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A couple of years ago, not long after getting divorced, Sherita Janielle wanted to make a big move.
So, she put most of her belongings in storage and headed from her pandemic redoubt in Austin to sunny Lisbon. After more than a month in Portugal's capital, Janielle eventually made her way to Colombia, Uruguay, and Argentina.
"I've been popping in and out of places," she told Business Insider. In between, she often returns to the US to see family and friends — and swap out her wardrobe.
Shifting her career from finance to marketing allowed Janielle to work from wherever, a luxury she's come to prize. It's one that fewer workers might enjoy in 2025.
Only about half of full-time workers can do their jobs remotely, according to polling firm Gallup. And among those, some who work for big-name companies like Amazon are increasingly seeing an end to workdays spent in sweatpants and camera-ready shirts as companies mandate a full RTO.
So, to keep or land remote roles, which are already harder to find than in the pandemic era, workers might have to consider going off on their own or looking to smaller firms.
Courtesy Shift
There's no consensus on whether a full RTO is "better" than hybrid or entirely remote roles. Bosses demanding that workers show up more in person often cite a desire to maintain culture, spur innovation, and foster collaboration. Some point to concerns about productivity.
Nicole Kyle, who researches the future of work, said that IRL work doesn't actually guarantee increased productivity and performance. However, these metrics can go up when employers allow for more remote or hybrid setups, said Kyle, who's cofounder of CMP Research, in part because workers feel more autonomy.
"Nothing is less engaging to employees than not having flexibility and choice," she said.
Gallup notes that full-time remote or hybrid workers tend to have "significantly higher" engagement than on-site workers.
Even so, there are times when being in the workplace makes sense, said Lisa Walker, a managing partner at the executive search firm DHR Global. She told BI that for roles like those in operations or where there's a short-term deadline, remote work can present challenges.
"You want to walk down the hall. You need an answer. You need to react," Walker said. That's harder on Slack.
A decade ago, after years spent working in offices at big agencies, Curtis Sparrer cofounded a fully remote PR and marketing firm. Too often, he said, startups had to choose between paying rent or making payroll.
"I said, 'What if we never had to make that choice?'" he told BI.
Sparrer and his business partner have grown the firm, called Bospar, to about 70 people. In the early days, the company relied on conference calls and text messages to keep workers connected. Now, it uses tools like Slack and video calls.
The firm's productivity isn't a worry, Sparrer said, because workers are in frequent contact with each other. If someone does slack off, managers will address it, he said. Otherwise, he sees the quiet of home as a boon to productivity.
"When it comes to thoughtful, focused work, nothing beats work from home because that's the way you cut down on distractions," Sparrer said.
To help keep workers connected, the firm occasionally brings people together in person, though not to work.
"They want to do all the cultural things, but they absolutely do not want to work," he said. That's because the firm's employees report they do better work independently. So, they instead use in-person gatherings to connect with colleagues.
Deborah Perry Piscione, cofounder of Work3 Institute and coauthor of the forthcoming book "Employment is Dead," told BI that focusing on output rather than where the job gets done can be savvy for employers.
"I don't understand what the fear is. At the end of the day, this is not about control. It's about output and productivity," she said.
Piscione said that early in her career, working in Washington, DC, there was an expectation that employees should be at their desks from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., no matter what. She said she never understood why she had to stick around if she was more efficient or skipped lunch to wrap up her work early.
Increasingly, Piscione said, employers and employees need to view work as a partnership. That's especially important in the face of technology like artificial intelligence that could eliminate roles or rejigger how people do their jobs.
Besides, she said, workers have more ways of getting by than only a few years ago.
"We're in this hyper, super gig economy where I don't have to take your crap anymore," Piscione said, referring to overbearing employers.
For Janielle, the globe-hopping marketer who describes herself as an older millennial, an additional remote job looked enticing: chief nomad officer. She applied for and got the role at Shift, which makes a web browser aimed at boosting productivity. The goal of her work is to demonstrate that it's possible to get a lot done from anywhere, she said.
Janielle said she enjoys showcasing what's doable. She's been to some 45 countries and said the more she travels, the more she meets others who are succeeding outside the office without sacrificing productivity.
"There's still a lot of space in the economy for these remote workers to thrive," she said.
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