Is it possible that the software industry could become nearly 100% remote?

Personally, I don't want the industry to go fully-remote. I like the experience of working in the same physical space as my team members. Coworking spaces aren't bad, but they're still not the same, socially, as working in the same room as members of your own company/team.

At one point in my life, I thought I would enjoy working remotely. But in the years since, I've come to realize that I just wouldn't be happy working fully remotely. Flexibility to work remotely when needed is pretty much a must for me, but even the benefit of getting 2+ hours of commute time back isn't enough for me to do it full-time.

I don't think it can go 100%. But yes it's certainly on the rise.

Many people (a substantial number I'd say) still believe that people don't work unless you make them. I guess that ideology alone makes thousands of people go to office everyday.

Then there's also the kind which believe in the very foundation of offices as institutions. They'd go in every day regardless of productivity and expect others to come too.

May be things might change when millenial population gains leadership or upper management positions.

When organizations leave the culture of micromanagement that is when the industry will be 100% ready to become remote friendly. Real Estate will get a hit for sure if IT embraces 100% remote culture. So existing orgs who have invested in their infrastructure will tend support in-office culture. It is good one for upcoming organizations.

I think it is important to give your employee a choice.
Remote work is not for everyone, I'd be happy to work from home and avoid my daily commute but some of my colleagues prefer an office environment. Some of them may enjoy a coworking space, but other may prefer working with their team at the same office.
I don't think the entire industry will become remote first, but I expect the majority of companies to allow some kind of remote work in the near future, maybe just once or twice a week, or giving the choice between fully remote or office.
I'll base my future career decision on that, trying to exclude companies hostile to remote work.

In order to contain the spreading of corona virus many firms in Italy are allowing people to work from home this days, in some cases people are forced to work remotely as some cities are in lockdown.
Let's see how it goes, unfortunately I'm still coming to the office but trains are almost empty and there is way less traffic than usual.
I'm trying to see the glass half full, I hope firms will start considering remote work after this experimentation period in order to improve their employee's lives and to reduce pollution.

While there are a lot of people against this idea or think it won’t happen, I would like to provide some counterpoints.

• corporations can drive down operational costs by closing satellite offices. This is usually the case when times are rough, revenue is down. That doesn’t have to be the only case though. Decisions to allow 100% remote are not altruistic and probably have more to do with the corporation’s balance sheet.

• when working remote, I had to fill my schedule with meetups to get that in person connectivity I was yearning for. There are other ways.

• at one point most web software was tied to locale, like the mythical server in a closet. Nowadays not so much with the cloud.

• flu spreads in office environments.

• as cities become more adept at coping with climate change, they can incentivize remote work. Turns out it never was a good idea for everyone to drive to the office at the same time 🤷‍♂️. Corporations are incentivized to purchase realty by local governments though, so many are correct it will never be 100% remote.

• SpaceX Starlink bas been in the headlines recently for being the bane of every astromer’s existence, but eventually there will be satellite internet everywhere at reliable enough speeds to develop.

I love remote work. Been working this way for years now. Kids come home from school early, so I can spend time with them. Work when I feel productive, not according to a pointless 9-5 regimen. I don't get monthly colds or flus. I can dress how I feel. I pop out in the summer afternoons to the nearby lake for a swim, or walk in the pine forests. And office chat goes on as normal....via email and IM.

I think 100% remote is certainly possible, but not ideal. I would hope the office environment would be available for a portion of the workforce that really thrives in the office, and available for part-time in-office work, but that a remote-first culture would become the normal (no water-cooler decisions). Other means of getting people together should be employed as well, maybe quarterly or biannually. Maybe monthly team lunches when teams are in the same city, while working remote.

I see a bright future for remote-first work:

• People could live where it's ideal for them, rather than ideal for getting a job. More people could move away from cities and into the countryside or far out in the suburbs where buying a home could actually be achievable.
• It could be huge for keeping mothers in the workforce and improve gender diversity. New mothers have a huge uphill battle to maintain a career and care for a young baby, and remote work, especially with flex-time, could help make that easier. No matter how much we may want equality, biologically, mothers are the ones breastfeeding and pumping, day and night.
• It would improve accessibility for disabled people, again improving diversity.
• It would decrease the loss of productivity due to illness. Not only would there be less spread of illness, but some people may opt to work through a mild to moderate case of illness if they can work from home and not risk going into an office and spread it to co-workers or have to go through the additional commute time that can be physically tiring and cuts into illness-fighting sleep. I worked fully remote for three years, got moderately sick once, and worked through it. This meant my PTO was spent on emotionally and physically restorative time rather than sick time.
• It would be better for the environment and lead to cleaner air with fewer cars on the road. Two-income households may be able to go down to one car to save money.

I don’t think it will go 100% remote and I don’t think it should. I’ve worked remotely for 4 years and it’s a solution that works really well for me as someone who doesn’t live in a major city. Remote work is great for companies who want to tap into larger talent pools and for workers who want to work at amazing companies without needing to uproot their lives. Remote is also great from an accessibility standpoint and remote friendly companies tend to offer in-office colleagues flexibility when they need it, too.

Remote work isn’t for everyone and the reasons why people may prefer in-office work are very valid! I think what matters is that we see more companies to attract people who prefer remote work versus force in-office employees to adopt a remote work situation that doesn’t fit with their wants or needs. 😊

A nearshore company selling services around the world could have all the employees working remotely.
In nearsure.net/ all the employees work remotely.
but if you are talking about a startup or a company selling their own product, this changes. I think it's very important to create a synergy between the Teams and build bridges between people and you only can achieve this working face to face at least some days per week.

Technologically? Yep. No question. In fact, there are solid business cases for why there has to be a certain amount of remote capability for pretty much all companies.

What would stop it is the human factor and culture. Many people don't want to work remotely, and that's okay. Many managers don't want people to work remotely, because they don't like the loss of control (that's not okay).

Does this mean that companies won't have offices? Not necessarily. You can still be nearly 100% remote and still have some offices, especially if your niche has a large hardware component. "Remote" doesn't mean "only ever meet over video chat."