Remote Work in 2025: Evolving Norms and New Challenges

Remote work, once considered a temporary experiment, is now firmly woven into the fabric of how companies operate but it’s far from static. Below is a snapshot of what’s happening now, what’s changing, and where remote work might head next.

1. The State of Remote & Hybrid Work: Stabilization Over Explosion

• Among workers in roles that can go remote, 27 % are fully remote, 53 % are hybrid, and 21 % work fully on-site.

• In 2025, new job listings that are fully remote are about 13 %, up from 10 % in early 2023. Hybrid job listings have jumped from 15 % to 24 %.

• The trend suggests that the remote work boom is no longer accelerating rapidly instead, it’s settling into a long-term equilibrium.

In short: fully remote work remains important, but hybrid is often the default compromise.

2. Corporate Pushback: Return-to-Office (RTO) & Policy Tightening

Some big companies are pushing back against broad remote policies:

• Google has revised its “Work from Anywhere” (WFA) policy: if an employee works from outside the office location (even for one day), the entire week counts as a WFA week, separate from regular work-from-home days.

• Tanium, a cybersecurity company, is enforcing its RTO policy by withholding equity refresh grants from employees who don’t comply with in-office attendance rules.

• Dell has “retired” its hybrid & remote work policy for employees living within an hour of its offices; those further away may still be remote, but remote employees might need special approval for promotions.

These moves highlight tension between employer control, culture, and perceived benefits of in-person collaboration.

3. Trends Shaping the Future of Work

Here are key currents pushing remote work forward (or sideways):

• Blended work: Some scholars argue that the future is not just hybrid (office + remote) but blended, where work is mediated by AI agents, virtual presence, and seamless transitions between physical and digital modes.

• AI & automation: Remote workflows are being enhanced by tools for scheduling, transcription, project tracking, and more. These reduce friction in communication and coordination.

• Relocation & migration: About 1 in 5 remote workers plan to move in 2025, citing cost of living and “change of scene” as driving reasons.

• Gender & household dynamics: A recent study finds that when men have increased remote work exposure, their spouses are slightly more likely to join the workforce partly because men shift some childcare time.

• Onboarding & retention risk: Early data suggests employees onboarded fully remotely are more likely to resign in the first few years, possibly due to weaker organizational connection.

4. Challenges & Risks in the Remote Era

Remote work brings trade-offs:

• Employee engagement & belonging: Without shared space and ritual, teams can lose cohesion, especially new hires.

• Security & compliance: Distributed systems increase risk surfaces. Ensuring data protection, regulatory compliance, and identity management becomes more complex.

• Equity & bias: When physical presence becomes a signal for visibility, remote employees may be disadvantaged in promotion, networking, or resource access.

• Burnout & boundary erosion: Remote work can blur lines between work and life, raising mental health concerns.

• Infrastructure & access: In many regions (especially outside developed markets), reliable internet, power supply, and suitable workspaces remain critical bottlenecks.

5. What This Means for Creatives & Communities

For a creative / artistic community like Discovery Community, the remote era holds both opportunities and lessons:

• Global collaboration is easier: You can bring in contributors, artists, or collaborators from anywhere without relocation constraints.

• Hybrid events matter: Physical meet-ups can be rare using virtual meet spaces, workshops, or co-creation platforms becomes essential.

• Tools & processes are your backbone: Strong project management, communication norms, asynchronous workflows, and shared culture matter more than ever.

• Care for mental health & belonging intentionally: Virtual spaces can feel isolating you may need to build rituals, check-ins, and shared experiences to maintain connection.

• Leverage remote trends locally: In Lagos / Nigeria, there’s potential in offering remote creative jobs, outsourcing, or cross-border freelancing positioning your community as a bridge to global work.