In the 1980s, IBM began placing "remote terminals" in the homes of some of its employees. By 2009, 40 percent of the company's 386,000 employees no longer had to go to an office every day.
Fast forward to 2017, and IBM is traveling back in time. Thousands of employees are being told they must start working from set locations or lay off their jobs.
The irony is hard to ignore..
This year, an IBM panel discussion mirrored the findings of a 2014 IBM white paper. Smart Work Institute :
Other research agrees, showing remote workers to log more hours and do a better job.
Some say that 19 straight quarters of declining sales have left IMB looking to trim the workforce without resorting to layoffs.
Whatever the reason, in cases like these, the best talent. will Find other jobs, jobs that take employees' work-life balance seriously. Just look at how a similar move by Yahoo in 2013 ended with the company being sold to Verizon for less than 5 percent of its peak price.
According to recent Gallup findings, 43 percent of the American workforce already spends some of their time working remotely.
The report says, “Flexible scheduling and work-from-home opportunities play a significant role in an employee's decision to accept or leave a job.”
With that in mind, many of IMB's employees are looking for other opportunities. And so are the employees of other companies who are forced to put up with outdated ways of working. Cubicles suck, after all.
Fortunately, there are a large (and growing) number of reputable employers who are happy to hire remote workers. Working remotely is the future! Here's how LinkedIn can help you work remotely in the future! Here's how LinkedIn can help you A remote or telecommuting job is the Holy Grail of job hunting. Take advantage of the resources on LinkedIn to find the job of your dreams. Read more.
A world-class company that specializes in the creative fields. Your guide to choosing the right Adobe product. Your guide to choosing the right Adobe product. When most people think of Adobe, they think of Photoshop or Acrobat Reader. But the company has a host of other useful software packages that most people don't know about. Read More Although not all company positions are remote, there are a good number to choose from. Many of these can be found at Flexjobs.
If you're looking for total flexibility or want to be a digital nomad, Life on the Road:The Story of Digital Nomadism Life on the Road:The Story of Digital Nomadism Read More, Apple isn't the company for you. But Apple has a flexible work environment to give you more control over your schedule. Once again, available remote positions can be found on FlexJobs.
This is the company behind WordPress, WooCommerce, Longreads, and more. Automattic's mission is "Make the web a better place." It does this through a fully distributed (and highly talented) team, spread across 50 countries. All employees meet once a year for a seven-day retreat to help the team come together.
Without an introduction, Amazon has a range of remote work opportunities. Many of them are in the customer service and sales departments, but more technical jobs 6 of the Best Paying Tech Careers for 2016 6 of the Best Paying Tech Careers for 2016 Investing in the right technology career takes planning and foresight . These six career options are expected to be the most attractive in the coming years. Are you ready? Read More
American Express states that “Valuing work-life balance, just like you do.” and therefore offers a decent selection of telecommuting jobs. Recently named one of the top 20 companies for remote work, this is definitely one to check out. Keep an eye out for openings at Flexjobs.
Based in Chicago but scattered in 32 cities around the world, Basecamp is an incredibly fun and tight-knit team to join. You will be working on a fast growing project management platform that many users will fall in love with as soon as they use it.
One of the most transparent companies on the web, Buffer is a pioneer in remote work. By managing a fully distributed team, the company has managed to develop a loyal and growing following of social media managers who want an easier way to schedule their posts. Next level with video If you are a social media addict, who likes to post ten times a day, then the tool you must have on your computer is Buffer. And Buffer now does video. Read more.
CleverTech is apparently made up of a “remote but absurdly talented group of people.” There are almost always a variety of technical roles available, where you will create "custom technology solutions" for large clients around the world.
Another great company that offers a good remote work option, Dell also offers plenty of flexible hours and compressed workweeks across various departments. These range from developers to data scientists. A detailed list can also be found on Flexjobs.
The Team Behind My Top To-Do List App To-Do List App:Any.do vs Todoist vs Wunderlist To-Do List App:Any.do vs Todoist vs Wunderlist Some to-do list apps are way over the top of rest. But how do they compare and which one is best for you? We'll help you find out. Read More
One of Google's main search competitors, DuckDuckGo aims to “raise the bar on online trust DuckDuckGo Celebrates 10 Billion Searches DuckDuckGo Celebrates 10 Billion Searches DuckDuckGo recently achieved a massive milestone by amassing 10 billion searches since launch. beginning. And yet most people still haven't heard of DuckDuckGo... Read More.” The company recognizes that people work better in different environments and therefore trust their team to work remotely, from wherever they want.
Although based in Melbourne, Envato employs a lot of remote workers, and always allows flexible hours. If you are lucky enough to be one of them, you will receive a subsidy to fly to visit the headquarters for a couple of weeks, plus you will have three months of vacation each year..
The Formstack team states "We know how to work hard and play hard from where we feel most productive." This is a relatively small but tight-knit team working on improving an awesome and ever-popular online form builder.
GitLab is a fast-growing and trusted standard for source code version management. This is a remote access company with a variety of technical features available. Do you want to know how your remote team works? Take a look at the GitLab remote manifest.
Although GitHub is headquartered in San Francisco (and offices in a few other areas of the world), a large portion of its workers are fully remote or allow flexible home work.
Another remote team, HubStaff is a reliable time tracking platform with a large number of users. Whether you're a marketer or developer, keep an eye on HubStaff's careers page.
Mototola is a world leader in communication solutions. Not surprisingly, a company of this size isn't fully remote, but they do have a decent choice of remote positions available. The easiest way to find them is on Indeed or Flexjobs.
If you're interested in the Node.js ecosystem, you'll be pleased to know that NodeSource is a fully distributed team. Hoping to work with “The best in the industry”, the company allows you to work from wherever you want. How to be more productive when you work from home How to be more productive when you work from home Is working from home (or to use the term - telecommuting) more productive than working from an office? The debate reignited after Marissa Mayer made a call to all Yahoo employees. Like all blah-blahs,... Read More
Toggl, the small company behind the popular time-tracking app, "believes that great people will do amazing things anywhere." Even though they don't have a lot of positions open at once, everyone of their positions are remote.
Trello, one of the web's most popular productivity tools Trello Guide to Life and Project Management Trello Guide to Life and Project Management Trello can help you get organized. It is a free tool to manage any type of project. Read this guide to understand its basic structure, navigation, and how Trello can help you. Read More There is almost always a selection of interesting positions open in all areas of the business.
Don't fancy a software or hardware company? Upworthy is a very popular online publication, with most of its work completely remote. In addition, there is unlimited free time. In exchange for all this freedom, they expect nothing but your best work.
Do you want a career that is more mission-driven? This is a non-profit organization, with the goal of “encouraging the development and distribution of free educational content and providing the public with the full content of these wiki-based projects free of charge.” Many of the vacancies at Wikimedia allow remote work and flexible working, so you have a lot of control over your schedule.
Are you a talented developer? X-Team is always looking to take on fully remote developers to work with some of the world's biggest brands and fastest growing startups.
Zapier is a company that enables anyone to connect their favorite apps to automate otherwise time-consuming workflows. Create Amazing Life Automations with multi-step Zaps. Create Awesome Life Automations with Multi-Step Zaps. now offers users the ability to create multiple action automations called multi-step zaps. Read more . Their team is fully distributed (since the company was founded in 2011) and includes everything from writers and developers to engineers and data scientists.
With 8,000 employees working from home, Xerox is no stranger to remote work. Although many of the roles revolve around customer support, there are some more technical roles, such as software developers and programmers.
And then there are the thousands of other employers who are happy to hire remote workers. If you prefer to search en masse rather than visit individual company sites, here are some of the best remote job search sites.
With over 10 years, this is one of the leaders in remote work opportunities. With more than 30,000 jobs from 5,000 employers, the opportunities are endless. As you can see from the links I've included above, many larger companies list their remote positions on FlexJobs to make it easier for people, like you, to find them.
If you're a developer looking for remote work, there's no better place to find a massive array of options than stack overflow.
Indeed.com's Remote section currently has nearly 70,000 open positions. With easy access to employer ratings, it's easy to find a company you'd love to work with Don't just find a job:Find a company you'll love working for Don't just find a job:Find a company I'll love working for employees who rarely leave work leave managers. Before you accept your next job, take some time to verify that you will really enjoy working for the company. We'll show you how to identify a good fit. Read more.
Packed with flexible work and remote work opportunities, there are a plethora of positions available in just about every industry imaginable.
This is a simple site, with basic search functions, but it works well. There are plenty of openings here with relatively small companies doing exciting work.
There really is no reason for employers to take huge steps backwards, as IMB is doing for thousands of its own employees. Thousands of other successful companies manage to operate at the top of their game despite being spread across the globe.
If the freedom of remote work is important to you, then check out some of the sites listed above. The opportunities are immense..
What other reputable companies offer remote work?
