Why the future of remote work (Part 1)

The theme of remote work has become particularly relevant - just remember this recent post on Habre, the output of the book Remote by Jason Fried and timed to coincide with the launch of the book launch Exchange Search remote employees from 37 Signals.
Supporters she is more than enough, especially among workers who are tired every day to get to the office on the crazy city traffic jams. Opponents also a lot in the first place among employers. Here I will try to explain why, despite all the cons (many of which, by the way, either temporarily or fictional), remote work - this is our future and the future is very close. As a man of the IT-industry, of course I mean it in the first place, but a significant portion of these observations is universal.
Just say, I do not want to say that the office work will go into oblivion, it just turns out the only possible way to the tool that solves a specific range of tasks. Under the cut list of the main advantages of udalёnki for the employee and the employer, and in the next section I will try to refute the basic myths, which often appeal to her opponents.

Benefits for the employee h4>
List for obvious reasons would be quite voluminous, some of these items have repeatedly cited in support of remote work, another part of itself to add personal impressions.

1. Time on the road h5>
Do not need to 1.5-3 hours a day to spend exhausting road, then an explanation is superfluous.

2. The realities of the local market h5>
Here, too, it's simple: a worker from the region with poor IT-infrastructure (1.5 web studio mediocre throughout the city) can work for a company from the capital, and even from Europe / USA, if tolerably fluent in English. Here there is space and to increase revenue and to find more interesting projects, and for application of highly specialized knowledge, not claimed by local companies.
For example, in a recent subject to a survey on programming languages, many web developers, PHP is not very loving but forced upon him because of the program the realities of the local labor market, complained that they could not find a use their skills in Ruby, Python, etc. And it is enough just to look at international labor exchanges and freelance sites like there will plenty of attractive options at once!

3. Comfortable space h5>
For me the critical issue of compliance of personal space. The need for 8 hours a day sitting a meter away from a stranger (and sometimes two or three at a time) I think frankly humiliating. And then, just remember where you are on a more comfortable work chair - at home or in the office?

4. Distractions h5>
It would seem, here it is possible to argue: the house you have a bed, a refrigerator, a wife and children, if all created to prevent you from work quietly. Office space on this background it may seem just a working paradise - very often this opinion is found among those who have tried for some time to work remotely, but failed to properly organize everything and returned to the office.
In fact, the fundamental difference here is that the home space (or any other of your choice - you as no one bothers to get away with a laptop to a nearby cafe) you are able to organize themselves. Select Statement cabinet to negotiate with family members (from 9 to 18 - working time, I not at home ), to distinguish between work and home space, etc. - All in your power. In the office, you have to take the existing rules, which affect you have very few options. If you sit two meters neighbors constantly loud about something and talking each hour walk past you on a smoke break, if you can not stand air conditioning, and your colleagues are always hot, if every day a girl from accounting asked to repair the printer or to see why site does not open - what can you do with all this?

5. Imposed relations h5>
One of the most frustrating things for me in office work have always been voluntary and mandatory team-building. I had nothing against his colleagues, but to meet them in an informal setting is not wanted, but driven by the need to "rally the team" and "nurture corporate spirit" (in one of the recent discussions on the Habré director of a SEO-agency threw me one more beautiful habardistskuyu wording - "to make employees part of the brand») HR-geniuses usually leave very little opportunity not to participate in such a celebration of life. By the way, the only team for my professional career, the members of which I really became friends and keep some contacts and a few years after retirement, I met a company does not hold any team building.
Remote operation allows you to choose their own friends, without regard to corporate traditions, the company's mission, and certainly other wonderful things.

Benefits for the employer h4>
To some extent they are the reverse side of the advantages for the employee.

1. Savings on office h5>
Seriously, like office work space in the current circumstances it is quite optional, but because the money that you spend on it, you can now invest in the development business. With the economic crisis, you have a great chance to beat the competition, still living realities of the late XX century.

2. Access to the best specialists h5>
In your area, you will not have the necessary experts, and transport them to their long and expensive? Today it is not a problem, you hire the right employees anywhere in the world.

3. Satisfied employees h5>
Employees who work for themselves in comfort mode is not exhausted by the daily pleasures of the road and stay in close eight cubicle, will thank you. It is far more likely to provide you with their loyalty than all the expensive ways forced "to make friends team" together.

Update: h4>
I want to stress two points separately, which may not be readily apparent from the main post:
1) I certainly do not believe that remote work is to completely replace the office. The thing is that the office of the vital need to turn into an optional for the company and the employee option.
2) The requirement in the first part may appear excessively tezisno, but this is because the analysis of the main objections to the remote work will be in the second.

Source: habrahabr.ru/company/sourcetalk/blog/201762/