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It’s a trend that all workers are hoping their employers take up; ditch the office and allow employees to work from home permanently.
While many businesses offer remote working and flexible hours, the take up has been gradual as employers continue to want their staff to come into a workplace.
However, for one large multi-national company, every single one of its 930 staff work remotely, reports the BBC.
Cate Huston, who leads the developer experience team for Automattic, said: “Talent is evenly distributed but opportunity is often not. Working this way means you can access that talent and also give opportunity."
The idea of a remote workforce can essentially save a business a number of fees, as no office is needed for employees to work, overheads are minimal. Meanwhile, the development of messaging and video apps and monitoring software ensures employees can work cohesively alongside one another.
Automattic’s staff members work from home or in shared working spaces close to where they live. With workers based in 70 different countries, the company pays for staff to meet up regularly throughout the year instead of paying out for several offices.
Plus, the company also pays for its staff to equip their home offices and helps them to pay for rented workspace, while drinks bought at coffee shops can also be reimbursed.
Huston added: “There's definitely some cost saving to not having an office; you don't spend money on the office, especially in the tech hubs like London and San Francisco and New York where office rental costs are shockingly high.
"But because we do really value the in-person time together we have these regular meet-ups."
"We have one for the whole company that happens every year and most teams meet up twice on top of that. We spend money on that, on flying everyone together. My team met up earlier this year in Thailand."
Remote working is a trend that certainly is experiencing some traction, as between 2012 and 2016, flexi-time rose by 12.35%. Elsewhere, data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revealed that the number of UK workers who have moved into remote-working has increased by nearly a quarter of a million over a decade.
Therefore, will we eventually start to see offices lose their popularity as more employers shift to remote working? Time will only tell.
