In ten years, remote work will simply be referred to as work

Prithwiraj Choudhury, a Harvard Business School professor and expert on remote work and labor, makes this seemingly bold statement.

“We will probably in 10 years stop calling this ‘remote work’. We’ll just call it work,” he said.

Choudhury, a longtime proponent of “work from anywhere,” has researched companies that went completely remote years before the pandemic, such as software companies Gitlab and Zapier. A hybrid workforce, according to his studies, is more productive, loyal, and less likely to leave. 

Companies ranging from Twitter to PwC are now allowing workers to work virtually indefinitely, according to Choudhury, and organizations that do not adapt face increased churn.

Last week, Choudhury chatted with Bloomberg journalists via Skype from Boston. The following edited excerpts describe the conversation.

Q: Is there anything about remote employment that the media has completely overlooked or misrepresented?

A: Remote work is often pitched as something that employees want and employers don’t. My research has shown that this is a win-win. For employees, it’s great to work from anywhere because you can move to a cheaper location. You can live where you want to.

For employers, it’s a win as well because you are not constrained to hiring from the local labor market – where you have an office. The other big benefit is productivity. In the U.S. Patent Office, we documented a 4.4% productivity gain back in 2012 when they allowed patent examiners to work from anywhere.

Full interview HERE.