Why is the future behind remote work (part 1)

Recently, the topic of remote work has become particularly relevant - it is enough to recall this recent post on Habré, the release of the Remote book from Jason Fried and the start of the search exchange for remote employees from 37 Signals, timed to coincide with the launch of the book.
She has more than enough supporters, especially among workers who are tired of getting to the office every day through crazy city traffic jams. There are also quite a few opponents, especially among employers. Here I will try to explain why, despite all the drawbacks (many of which, by the way, are either temporary or fictional), remote work is our future, and the future is very near. As a person from the IT industry, of course, I mean first of all her, but much of these observations are universal.
Immediately make a reservation, I do not want to say that work in the office will go into non-existence, it will only turn from the only possible way into a tool that solves a certain range of tasks. Under the cut list of the main advantages of the remote for the employee and the employer, and in the next part I will try to refute the main myths to which her opponents often appeal.

Benefits for the employee

The list, for obvious reasons, will be quite voluminous, some of these points have often been cited in defense of remote work, the other part I add from my personal impressions.

1. Travel time

No need for 1.5-3 hours a day to spend on exhausting the road, there is no explanation.
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2. The realities of the local market

Here, too, everything is simple: a worker from a region with an undeveloped IT infrastructure (1.5 medium-sized web-studios for the whole city) can work for a company from the capital, or even from Europe / USA, if it speaks English reasonably well. There is space for increasing revenues, for finding more interesting projects, and for applying highly specialized knowledge not demanded by local companies.
For example, in a recent topic with a survey on programming languages, many web developers who are not very fond of PHP but are forced to program on it because of the realities of the local labor market complained that they could not find their skills in Ruby, Python, etc. But it is enough just to search on international labor exchanges and freelance sites, as there will be immediately a lot of attractive options!

3. Comfortable space

For me, the critical issue of respecting personal space. The need for 8 hours a day to sit a meter away from a stranger (or even two or three at a time) seems frankly humiliating to me. And then, just remember where you have a more comfortable work chair - at home or in the office?

4. Distractions

It would seem that here you can argue: at home you have a bed, a refrigerator, children and a wife, everything seems to be created in order to prevent you from quietly working. Office space on this background may seem just a working paradise - especially often this opinion is found among those who have tried to work remotely for some time, but failed to organize everything correctly and returned to the office.
In fact, the fundamental difference here is that you can organize your own space (or whatever you like - no one bothers you to leave with a laptop in a nearby cafe). Allocate an office, arrange with family members (from 9 to 18 - working time, I am not at home ), to distinguish between work and home space, etc. - all this is in your power. In the office, you are forced to accept the existing rules of the game, to influence which you have very few opportunities. If the neighbors are two meters away from you, they constantly loudly talk about something and walk past you every hour for a smoke break, if you don’t carry the air conditioner, and your colleagues are always hot, if once a day the girls from the accounting department ask to repair the printer or see why the site does not open - what can you do with all this?

5. Imposed relationships

One of the most unpleasant moments for me in office work has always been voluntary-mandatory team building. I had nothing against my colleagues, but I was not eager to meet with them in an informal setting, however, driven by the need to “rally the team” and “cultivate corporate spirit” (in one of the recent discussions at Habré, the director of a certain SEO agency gave me another excellent the habardist formulation is “to make employees a part of a brand”) HR-geniuses usually leave very little opportunity not to participate in such a celebration of life. By the way, the only team for my professional career, with whose members I really made friends and continue some kind of contacts, and a few years after my dismissal, I met in a company that did not conduct any teambuilding.
Remote work allows you to choose your own friends, without regard to corporate traditions, the company's mission and other absolutely wonderful things.

Benefits for the employer

To some extent, they are the reverse side of the benefits for the employee.

1. Savings in the office

Seriously, the office as a working space in the current environment is becoming completely optional, and therefore the money that you spent on it, you can now invest in business development. In the conditions of the economic crisis, you have a great chance to beat the competitors that still live in the realities of the end of the 20th century.

2. Access to the best specialists

There are no specialists you need in your region, but transporting them to yourself is long and expensive? Today it is not a problem, hire the workers you need anywhere in the world.

3. Satisfied workers

Employees working in a comfortable mode for themselves, not exhausted by the daily journey and the pleasures of an eight-hour stay in a close cubic, will be grateful to you. This is much more likely to provide you with their loyalty than all the costly ways to force a team of friends together.

Update:

I want to separately emphasize two points that may not have been completely obvious from the main post:
1) I certainly do not think that remote work should completely oust the office. The point is that the office of life must turn into an option optional for the company and the employee.
2) The above in the first part may look unnecessarily abstract, but this is because the analysis of the main objections against remote work will be in the second.