There are many benefits to working remotely such the time saved from not commuting to the flexibility of where you can live. With that however comes downsides such as isolation and lack of connection with others. This week Jim and Bryant are joined by Kyle Ladewig, CEO of Out Of Office to talk about their solution for this.
Out Of Office started with the belief that you should be free to choose when and where you work, so you have more time for everything else. It is a fully remote, venture-backed startup that helps other remote workers feel less isolated through in-person and online co-working groups called Work Clubs.
While remote work provides flexibility when it comes to finding work-life balance, the problem is that pretty much all remote work happens alone. Even before the current situation, one of the biggest issues facing remote workers has been isolation and loneliness. Out Of Office’s mission is to give remote workers a great place to work and help finding people they can enjoy working alongside.
Episode Highlights
- [1:15] – Introductions.
- [6:50] – How do customers user Out Of Office’s product?
- [11:30] – How will Covid-19 impact remote work and city living?
- [18:30] – Remote work today is not normal.
- [30:00] – Social Debt.
- [37:10] – Kyle’s lessons learned from building a remote-first team.
- [44:00] – Kyle’s experience running a company following vocal cord surgery.
- [48:15] – Wrap-up.
Items We Mentioned
- Out Of Office
- Kyle’s post about Social Debt (May 2020)
- Report by Cigna on loneliness in the workplace. (Jan 2020)
- Paper by Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom and Chinese company Ctrip’s work from home experiment. (2014)
- Study showing correlation between loneliness and hospital visits. (1999)
- Paper by Julianne Hold-Lunstad that showed loneliness has the same impact on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. (2010)
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