Remote Work Life Podcast

Office vacancy rates in the U.S. have reached record highs in early 2026, reflecting a sustained shift toward hybrid work rather than a temporary disruption. Workers now spend significantly more time outside the office than before 2020, and that behavioural change is shaping how companies use physical space. Long leases are slowing the adjustment, but organisations are gradually downsizing and redesigning offices around collaborati...

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan predicts a shift to a three-day workweek by 2031, driven by AI agents taking over routine coordination tasks like email, meetings, and scheduling. This episode explores how that vision aligns with current remote work systems, where async workflows already expose and streamline these tasks. It also examines adoption timelines, including projections for agentic AI, and how reduced coordination time could reshape da...

We Work Remotely’s 2026 report outlines a stable but divided landscape between employer office mandates and worker demand for flexibility. With 55% of Fortune 100 firms requiring full-time office attendance, many policies are reshaping hiring and retention. Meanwhile, remote roles attract 60% of applications despite representing only 20% of postings. Hybrid work dominates but still results in most work happening outside offices. Pr...

Filigran is a French-founded, remote-first cybersecurity company that scaled from 15 to over 220 employees across 18 countries in under three years. Founded in October 2022 by Samuel Hassine and Julien Richard, the business combines experienced leadership, rapid hiring, and over $100 million in funding to expand globally. With more than 6,500 organisations using its platform, Filigran operates without a central headquarters, instea...

This episode looks at the problem with framing flexibility or remote work as a perk. The point is simple: if the work can already be done flexibly, flexibility is not a bonus. It is just how the job should run. The same applies to remote work. When something changes how the role operates, how people are managed, and who a company can hire, it is structural, not decorative. The episode also looks at the in-office equivalents, like t...

Atlassian announced layoffs affecting around 1,600 employees, roughly 10% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring tied to increased investment in artificial intelligence and enterprise sales. The cuts include more than 900 roles in research and development and are distributed across North America, Australia, India and other regions. The company reported strong revenue growth but continues to operate at a loss. Leadership chang...

Afraid AI will replace you? The real risk is being outpaced by people who use it.

Today, I'm joined by Henrik de Gyor, Chief Digital Officer of My AI Fluency and a no-nonsense digital transformation leader. He's an expert in how to streamline content operations, integrate AI responsibly, and scale workflows without chaos. Expect practical lessons on metadata, change management, and building repeatable systems tha...

Netflix operates a flexible hybrid model where teams decide how they work rather than following a companywide remote policy. That creates significant variation across the organisation. Technical roles such as engineering and data often have strong remote flexibility, while other roles remain closer to office hubs. In this episode, Alex explores how this selective approach to remote work reflects a broader hiring strategy used by ma...

Instagram introduced a strict return-to-office policy in February 2026 requiring U.S. employees with assigned desks to work from the office five days a week. The rule makes Instagram the most office-centric division inside Meta, where other teams still follow hybrid schedules. The decision arrives amid a broader wave of corporate RTO mandates across major employers. At the same time, distributed companies report increased job appli...

New research from early 2026 challenges the narrative that remote work is declining. An NBER study of 8,000 U.S. workers across 2025 shows employees at post-2015 firms work from home nearly twice as often as those at pre-1990 companies, with younger CEOs linked to higher remote rates. FlexJobs data reports a 22% spike in remote hiring and a 3% rise in fully remote roles in Q4 2025, with 67% of listings at senior level. Surveys show...

Articulate was founded in 2002 by Adam Schwartz and has operated as a fully remote organization since inception. With no central headquarters, the company has scaled to hundreds of employees and now serves 120,000+ organizations, including 98 of the Fortune 100. Built around its Human-Centered Organization framework, Articulate prioritizes impact over seat time and hires globally with a focus on autonomy and inclusion. The leadersh...

Float has operated as a fully remote, bootstrapped SaaS company for 13 years under CEO Glenn Rogers. With a team of 50 across more than 20 countries and no central headquarters, the company has declined venture capital multiple times to maintain control and prioritise sustainable growth. This episode explores how bootstrapping shapes financial discipline, hiring pace, experimentation, and culture in a distributed environment. It lo...

An empty office bill forced a hard choice: keep paying for space no one used or redirect that money to build a stronger, truly remote company. They chose the second path. Today we walk through how a hackathon project became a profitable SaaS, why closing two offices unlocked momentum, and how annual retreats replaced rent as our most effective culture investment.

Looking for Remote Work?

Click here remoteworklife.io to acce...

Today, I'm joined by Henrik de Gyor, Chief Digital Officer of My AI Fluency and a no-nonsense digital transformation leader. He's an expert in how to streamline content operations, integrate AI responsibly, and scale workflows without chaos. Expect practical lessons on metadata, change management, and building repeatable systems that deliver measurable results.

In this series, we break down practical workflows fo...

Allison Yazdian took over as CEO of Uscreen in June 2025, as the video SaaS platform entered a new growth phase. Founder PJ Taei moved into an executive chairman role, and a December chief-of-staff job ad confirmed the company’s “fully remote, bootstrapped, and profitable” setup. Uscreen reports 13,000 creators, nearly $1 billion in GMV, and over 8 billion minutes streamed.

Looking for Remote Work?

Click here remotewor...

Brian de Haaff co-founded product software company Aha! in 2013 and has operated it as a fully remote company with no headquarters ever since. A December 2025 blog post reaffirmed the team’s “totally distributed” setup, noting that connection comes through digital rituals and on-sites. The company has scaled to over $100 million in revenue and serves more than a million product builders worldwide without salespeople or office space...

Afraid AI will replace you? The real risk is being outpaced by people who use it.

Today, I'm joined by Henrik de Gyor, Chief Digital Officer of My AI Fluency and a no-nonsense digital transformation leader. He's an expert in how to streamline content operations, integrate AI responsibly, and scale workflows without chaos. Expect practical lessons on metadata, change management, and building repeatable systems th...

What if your work actually gave you energy back? That’s the thread we follow with Mary Alice Duff, a fractional COO who left a decade in social work, built a clothing brand the hard way, and now runs a profitable, remote-first practice from the south of France—without burning herself or her clients out. We talk about the real operations work founders rarely admit: pricing that quietly destroys margins, teams without clarity, and sy...

Today I take a close look at Jitbit, a small, remote SaaS company that’s been shipping since 2005 without the frantic energy that drains so many teams.

 Instead of chasing headcount or headlines, they’ve built a business on clarity,  ownership, and a steady pace and they serve customers around the world, including large enterprises.

I break down the mechanics of a remote culture designed on purpose: clear roles so work move...