Nothing makes you want to delete Instagram from your phone faster than seeing a gorgeous picture of a friend sat on a gorgeous beach, with the sun glistening on the gorgeously calm ocean waters, and the caption, “love being able to work from anywhere in the world.” You were taught never to be jealous and that comparison is one-hundred percent ill-advised, but all your mind can conjure up is one question: how is this even possible?
Well, as Richard Branson so eloquently put (while standing on a mountaintop), in this increasingly connected world, you really can work from anywhere. So long as you find a company that is using the right cloud solutions and services for business, knows which to communication tools are best and has the right selection of collaboration software, you are good to go. However, Googling any of that is unlikely to bring up much in the way of results.
That is why we have come up with a list of companies that celebrate this way of working and allow their employees to embrace such opportunities as working from a beach.
So, if you are reading this as a business leader, please realize that allowing your employees to “work from anywhere in the world” is a thing and a thing that will attract top talent to your shores. If, however, you are a person looking to work remotely because it will help you be a better traveler or a better parent or better employee, then hopefully you will be able to find gainful employment with one of this lot. The future of business looks amazing.
BaseCamp
This is one of the fastest-growing business’ on the planet and one that practices what it preaches. How? Because it is a distributed company that helps make distributed work that much easier for other companies. The proof is in the pudding. As a company, it is a project management tool that aims to make life easier for businesses. But, as an employer, it allows its diverse team to work from anywhere in the world, with its head office based in Chicago.
Upworthy
This is one of our favorite companies in the world right now because they are trying to make a positive difference in the world by sharing content on issues that really matter. Essentially it is a media company, but its message is wholly positive, which is what sets it apart from the rest of the field. That and the fact it allows its entire team to work remotely, although they don’t like to use that word. They prefer to say they are part of a distributed team, which is cool. If you are a business leader wondering what the future of business looks like, a lot of people will be hoping this is the answer.
Toptal
This is another company that celebrates everything about remote working (sorry, distributed work), and is often hailed for the fact it is a completely virtual organization. Yeah, it has no offices. What it does as a business is connect the very best software developers with top companies, so long as they operate remote-working conditions. Their attitude on the whole distributed working thing says it all though; no offices, no useless meetings, no mandatory hours. Basically, they recognize you for the work you do, not the number of hours you sit in a chair.
Yeah, the future of business is fast changing.
