Location used to be one of the key opportunity makers. After all, if you wanted to be part of a tech giant just a few years ago and you weren’t in Silicone Valley, your chances were fairly small. And while this is more of an American trend, moving from one state to another for work is a shared experience across the western world. But is all this about to end?
What’s new in the field of work?
Work has gone through a massive transformation. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced most office workers into the home office which has created a shared understanding of not just remote work but also of the tools needed for remote work. Companies had to hastily figure out new ways of organizing work, holding meetings, communicating through instant messages, and much more. Tools that would have been seen as too expensive or needless before the pandemic became essential.
This has, in turn, greatly expanded the possibilities for remote workers and digital nomads. After all, if most offices now have the tools, experience, and know-how to facilitate remote work, why not simply continue with it? And many companies went on to offer either fully present, remote, or even hybrid work opportunities for their employees.
This shift is not just on the surface level, however. It cuts deep into the way companies think about employees. Before the pandemic, one’s availability in the office was just as important as one’s skills, but after the experience with forced remote work, it is clear that employees can be just as productive at home as in the office. This has shifted the perception of the value of employees primarily to their skills, ability to work with tools, and quickness of learning. The unfortunate byproduct of this has been the widespread use of monitoring software often with the justification of inadequate monitoring outside of the office.
Location? Online
All of these changes have rapidly shifted office work to the online space. Whether you’re in the same place as your employer really doesn’t matter anymore. What matters most is the strength of one’s internet connection and one’s ability to keep to deadlines, communicate online, and be prepared to learn how to handle the new software. This is also great news for digital nomads who, after the closing of the border during the pandemic, are likely itching to submerge themselves in new cultures again.
However, it is worth stating some limitations to this shift. Most work is still physical, requiring the presence of employees like workers in factories, warehouses, transportation, retail, gastronomy, and more. Similarly, while it does not matter where you work from, being present in larger cities and engaging with communities around your field of interest will still give you a lot of networking opportunities, so location does play some role in that.
Lastly, while some jobs benefit from remote work (like creatives) there are some jobs like teaching where most people still prefer face to face interaction. However, remote work is the first step towards a less restrictive workspace and the smaller emphasis on relocating is definitely the right path to follow.
