Has the workplace become less capital centric?

Over the past week, there has been a lot of coverage on what remote work could mean for capital cities all around the world.

Traditionally, recent graduates have flocked to cities, like London, to have a chance at nabbing their ‘dream jobs’. According to a 2016 report by the UK think-tank Centre for Cities, 38 % of first or second class degree Russell Group graduates contribute to the ‘brain drain’ and move to the UK’s capital after their studies.This habit forces graduates to leave their hometowns and live in cramped flatshares even if that is not the path they wanted. However, the ongoing pandemic and the shift towards remote working has highlighted that we should not have to relocate in order to excel professionally. Desirable remote working opportunities are increasing as companies, like Facebook, state that as much as 50% of its 48,000 employees could be working remotely within the next decade.

The ‘brain drain’ has also had a detrimental effect on rural areas leading to plummeting populations due to the lack of opportunities available to its inhabitants. Communities which were once well-connected have been drained of businesses and youth, making their futures less stable. It is the mission of charities, like Grow Remote, to make remote work visible locally. Not only could remote work help workers secure a better quality of life but it could also re-inject some life into struggling rural towns in Ireland and further afield.

Wurkr prides itself in its international team. As a fully remote company, we believe that the best workforce is composed of a variety of different skilled individuals rather than workers within a certain geographical location.

Gran Canaria based, Matthew, shared his experiences on working remotely:

“I was a remote work guinea pig for a Company in the UK some 6 years ago — we had some initial teething issues as you would expect, creating a remote-first culture, oftentimes I was the sole person on a laptop in the corner of a meeting in the office. However, we soon sussed this out. I’ve never looked back, I still work remotely from my home office in Gran Canaria. I love my commute to work (or non-commute — they say the best commute is no commute) — I simply log into the Wurkr office in the morning, start my day and log off at the end, which gives me the defined start and end of the day. Working remotely has allowed me to be present with my family, go to the gym in the afternoon, go to the shops when they are quiet as well as experience the best that Gran Canaria has to offer.”