The Dark Future of Remote Work
Hey why did my job disappear after I disappeared?
In some career fields remote work has been an option for decades. Now because of Corona Pandemic physical distancing, many of those fortunate enough to still have a job are full-time working from home and having face to face meetings with colleagues through Zoom and other tools like it.
Many of us lucky enough to be employable remotely are productively performing our jobs well from home. Employers are noticing that they may not need their knowledge-working employees physically in an office.
Some professionals love this because of the convenience and/or for any number of other valid reasons.
There is no down side?
If you are not economically desperate, or living in a low-cost-of-living part of the world a qualified person that is will eventually take your job or new jobs like it. The rapid normalization of remote work will accelerate this reality.
The Job Loss Process
In the USA, there are no existing safeguards to keep your remote-work job in the physical region of the country where you currently live. None.
If you never physically collocate with colleagues there is a good chance that your employer would be okay with you moving to a different part of the country (or even another country) and continue to work for them from your new home. Why not?
Facebook, as one example, has already started promoting this for its own employees and may start adjusting salaries down when employees choose to move to lower cost-of-living areas.
How does this lead to job loss?
Remote-work normalized employers will not limit their employee search to the commuting radius of a geographic region. Qualified candidates with salary demands much lower than what’s needed to live in your part of the country will be viable competitors to fill open positions.
New jobs will more likely go to qualified people with lower living expenses or having a more desperate need for employment. Salaries will not be buoyed by the physical location of the employer.
In the USA you can see an example of this process at work. Go to your nearest major appliance factory and take an employee head-count. Can’t find one nearby? Okay, go to your nearest textile factory and count the bodies making things. Ohh yeah, most of those jobs got outsourced a long time ago to lower-cost-of-living parts of the world.
Without some kind of intervention, market forces will ensure that many knowledge worker jobs are next. Remote work normalization will accelerate this predictable phenomenon.
