This page is part of the MAQTOOB Heritage archive. The essay described here appeared on MAQTOOB for Entrepreneurs, the Medium publication run by this domain’s original team between 2015 and 2018. The current site is under new, independent ownership and is not affiliated with the original company or the essay’s author. We keep this record because other sites still link to the essay at this address.
What the Essay Said
Kristin Wilson published this long essay on June 27, 2018, almost two years before remote work stopped being a debate. Her opening set the tone: arguing about whether remote work harms culture and productivity is like arguing about whether global warming exists, because the evidence is already in.
The piece traced telecommuting from its origins before personal computers, through its temporary death at the hands of open plan office culture, to its return. She pointed at the costs of the status quo, office distractions that cost companies billions a year, and predicted that with a global remote workforce heading toward a billion people, companies that failed to write flexible work policies would be competing for talent with both hands tied. Remote work researchers and business publications cited it for years, and it reads today like a forecast that came true.
Read the Original
The author keeps the essay on Medium: read it here. An archived copy of the MAQTOOB version is on the Wayback Machine.