I know there’s already a WFH thread but I wanted to be more specific (and make it all about me, me, me). I listened to an interesting podcast about the benefits of “work from anywhere” (“Work, Eat, Sleep, Repeat”) which essentially refers to working a non-commutable distance from the office (so hybrid working isn’t possible). The premise of the expert interviewed is that this is the future and companies who fail to implement it will lose all their top talent.
I’m slightly sceptical of these interviewees as they’re normally promoting a book and the companies they advise tend to self-select for those that are pre-conditioned to support new ways of working. You never hear from a bestselling author who had a book called “Do nothing. Why companies should choose the staus quo”. So I’m interested in people’s experiences of working from anywhere.
I’m a software consultant and most of my work is now done on Teams with clients, so I get frustrated about having to go the office three days a week where I will often spend the day wearing noise cancelling headphones and talking to nobody. One of the key tenets of work from anywhere according to this expert is that teams should spend between 10 and 25 per cent of their time together, but not working but bonding and team building, and that could be putting everyone up in a hotel for a week every other month. I like this idea. I’ve switched to hybrid working but nothing has changed. The only benefit I really get is I spend lest time in the car and I have better lunch breaks. We haven’t made any changes to the way we work.
I’m thinking of applying for work from anywhere jobs. I like the fact that I can apply to jobs all over the country instead of thinking about how far I would be willing to commute.
How common is it in the UK. Is it really the future. I’m a little cynical but I’m also aware that the people on the anti side famously include Rees-Mogg, Musk, Johnson and Marissa Mayer so there’s an element of if they’re against it it must be good. I have employed someone remotely and he came to the office twice a month for a couple of days and we put him up in a hotel but it never really worked, but maybe that was my fault.