Remote: Office Not Required

by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson Narrated by Rebecca Lowman

Overview

The "work-from-home" phenomenon is thoroughly explored in this illuminating new audiobook from best-selling 37signals founders Fried and Hansson, who point to the surging trend of employees working from home (and anywhere else) and explain the challenges and unexpected benefits. Most important, they show why - with a few controversial exceptions such as Yahoo - more businesses will want to promote this new model of getting things done.

The Industrial Revolution's "under one roof" model of conducting work is steadily declining owing to technology that is rapidly creating virtual workspaces and allowing workers to provide their vital contribution without physically clustering together. Today, the new paradigm is "move work to the workers, rather than workers to the workplace." According to Reuters, one in five global workers telecommutes frequently and nearly ten percent work from home every day. Moms in particular will welcome this trend. A full 60% wish they had a flexible work option. But companies see advantages, too, in the way remote work increases their talent pool, reduces turnover, lessens their real estate footprint, and improves the ability to conduct business across multiple time zones, to name just a few advantages. In Remote, iconoclastic authors Fried and Hansson will convince listeners that letting all or part of work teams function remotely is a great idea - and they're going to show precisely how a remote work setup can be accomplished.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

08/26/2013
As cofounders of software company 37Signals, which provides tech architecture for telecommuters, Hansson and Fried (authors of Rework) are great believers in working remotely. Eager to proselytize, they offer a short volume extolling the virtues of telecommuting, detailing the benefits to both employer and employee, and explaining how to introduce the concept into a company. In seven sections and a conclusion, the authors attempt to provide guideposts on some of the major issues, such as how to convince management to allow employees to work outside of the office. While the book’s overall organization is reasonable, the individual chapters are so brief that they give the impression that Hansson and Fried have extremely short attention spans. Although 37Signals clearly prospers under the management strategy extolled here, the authors appear unaware of the difficulties of telecommuting in some sectors (for instance, in the service industry). Hansson and Fried’s amateurish and haphazard case fails to convince, not because it lacks merit, but because the authors seem to be phoning it in. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

The authors review the pros and cons of telecommuting, suggest ideas to enhance efficiency, and tools to optimize output and build a collaborative spirit. . . . Easy to digest [and] useful ideas that are worth checking out.” —Success Magazine

“Presents powerful arguments . . . the book is an eye opener to the endless benefits that come with remote work. . . . A worthwhile investment of your times and money.”—Tech Vibes

“Remote is the book that twenty-first century business leaders have been waiting for: a paradigm-smashing, compulsively readable case for a radically remote workplace. If you're intrigued by extreme teleworking, but have your doubts, Remote is the place to address them. Not a day goes by that I don't think about, talk about, and actually apply the insights in this game-changing book."—Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Quiet

"What you'll find in Remote is profound advice from guys who've succeeded in the virtual workforce arena. This is a manifesto for discarding stifling location- and time-based organizational habits in favor of best work practices for our brave new virtual and global world. If your organization entrusts you with the responsibility to get things done, this is a must-read.”—David Allen, internationally bestselling author of Getting Things Done

“Remote is the way I work and live.  Now I know why.  If you work in an office, you need to read this remarkable book, and change your life.”—Richard Florida, author of the national bestseller The Rise of the Creative Class

“In the near future, everyone will work remotely, including those sitting across from you. You'll need this farsighted book to prepare for this inversion.”—Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick for Wired Magazine and author of What Technology Wants

“Leave your office at the office. Lose the soul-sapping commutes. Jettison the workplace veal chambers and banish cookie-cutter corporate culture. Smart, convincing and prescriptive, Remote offers a radically more productive and satisfying office-less future, better for all (well, except commercial landlords).”—Adam L. Penenberg, author of Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves

“Fried and Hansson show how remote working sets people free—free from drudgery and free to unleash unprecedented creativity and productivity. This workday disruption is necessary if we want to use our new digital tools to full effect. The first gift copy I buy will be for my boss!”
—James McQuivey, PhD, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, and author of Digital Disruption

“Just like we couldn't imagine a cell phone smaller than a toaster in the 1970’s, some companies still believe that they can't get great performance from their employees unless they show up at an office. Virtual work is the wave of the future, and Jason and David do a brilliant job of teaching best practices for both employees and employers."—Pamela Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Nation

“Jason and David convincingly argue the merits of remote work, both from the perspective of manager and of worker.  For the former, working remotely means more productive teams.  For the latter, there is the ultimate luxury: control over one’s environment. Remote work gives you the power to craft your own life, and this book is a roadmap to get that.”—Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist

“The decentralization of the workplace is no longer fodder for futurists, it's an everyday reality. Remote is an insight-packed playbook for thriving in the coming decade and beyond."—Todd Henry, author of The Accidental Creative

“Remote shows you how to remove the final barrier to doing the work you were meant to do, with the people you were meant to do it with, in the most rewarding and profitable way possible—this book is your ticket to real freedom!”—John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide

JANUARY 2014 - AudioFile

Some 40 years after the term “telecommute” was coined, the idea of working from home is still actively resisted by many companies. Rebecca Lowman’s persuasive narration may go some way toward making businesses realize they can dramatically increase productivity through employee telecommuting. The authors are the founders of the software company 37signals, which has longstanding experience in managing remote workers, and their audiobook will help employees who want to approach their bosses with a work-from-home proposal. Lowman’s voice, which is both youthful and businesslike, nicely matches the tone of the material and, presumably, the culture of 37signals. This work packs a lot of wisdom into a quick listen. D.B. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2013-09-30
As founders of web-based collaboration software company 37signals, Fried and Hansson (Rework, 2010) are aggressive promoters of the work-from-home employment model, a subject they feel is responsible for a "heated global conversation." Drawing on their experience as technologically savvy trailblazers, the authors outline the problematic nature of the hyperactive corporate office environment ("interruption factories") versus productive, home-based aloneness. Using their software company as a prime example, the authors detail the many ways a "distributed workforce" is becoming the true future of the 9-to-5 office and hardly the "outsourcing" movement many compare it to. Still, the at-home environment has its own set of obvious distractions, from "cabin fever" to immobility and social deprivation. The authors assume that the responsible, professional telecommuting workforce will surely avoid these hazards by taking full advantage of newer innovations like file-sharing software and real-time communication tools and use a graduating scale of urgency and importance with regard to pending tasks. They also recommend interactive, company-specific chat rooms for telecommuters who miss the interpersonal "mindless breaks" enjoyed by those in the physical office. Obviously not applicable to every work environment, the book applies strategies and guidance to corporate sectors where telecommuting would have the most positive effect on employees and company overhead. Fried and Hansson stand firm in their assertion that working remotely increases productivity for business operations, but their book, while congenial and galvanizing in tone, unevenly favors the positive aspects of the telecommuting experience. The brevity of their take on the subject and the cartoonish graphics also tend to vitiate its credibility. Overall, however, Fried and Hansson present a convincing, if imbalanced, argument in favor of remote production, provided those embarking on it carefully skirt the pitfalls of a lifestyle that is technologically dependent and at the mercy of daily personal distraction. A somewhat diluted discourse on how modern technology continues to reshape and revolutionize the contemporary workplace.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169263909
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/29/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,000,802

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Remote"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Jason Fried.
Excerpted by permission of The Crown Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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