3 Types of Companies in a Post Pandemic World

tl:dr:

After the pandemic, you can go back to the office, work all remote, or mix the two. The choice is yours. Learn more below.

I’ve been working remotely off and on since 2013.

So I’ve been thinking about how office job companies are going to evolve in response to the pandemic for a while.

As soon as “15 days to slow the spread” gave way to 30 more around March of 2020, I knew we were in for worldwide remote work for at least 18 months while the peoples of the world figure out how to develop and distribute treatments and vaccines. So far, my estimates have been pretty accurate.

In late December of 2020 things started to reach a fever pitch.

And I started work on this post.

will.vc@boujeehacker

Working on a blog post related to this right now. There are going to be 3 types of companies post pandemic. [quick thread] 1/x

Paul Graham @paulg

Prediction: Remote work will become so fashionable that even companies that don't get it will try to embrace it, leading to a bimodal distribution of outcomes. This bimodal distribution will be the same we've seen over and over already: tech cos will win.

2:17 AM · Dec 7, 2020

1 Repost · 3 Likes

I believe there will be three types of strategies organizations will employ to organize themselves in the months and years following a strong consensus that the world can lift any form of lockdown and large groups can meet in person again without fear of an outbreak.

Get back to the office
Remote first
Hybrid

Recently Kim Mai Cutler stole my thunder on this subject (which is what I get for taking so long… not to mention her being waaay better at this than me lol)

Kim-Mai Cutler@kimmaicutler

8:04 PM · Jan 21, 2021

15 Reposts · 52 Likes

Also, @chris herd is awesome on this subject as always

Chris Herd@chris_herd

Stages of remote: 1. Office only 2. Remote-Friendly 3. Remote-First 4. Async-First The further down the list a company is, the more successful it will be over the next 10 years

2:23 PM · Jul 3, 2020

6 Reposts · 50 Likes

But to quickly summarize:

Companies in this category hate remote working and see it as purely bad. Not kidding.

will.vc@boujeehacker

1. The "get back to the office types" @reedhastings has famously take this position seeing remote as quote "pure negative" per @WSJ

They were forced into this and want out as soon as possible.

In fairness, they had to do this quickly, under great duress in a pandemic, and didn't have the time, knowledge of how, or desire to adapt to a remote workforce.

So it’s understandable that things have been a pure negative for them, that's not to say it had to be and hopefully they’re hearts open more over time.

All in baby. All remote all the time anywhere. Nobody explains the pros here better than @Chris in his epic 10+ tweet thread here

Chris Herd@chris_herd

I've spoken to 1,500+ people about remote work in the last 9 months A few predictions of what is likely to emerge before 2030 [ a thread ] 💻🏠🌍

12:50 PM · Dec 4, 2020

5.87K Reposts · 22.3K Likes

will.vc@boujeehacker

3. And finally the "all remote types" see @gitlab @automattic and shameless plug for my good friends at @vulkcoop

Chris Herd@chris_herd

Companies offering great remote work experiences: - @doist - @trello - @gitlab - @stripe - @buffer - @zapier - @github - @Upwork - @airtable - @HubSpot - @InDesign - @Hubstaff - @automatic - @basecamp - @teamweek - @FirstbaseHQ - @StackOverflow Who else?

2:21 PM · Nov 18, 2019

1.22K Reposts · 5.33K Likes

Also make sure you pay attention to what gitlabbers have to say on this topic as they are one of the most successful remote-first companies and have been at it for quite a while.

Darren Murph@darrenmurph

about.gitlab.com

Out of the office: How the world adapted to working remotely in 2020

3:24 PM · Feb 10, 2021

37 Reposts · 103 Likes

Remote@remote

hubs.la

Remote Talks: Episode 4 with Darren Murph - Mental Health, Leadership, and Remote Experiments | Remote

3:00 PM · Jan 21, 2021

3 Reposts · 21 Likes

Garry Tan@garrytan

“Everyone is a lot more comfortable with hiring remote now, and it’s very hard to put the genie back in the bottle there,” said @kimmaicutler, a partner at Initialized.

sfchronicle.com

S.F. tech companies reducing presence in the city: New surveys support trend

1:25 AM · Jan 28, 2021

17 Reposts · 77 Likes

The previous quote also applies to hybrid models, speaking of which…

So now that we’ve explored the extremes – what’s in between?

Kim-Mai Cutler@kimmaicutler

8:04 PM · Jan 21, 2021

14 Reposts · 68 Likes

It’s pretty straight forward really. Some days in the office (whether it's HQ, hubs, or a co-working space). And some from wherever else. A recent big fish jumping in here is Salesforce.

Katie Bindley@katiebindley

NEW from me: Salesforce is shifting to a mostly hybrid work model post-pandemic, with more than 65% of employees coming into the office only 1-3 days a week. It'll be reducing its real estate footprint as a result:

wsj.com

WSJ News Exclusive | Most Salesforce Employees to Work Remotely at Least Part Time After Pandemic

7:14 PM · Feb 9, 2021

104 Reposts · 282 Likes

But watch out, hybrid isn’t as simple as it seems.

will.vc@boujeehacker

2. The "hybrid" types. Mix of time in office and remote. @sytses has a famous thread about this

Sid Sijbrandij @sytses

Somehow the lesson that companies deduce from this isn't that that should go all remote, but that they should go hybrid, combining remote and co-located work. I think that hybrid is much harder and less likely to be successful. This thread will include examples of why it is hard.

Darren Murph@darrenmurph

Many companies will go hybrid-remote post-COVID. "Do we return to the office?" is a distraction. Focus on rearchitecting workflows and culture to work in or out of a building. We added these considerations to the @gitlab handbook

about.gitlab.com

Hybrid-Remote: understanding nuances and pitfalls