When are you from?

On July 13th, 2021, a list of companies offering remote work to their employees was released by Build Remote. The list consisted of three options: remote-first, optional and partial. The way I look at this list, I don't necessarily see the options themselves but the time it will take each company to adapt to the inevitable "now normal." (Note that I wrote "now" and not "new," as you cannot simultaneously be new and normal.)

Let's keep in mind these three factors to understand this reasoning:

• I've observed that most employees would rather control their own schedule while overseeing their learning, well-being and personal development (including leisure and family time).

• Covid-19 has shown that many companies can work remotely indefinitely and as efficiently.

• Companies have not only saved office rental costs, but some have also increased their profit margin quite significantly since people tend to work more from home.

Descriptive norms are defined as "the perception of what most people do in a given situation." So when an event occurs like the "now normal" we have entered since the beginning of 2020, the timeline has been stretched and has eventually separated us into three types of behaviors: the early birds, the norms and the late followers.

In practice, it translates into three types of companies and three types of timelines:

• The Future Seeker: Companies that are convinced the world has changed for good, accepting that the workforce of yesterday ran out of their buildings to permanently re-settle by the beach, proactively claim remote-first.

• The Present Sitter: Companies that are following the trend without conviction, sitting between the future and the past, are claiming optional.

• The Past Lover: Companies that are the least convinced about the "now normal" workforce remote attitude tend to advocate for a partial option.