which mainly benefits the employer). But some are not so straightforward, such as the difference in the access to talent. From both the employer’s and employee’s perspectives, remote simultaneously increases the pool of choices (i.e. can hire or be hired from anywhere), and the competition for these choices (i.e. need to compete with more companies or talent). The net overall effect of this should still be positive, because having more choices generally results in more optimal pairings of employee to employer. However, on the employee’s side, the benefit is not uniformly distributed, and is biased by geography and cost of living. People who live in relatively expensive regions may actually be hurt by the expanded choices.

I think industries or areas that can effectively capture the benefits of remote for both the company and the employee will do very well with it. Those that are less effectively at doing so will be outcompeted, and may see better results with on-prem. More broadly, since remote and on-prem optimize for different factors, some markets will be more suited for one while some more suited for the other. The same is true for individual employees, some will prefer the benefits of remote work while others will prefer the benefits of the physical office. I think neither will dominate or take over, but rather both will become mainstream. This is the best outcome in my opinion, as having more options is almost always good for the world.