Remote Work Life Podcast

SHOW NOTES This episode covers a Financial Times report on the European Commission recommending at least one compulsory remote working day per week to reduce energy demand. The proposal sits within a broader package responding to high energy prices linked to geopolitical tensions. Alongside remote work, measures include public transport subsidies, tax changes, and support for electrification techn...

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 red...

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...

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...

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 wit...

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 a...

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...

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 build...

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...

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 c...

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 lis...

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 a...

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...

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 her...

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 d...

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...

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...

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 build...

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 mar...

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 purpos...

In this episode of the Remote Work Life podcast , I look at how Parabol operates as a fully remote business. They’ve shaped their culture and day-to-day work around distance, time zones, and flexibility, not as an add-on, but as the foundation of how they function. Parabol seems to approach communication differently from many companies, and the way they organise their week suggests a conscious eff...

In this episode of the Remote Work Life Podcast, I’m joined by Ben Davis, Co-Founder of Saxbury, a long-time specialist in serviced apartments, aparthotels, and flexible accommodation.  Ben has spent more than two decades working across corporate housing, relocation, and property advisory, and he’s one of the clearest voices I’ve met on how the accommodation landscape is shifting for businesses. I...

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt joins us to unpack the intriguing tension between the undeniable productivity benefits of remote work and the importance of in-office presence for career growth. Schmidt's candid insights spark a thought-provoking discussion on whether the conventional office environment is truly irreplaceable for mentorship and spontaneous learning, particularly for young profe...

We explore how Animalz scaled a fully remote content agency to global impact without losing quality or burning people out. I’ll share the systems, habits, and cultural choices that make deep work possible and growth sustainable. Looking for Remote Work? Click here remoteworklife.io to access a private beta list of remote jobs in sales, marketing, and strategy — plus get podcasts, real-world tips a...

Today we spotlight 33 Sticks, a fully remote analytics consultancy that trades headcount for craft, hourly billing for outcomes, and buzzwords for clarity. The story shows how deliberate constraints and a remote culture produce billion-dollar impact for global brands. Looking for Remote Work? Click here remoteworklife.io to access a private beta list of remote jobs in sales, marketing, and strateg...