Remote work: What’s in for present students?
There are weeks when months happen. The last two weeks were intense, both internally and externally for the world. We hope things get better soon.
Two tech giants, Twitter and Shopify announced going 100% remote across all departments globally, Unacademy, India’s largest ed-tech company went 60% remote with a workforce of 1000+ presently.
But, what do these developments mean for a college student like you? We’ll break it down.
Every decision has two types of effects — primary and secondary. So does this.
Culture Googly
Over the past 2 decades, since the FAANG(Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) companies grew substantially due to the rapid advancement of communication and penetration of the Internet, the concept of ‘culture’ started gaining prominence. Google was in fact one of the first companies to define it. As of today, these companies have some of the coolest offices in the world (a simple search on YouTube will give you a glance). This makes them move up the list of the most desirable companies to work with.
With the shift towards culture and work-life balance gaining significant attention, new-age startups tried their best to build the same in them. They achieved it, though at a cost — real estate, clustered talent, and more importantly, innovation. While they embraced going digital across every element of work, the concept of ‘culture’ and teams still stuck within offices, barely getting an ‘update’ for today’s world.
Fast forward to 2020. All of a sudden, the pandemic forces every single company to shut their offices and go remote. What do they observe? Productivity increases and fixed costs (offices are damn expensive) are saved.
Executives realize that the world will never be the same anymore. You can’t sell ‘this is where magic happens’ and ‘culture’ anymore to employees. People love the freedom to work from anywhere, and spend time with their loved ones. All these lead to the ‘remote revolution’.
Let us tell you that these are not the first companies to go globally remote. Product Hunt, Dribbble, Invision were remote right from the very beginning. Some things need a jolt. This pandemic was the one.
Second-order effects
What happens if a company goes remote? It makes talent democratized. Now, you just don’t have the few college graduates to compete with, but 7 Billion people for a position.
Anyone can work anywhere, anytime. Your oxygen? The internet and a laptop is all you need to be ‘Atmanirbhar’ :)
Imagine sitting in your room right now as you read this blog, and the next moment, switching to a video meeting for your work at a tech giant like Twitter. Sounds more like a dream? It might just be true in a while.
That LinkedIn connection whom you had e-met with online could just be your future colleague.
The tail to the head
US-focused companies might face the heat, as the government could come up with regulations (as known to) for hiring international candidates, as it faces its worst recession.
However, there is a flip side to this. Humans are built on social interaction. Going remote would mean people have lesser in-person conversations, and are more likely to be suffering from mental health issues as well as physical ones.
What will be the new culture code as companies try to maintain the productivity levels as well as the health of employees? Well, we have to hold our patience to find out!
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