Even before the recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus, remote work was becoming a major trend.
Part of the reason is simple – it’s too expensive for most workers to live in major cities like San Francisco and New York.
And because thousands of large companies are based in these large cities, they often can’t find enough qualified local workers.
Enter remote work. With today’s video conferencing and virtual technologies, many people can work remotely and still do their jobs effectively.
Studies have found that remote workers are happy and productive. So many of the world’s largest and most innovative companies are expanding their remote work programs.
Now with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, continuing to spread, it appears likely that the trend toward remote work will only continue to get stronger.
Since COVID-19 began disrupting the global economy, leading video conferencing company Zoom Video Communications has risen from around $70 to $106 today. It’s clear that remote work is hot, and for good reason.
Startups in the remote working space may be one of the few bright spots to emerge from the economic mess created by this new virus. We don’t know how long this virus could disrupt work life, but remote work could be one of the factors that prevents this potential pandemic from turning into absolute economic disaster. Startups that can facilitate working from home are clearly in the spotlight right now.
Over the longer term, remote work has the potential to solve one of the hardest problems in today’s workforce – the fact that many people can’t afford to live where the good jobs are. And that’s a very worthy goal, even if this virus turns out to be overblown.