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☆ Over half the Gen Z workers in an Irish survey said remote and hybrid work has benefitted their careers, more than double compared to Gen Xers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Around 55% of Gen Z workers in Ireland felt remote and hybrid work was beneficial to their careers. That's according to a new survey polling how Irish workers feel about remote work since the pandemic. Meanwhile only 23% of 45-54 year old workers surveyed felt that remote and hybrid work has benefitted their careers. Some 57% of all workers felt remote work in Ireland opened them up to better job opportunities. Gen Z workers tend to have higher demands about workplace benefits than their older counterparts and flexible work is high on the list.

☆ Elon Musk says remote work is 'morally wrong' and people need to 'get off the goddamn moral high horse with the work from home bullshit'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk said he sees remote work as "morally wrong" and the "laptop classes are living in la la land." The billionaire said remote workers need to "get off the goddamn moral high horse" in a CNBC interview. Musk told Tesla workers last year that they could work in the office fulltime or quit. The billionaire compared remote work to a "let them eat cake" scenario and said that he thinks the "laptop classes are living in la la land." Musk said that he thinks remote workers need to "get off the goddamn moral high horse with the work from home bullshit because they're asking everyone else to not work from home while they do."

But housing costs have soared in the state over the past decade due to a lack of new construction, making it difficult for some students to live close enough to those universities to attend them. In Santa Cruz, the problem has been exacerbated by a flood of remote workers who arrived from the Bay Area during the pandemic and a 2020 wildfire that destroyed 900 housing units countywide. Santa Cruz is the second most expensive market for renters in the nation.

☆ The Great Resignation is giving way to the 'Big Stay' as job-hopping slows down
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

It may be accurate to say the quitting situation is evolving into the "Big Stay," per ADP's chief economist. "The Big Quit of 2022 could be easing into the Big Stay of 2023," Richardson wrote in her recent commentary. "A year later, all three of these dynamics are abating, and the great resignation itself is looking like a thing of the past." Pollak said that "to the extent that there is a big stay, it is not taking place across the economy." Even if the Great Resignation might not be prevalent in all areas of the economy right now, it could emerge again.

☆ The No. 1 city to find a remote job, according to new research—it isn't New York or San Francisco
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Morgan Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The job market for remote workers might be shrinking in some cities, but it's flourishing in others. The researchers behind the paper — called "Remote Work across Jobs, Companies and Space"— looked at more than 250 million job vacancies offering remote or hybrid work posted between January 2014 and January 2023. London, Sydney and Toronto — the most populous cities in the U.K., Australia and Canada, respectively — have seen some of the biggest increases in remote work, the report found. In 2022, for example, "one in four new job postings in Washington, D.C. advertised remote work arrangements, compared to one in fourteen in Perth, Australia," the report notes. The number of available remote jobs also fluctuates across regions: In the U.S., for example, remote jobs have become less common in southern cities like Savannah and Miami Beach, compared to northeast and western cities like San Francisco, Boston and Colorado.

☆ The Real Reason Rent Costs Are Sky High: People Left Their Roommates
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Though rent growth has slowed in recent months, renters in large cities are still feeling the effects of the 2021-22 rent boom. Residents of these places are now asking the question: If so many people left, why is my rent still so expensive? The first was outbound migration, which led to weaker housing demand in city centers. "High house prices, high rents, and rising interest rates are probably pushing back against household formation," Ozimek told me. If more employees keep adopting remote work — which, I'll admit, is a big "if" — that indicates housing demand is bound to increase.

☆ Two Seattle friends who never even tried 'van life' made $320,000 last year turning Sprinter vans into sleek mobile homes and renting them out to remote workers and families
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Reid and Singer would one day like to expand their van rentals to San Francisco or Austin. For now, they're focused on making their current operation as hands-off as possible, which would allow them to return to traditional 9-to-5 jobs while keeping their side hustle for passive income. Lounge van opens to a beach. Courtesy of Noma Vans

☆ IBM chief says employees' careers could suffer and promotions may be harder to achieve if they work from home
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says employees' careers could suffer if they work from home, per Bloomberg. He said some remote workers may struggle to get promoted, especially to managerial roles. Krishna has encouraged IBM workers to return to the office for three days a week, per the outlet. He added that remote workers don't learn skills normally acquired in person, such as dealing with difficult clients, Bloomberg reported. A spokesperson previously told Insider that there was no blanket hiring "pause" and the company was being deliberate and thoughtful in its hiring.

☆ Workers say they're engaging in 'productivity theater' for over 10 hours a week to appear busy, a survey shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Workers are engaging in "productivity theatre" to look busy at work, a new survey revealed. "Productivity theater," or performative work, refers to tasks that workers do to create the appearance of being busy rather than actually doing valuable work, according to Visier. Fear of job security is another factor at to why workers want to look busy and boost their visibility at the company. As major companies in the US have laid off thousands of staff, concerns around job security have intensified. The rise of remote and hybrid work has also played a part in concerns over job security and "proximity bias."

☆ Jamie Dimon's 'tone deaf' return to office mandate is getting pushback from JPMorgan staffers, who are complaining about being stuck on Zoom calls even while in the office: Reuters
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Nidhi Pandurangi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

JPMorgan is now mandating all managing directors work from the office five days a week. But that rubbed some workers the wrong way, who vented on an internal messaging system, per Reuters. They griped about being stuck in virtual meetings despite being in the office, long commutes, and family responsibilities. In the same video, Clarke even lauded one employee's work ethic who he said "sold their family dog" to improve work performance. Read the JPMorgan return to office memo in full here.

☆ Meet a teacher who quit her job to avoid returning in person — and found a position at a remote-only public school
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A New York City teacher quit her job in March after 12 years at the school. She teaches music and describes the shift to remote learning at the beginning of the pandemic as one that triggered a professional change, too. Parkis is one of many Americans who prefer remote working, even as companies have attempted to entice — and in some cases, strong-arm — employees back to the office. She was teaching full time at a Brooklyn, New York, middle school for 12 years and said her school ended remote learning last year. When she did, she quit right away and began her post at a fully online public school.

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Charlie Bell speaks, Amazon RTO, and the lucrative side of teaching ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Amazon needs to watch out for Charlie Bell. A founder of Amazon Web Services and the firm's "best person in the room," Bell shook the industry last September when he joined Microsoft. Bell will be overseeing a new cybersecurity division at Microsoft — but insiders at both Amazon and Microsoft wonder if he'll go more directly up against his former employer. My colleague Ashley Stewart examines the growing threat of Microsoft now that Bell is free from his noncompete purgatory. Look into the future here for Bell — and Microsoft — without Amazon's restrictions.

☆ A digital nomad discovers the downside of remote work: no locals want to hang out with her
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Jordan Pandy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The digital nomad community has grown in tandem with the rise of remote work. Tayler GillThe Digital Nomad Village was established in February 2021 by the Regional Government of Madeira through Startup Madeira. "By the time we got there, the Digital Nomad Village was already pretty established," Gill told Insider. "Their whole thing was to build a community and foster that community for digital nomads coming in." It's easy for the village's digital nomads to socialize with each otherPonta do Sol's Digital Nomad Village isn't just a perch in the sun for folks with laptops.

☆ Remote work hasn't been the best for my career — I was passed up twice for promotions. But it's been amazing for my personal life.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Robin Madell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Hannah Hood got passed up for a promotion she wanted while working from home — twice. While her career took a hit, she loved the flexibility in her personal life and even got her MBA virtually. The first promotion that I got passed up for took place when we were 100% remote, in the thick of COVID. Now I'm about three months into a 100% remote job as a corporate marketing manager at ServicePower, where most of my coworkers are over 500 miles away. I'm not worried about getting passed up for opportunities because we're all in this remote environment together.

☆ Young remote workers are missing out on crucial IRL feedback from colleagues
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Tim Paradis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

For young workers, not being in an office can mean they don't get as much feedback from colleagues. The pushback against remote work comes as more CEOs have been calling workers back to the office. But workers — especially those taking care of kids or others — grew accustomed to the flexibility that remote work can afford. Despite the risks, many of those potentially in danger of missing out on professional growth are most in favor of remote work, according to surveys, the Times noted. And some companies that have embraced remote work report success.

☆ Remote work is 'bullshit,' says real-estate billionaire Sam Zell, to cheers from fellow execs who profit from offices
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sam Zell said at a conference last week that remote work is "a bunch of bullshit." Office doomers abound, but real estate professionals t hink they just don't get it. Sam Zell, the notorious "Grave Dancer" of commercial real estate known for his salty tongue, is always happy to have a platform. He was in a cheeky mood, at least when the conversation turned to today's third-rail of commercial real estate: office properties abandoned by remote workers. The trend and dire outlook had real estate giant Brookfield defaulting on a loan tied to offices this month for the second time this year.

☆ Mental-health apps have a dark secret — and it raises important questions about the future of online therapy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Hallam Bullock | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In a video posted by Vice, Clarke addressed Clearlink's return-to-office mandate and said that many of his remote workers didn't open their laptops for a month. Online therapy fills a critical need — but it has a dark side. The data Loris used to create its "empathetic" software was generated from text conversations with people in distress, sourced from Loris' parent company, Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit suicide-prevention hotline. That is, however, according to Musk, who told Tucker Carlson that the two tech billionaires disagreed on safety and regulation. The real reason bosses are freaked out by remote work: they think it's for "sissies."

☆ 13 hot spots for real-estate investors seeking solid rental income returns and cheaper property instead of high prices and taxes, according to an expert who's spent 2 decades investing around the glob
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

With the right locations, he believes investors could double their cash investment in the next five years based on property appreciation and rental income. you'll also need to pay taxes on rental income which varies by state. If you plan on generating short or long-term rental income, find a strong rental or property manager. If you're on a budget but want to invest in a good shorter-term rental property for Airbnb, look in high-traffic destinations, he said. Top picks for short-term rental income are internationalized destinations that have easy air access, great amenities, and a lack of hotel competition.

☆ TikTok is looking more and more like a record label. It’s annoyed many in the music industry.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Allbirds is one of the brands I'm looking at. TikTok is looking more and more like a record label. When TikTok launched SoundOn, a song-distribution and artist-services platform, some in the industry wondered whether it was trying to muscle its way into record labels' territory. TikTok is now looking to hire people who will "identify, sign, and develop new artists" as well as "design live show and merchandise strategies for artists globally." Get a front-row seat to TikTok's transformation into a record label here.

☆ CEO says many of his remote workers didn't open their laptops for a month, and 'only the rarest of full-time caregivers' can be productive employees
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Clearlink CEO James Clarke said remote workers "quietly quit" and didn't open laptops in a month, Vice reported. A representative didn't address the remarks, but said Clarke "could not be more excited" for the company. Clearlink's CEO James Clarke reportedly told employees that he believed many remote workers have "quietly quit" and become so brazen that dozens at his company "didn't even open" their laptops for a month. "And those were all remote employees, including their manager — for a whole month." Clearlink is a private company with 800 employees, a company representative told Insider.

☆ CEO questions whether parents who are primary caregivers are being ‘fair’ to employers and children
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —A Utah CEO who is demanding that many of his remote employees start working in the company’s offices says staff members must make sacrifices, and questions whether people who serve as primary caregivers for their children, specifically working mothers and single mothers, are doing right by both their employers and their children. The remarks at a company town hall by James Clarke, CEO of digital marketing and technology company Clearlink, have gone viral with posts of an edited version of the comments on Reddit and YouTube. Clarke suggested that full-time child care and full-time work could not be balanced. This has hit working mothers equally as hard, I would argue. “It can be done, but it adds so much stress to a working mother’s life that I would never want to put that on anyone,” he said.

☆ Workers returning to offices could mean more trouble for Instacart and other grocery delivery services
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ordering groceries online is losing appeal for busy workers returning in-person to offices. About 37% of remote workers and 32% of hybrid workers said they did all of their grocery shopping online, Morning Consult reported. Forty percent of in-person workers said that they did "some" of their grocery shopping online. It asked consumers about their online grocery usage, including both delivery and pick-up orders. At first glance, it might seem that remote workers have more flexibility to make a weekday errand run like grocery shopping, Moquin said.

☆ Bosses hate work from home because 'home' is for women
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

And the old way was clear: The office is for work, and the home is for — well, for whatever unpaid stuff it is that women do while their men are at work. Skeptical that work — real work — could be done at home, bosses quietly penalized the women who opted for flexible schedules by sticking them with boring assignments and denying them promotions. Embracing remote work is a good start, but it comes with risks of its own. Since the pandemic hit, I've heard a few CEOs liken remote work to opening Pandora's box. Women working from home are no longer the aberration — tradition-bound executives are.

☆ Here are the top 10 states to live in if you want to work remotely, according to a new study
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Aaron Mcdade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Remote work remains popular, but the opportunities seem to be dwindling. For those who want to or already do work remotely, WalletHub ranked the 50 states and Washington, D.C. For those who still work remotely — about 12% of US workers according to a recent report from WFH research — personal finance website WalletHub recently released a ranking of the best states for remote workers in 2023. It divided a set of a dozen metrics into two categories with differing point values: work environment and living environment. Living and work environment scores were used to create an overall composite score per state.

☆ A baby boomer who quit his 6-figure job rather than return to the office says managers are threatened by remote work and just want people back so they can see them working
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In 2018, higher-ups at his job handed a day of remote work out as a reward. But as 2020 rolled in and sent everyone home, he discovered he loved full-time remote work even more. He loved remote work for the same reasons he thinks other people do: more time to concentrate, and fewer meetings. But remote work also calls into question the purpose of a boss, he said. "I think a lot of people that have exposure to remote work will say, 'Hey, that worked,'" Dennis said.

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