Dang, thought this might have been a more popular topic of conversation!

Hi mega-pointe,

I own a small firm and I would consider remote-employment. It may not be full-time though. It all depends on the person's skillset, capabilities etc. I have tried using friends in the field to outsource CD's and it wasn't overly successful because I wasn't able to teach them how I like things done. Every firm has their own way of doing things. It is easier to hire former employees or former colleagues for remote positions because you already know how they work, how they think, their quality of work, etc. I think even with remote employment, it is important for the person to come in periodically for face-to-face and in-person teamwork. My 2 cents.

I think that makes a ton of sense. Firm culture is going to have to evolve if offices are partly remote, but like you said it seems some amount of face-to-face will be necessary. Otherwise, it'll feel like a bunch of contract positions rather than a cohesive body of people working towards a common goal. Maybe that also means freelance architecture will become more of a thing.

I believe it will eventually happen, but the whole "movement" is still in its infancy. Like you said, only now companies are realizing it is possible to keep good work while working from home (rather forcebly).

However, this is different than remote work as those people were already working together before WFH. But it did open the eyes of many company owners and managers that there might be something there to be explored.

At the beginning of the lockdowns, I put out a small survey over at https://remotearchitects.club to get people talking about how were thet dealing with the whole WFH situation. Most of them confirmed it was not a big issue concerning productivity or getting the job done.

Now that some people are getting back to the office (at least here in Europe), I put out a second survey, more detailed. The results so far keep confirming that:

1) Most people do enjoy working from home, a smaller percentage do not, but all of them agree that having the flexibility to choose would be ideal, and that they can do their jobs just find working from home

2) Lots of people would be open to remote job positions (in case this were a thing)

3) While certain jobs are tricky to be 100% remote (early phases, conceptual design), other are considered totally possible to be done 100% remotely (QA, costs, drafting, etc)

I will run the survey for another month or so and publish the results then. Let's keep the discussion going. :)

PS: if anynone wants to participate, you can find the link to the survey on https://remotearchitect.club

I have the similar thought, and found one company in Washington hiring a couple of employees regardless of their domicile. I have contacted them, and surprised hear the candidates are even not expected to live commutable location after this pandemic situation eases. All of the opening positions are intermediate or above so the employees have enough knowledges and experiences to work by themselves. 

I am looking for this types of firms, but not luck so far. I guess there could be more firms hiring people who can work solely remote basis. 

This is an interesting topic. I live a couple hours out of San Francisco and have been more seriously considering remote employment with firms there. Close enough for occasional office visits, but not realistic for a daily commute.

My concern is career growth. It seems that a remote position would not have the same promotion/career growth trajectory as an in-office position. Would you agree?

I would consider hiring someone for a management / experienced position, but I'd never hire anyone new to the industry. Even then I'd lean towards in office staff given the choice.