Employee Challenges for Going Remote
Individual freedom is a key underlying driver why many employees to go remote. A lot of employees would love to move to a place of their choice. And continue working for their current employer. But challenges abound for work-from-anywhere. Here are the top ones from my network:
The best approach is to focus on solving challenges under your control. And work around the rest.
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- Disinterested Leadership
- Unless you are the business owner, your leverage is less. If the leadership has strong views against remote work, an employee can't do much. The best option for an employee is to change employers.
- Misaligned Policies
- Employers who have adopted remote work have announced their relocation policies. As with anything in life, these policies veer from one extreme to the other. On the left, the compensation change is so high that employees don't find it worthwhile to move. On the far right, employers pay everyone the same. And the best ones even provide a one-time cash bonus to offset relocation costs.
- Secondary Offices
- This reminds me of the Henry Ford statement in 1909. "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black". Many employers are adopting remote work policies like this. "You can move to any place as long as you are within our designated secondary offices". It is understandable why employers are doing this. They need a critical mass, hiring predictability, and coverage for specific locations. But this creates a constrained set of choices for the employees who want to move.
- Lifestyle Infrastructure
- My previous note, Removing our Tethers: Part 1, highlights these constraints. Solving these constraints can alter the city-suburb-rural demographics. The three biggest ones that constrain employees are:
- Connectivity: Work in current times has high dependence on being available.
- Education: The lack of highly-rated public schools takes out many locations from consideration.
- Airport: Being close to a decent airport is a massive time-saver.
- My previous note, Removing our Tethers: Part 1, highlights these constraints. Solving these constraints can alter the city-suburb-rural demographics. The three biggest ones that constrain employees are:
- Spousal Career
- A location that provides good career options for both partners is not always easy. But this is an easier problem to solve. At least the employer isn't constraining the employee.
The best approach is to focus on solving challenges under your control. And work around the rest.
Next Note:
- Employer Challenges for Going Remote
Related Notes:
Let's Talk: If you have a true experience that resonates, please send me an email.
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