Remote work? I don’t think so.
For all the personal advantages, work is better together. For most people in most contexts of knowledge work, we need a hybrid model coming together say half the time, plus or minus, to do our best work.
First, it depends on the individual. Only a minority are really happy to be isolated. We are not digital machines, we are animals. The interactions we have include sharing pheromones, microexpressions, body language…
We are social animals. The interactions we have before a meeting, at lunch, in the corridor, are as important as work.
Virtual will never substitute fully for real. out relationships with workmates suffer if we are never with them, never share food or a laugh, or just a room.
Secondly, it depends even more on the work.
Physical work mostly has to be done at the workplace. My son can’t take cars home to fix on the kitchen table. Surveyors, engineers, doctors, detectives too – so much knowledge work isn’t digital.
Transactional work can be done alone: clerical, single tasks. “Toil”.
Knowledge work is done collaboratively. When we try to do it alone, e.g. software programmers, we get an inferior result to doing it with others.
Virtual collaboration is never as good as real presence. It’s like trying to hug through a window.