# remote work
64 moments across 47 episodes. Click any moment to jump straight to that part of the episode.
10:00Story 1: Is remote work making us lonelier?Jake Tuber: Oh, an amazingly interesting story has hit the press here in the US. Big story in the New York Times about remote work and the downsides to it, based on an article that was published just recently in Science.EP 312 · 23 Jun 2026·news roundup· 10:00–16:5043:19Workplace Surgery — Quiet quitting after a return-to-office mandateAl Elliott: I've checked out, but I'm doing the hiding. My company mandated a full return to the office about 8 months ago. At the time, I pushed back internally and found it frustrating, but now I've just stopped. I turEP 296 · 28 Apr 2026·workplace surgery· 43:19–46:5110:24Sweden's 4:30 PM Empty OfficeAl Elliott: Sally. Sally Clarke: So I've got some, you know, obviously massive, massive news for us all. I found an article today that was published in Indian media around an Indian tech professional who's working in SweEP 292 · 14 Apr 2026·news roundup· 10:24–16:2150:06Workplace Surgery: Managing first remote hire without micromanagingAl Elliott: Okay, on to question number 3. How do I manage my first remote hire without becoming a micromanager? This is great. This is— I like when people ask questions like, this is about to happen, I want to avoid thiEP 248 · 11 Nov 2025·workplace surgery· 50:06–57:4531:17The psychology of video call style and backgroundsAngela Foster: Yes, exactly. Exactly. I love it Leanne Elliott: And with that in mind, where does the line go between having like a signature and just becoming a distraction? Angela Foster: Oh, right. Oh, that is such a EP 245 · 30 Oct 2025·interview· 31:17–35:0731:43Workplace Surgery — remote employee with two jobsAl Elliott: Okay, Leanne, I think it's time for our world-famous weekly workplace surgery where I put readers' questions, not readers, listeners' questions to— who reads a podcast? Leanne Elliott: I know someone who doesEP 242 · 21 Oct 2025·workplace surgery· 31:43–38:2336:44Workplace Surgery: Keeping remote teams connectedLeanne Elliott: Lovely. So, I think the things that you've tried are quite natural things for a business owner to try, and that you think connection is about being friends, you think connection is about us all getting onEP 240 · 14 Oct 2025·workplace surgery· 36:44–41:0126:43Albania: Beautiful, but an awful place to work remotelyLeanne Elliott: Okay. Albania Al Elliott: Albania. Well, we were there for about 2 weeks, were we? Leanne Elliott: YeahEP 220 · 5 Aug 2025·other· 26:43–29:1842:52Workplace Surgery: hiring remotely for the first timeAl Elliott: Okay, great advice. Question number 2, what should I look, what should I watch out for when hiring remotely for the first time? I run a fully remote business and I'm about to make my first hire. CongratulatioEP 210 · 1 Jul 2025·workplace surgery· 42:52–52:2920:35Hot Take: First Impressions on Zoom – Al's TakeLeanne Elliott: Listen to Billion Dollar Moves wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. It's time for a Hot Take, the time of the week where we ask a workplace expert to let us know what's grinding their gears and wEP 208 · 24 Jun 2025·hot take· 20:35–33:4833:48Workplace Surgery: Best Places to Work Remotely and Feel InspiredAl Elliott: Fabulous. Okay, Leanne, it's now my favourite time of the week. It's the World FM's Weekly Workplace Surgery where I put your questions to Leanne. You know all this, just tune out for 10 seconds. Leanne is a EP 208 · 24 Jun 2025·workplace surgery· 33:48–41:1240:07Q7 — Keeping remote and hybrid workers includedAl Elliott: Yeah, love it, love it. Okay, so question number 7, how do we ensure that remote or hybrid workers feel included during the summer? Great question. I think a lot of the— I think particularly if you're in the EP 203 · 5 Jun 2025·other· 40:07–44:338:40Spotify's 'we hire adults' approach to remote workAl Elliott: Okay, so Ryan Hogg on Yahoo Finance Leanne Elliott: Ryan who? Al Elliott: Ryan HoggEP 194 · 6 May 2025·news roundup· 8:40–14:325:23Radical transparency — why PostHog's handbook is publicAl Elliott: Looking at your website, it does feel a bit like I've got unauthorized access to your Notion wiki. It does. It feels a bit like I shouldn't know these things. Um, I've got, I've got loads of questions about sEP 189 · 17 Apr 2025·interview· 5:23–6:4848:47Workplace Surgery: Faking online activityLeanne Elliott: Um, which is very different to a mouse jiggler. We discovered Al Elliott: We discovered a couple of weeks ago. Yep. So they're basically trying to pretend that they're at work when they're away. The stranEP 186 · 9 Apr 2025·workplace surgery· 48:47–52:080:02Intro and episode previewAl Elliott: On this episode, would you let your employer monitor you on camera while working from home? One Australian company has been accused of pressuring staff to agree to video surveillance in their own homes LeanneEP 182 · 25 Mar 2025·intro· 0:02–1:312:17London's hiring crisis and remote workLeanne Elliott: Yes, it is. It's time for the news roundabout. Cue that jingle Al Elliott: Pressing play. What have you seen this week, Leanne? Leanne Elliott: London firms are struggling to recruit staff as people want EP 182 · 25 Mar 2025·news roundup· 2:17–8:148:14Bossware and video surveillance at homeAl Elliott: Yes, it's all to do with a new word that I've seen. It's called bosswear. Have you ever, ever heard of that? Leanne Elliott: Bosswear? No, but like the scouser in me wants to be like, oh, it's boss, it's bossEP 182 · 25 Mar 2025·news roundup· 8:14–14:3810:26The flexibility debate — remote vs. in-officeLeanne Elliott: And I have to ask you, you've mentioned it a couple of times, flexibility. Is it remote? Is it in office? Where do you stand on the whole debate? Eric Stone: I, you know, I really think, here's how I'll pEP 179 · 13 Mar 2025·interview· 10:26–11:4539:01Does working from home help or hinder and magic wand questionLeanne Elliott: You've shared so much, so much wisdom, Skye. And I'm, I'm wondering if there was, if there was a magic wand and you could just change one misconception, one misunderstanding, or one aspect of what is currEP 173 · 20 Feb 2025·interview· 39:01–42:2729:58Remote work, hybrid and the push-pullAl Elliott: I feel like we've got like a push and pull now. Like you said, lots of people want to engage in remote working, flexible, hybrid, whatever that looks like. We've got CEOs that want to get people back to the oEP 162 · 14 Jan 2025·interview· 29:58–32:4316:25Prediction 4 — Chris Savage: Remote work balances outAl Elliott: Eman is always immensely practical. It's not about fighting AI, it's about becoming the strategist who knows how to use it. And those are gonna be the real winners in 2025, 2026. Anyway, that's enough on AI fEP 157 · 26 Dec 2024·other· 16:25–20:373:00The psychology of flexible workLeanne Elliott: I'm very, very interested in the psychology of flexible work. Oh, because it strikes me as one of those cases where, um, uh, you know, we're potentially throwing a huge increase, a huge potentially benefiEP 156 · 24 Dec 2024·other· 3:00–6:5755:58Why those 'working from home is bad' articles are dumbAl Elliott: End of Leanne Elliott: Okay, the early stage. But then you've got these articles going, it was found that people working from home were 3% less productive, right? Well, can I make a suggestion? Why don't you EP 156 · 24 Dec 2024·other· 55:58–56:5539:02Workplace Surgery: Remote work boundariesLeanne Elliott: Yeah, very common problem. And I think we actually— I think, was it last Tuesday we talked about the latest research is out on hybrid and remote work? And that is a recognised problem with remote working EP 152 · 10 Dec 2024·workplace surgery· 39:02–44:2011:24The great homeworking experimentLeanne Elliott: What have you seen Well, I'm not sure we've talked about remote work for a little while Al Elliott: Remote work. Now, how does that work? Leanne Elliott: Yeah, I mean, there's lots on LinkedIn, and I'll bEP 150 · 3 Dec 2024·news roundup· 11:24–17:5729:01The hybrid work myth — why remote isn't the villainLeanne Elliott: I'm wondering, is there something we can do in that moment to stop somebody being, uh, you know, just doing a lap to maybe staying an hour? Or is it really just about getting people to the event and then EP 139 · 24 Oct 2024·interview· 29:01–49:0548:46Workplace Surgery: Staying visible while working remotelyAl Elliott: Fabulous. Okay, question number 3, Leanne. The company I work for is adopting a hybrid model 6 months ago, but I've chosen to go to remain fully remote due to family care responsibilities, a choice that was sEP 138 · 22 Oct 2024·workplace surgery· 48:46–56:1112:44News Roundup: Remote work vs. in-office connection (Cornell study)Leanne Elliott: Well, of course, everywhere the debates around remote work, return to office is continuing. I actually saw an article very like in the last hour or so that I would have included but didn't quite have the EP 136 · 15 Oct 2024·news roundup· 12:44–19:1043:17Workplace Surgery: Fostering culture in a remote teamAl Elliott: Okay, so question number 3, Lee, I think is right up your street, and you'll see why in a second. I run an online marketplace for handmade goods that's grown from a side hustle to a team of 40 over the past 3EP 134 · 8 Oct 2024·workplace surgery· 43:17–48:1131:48Workplace Surgery: pets on Zoom meetingsLeanne Elliott: Yes Al Elliott: This one's a little bit closer to home, I think. So, I own an agency and most of my team work remotely, as I do. We have regular Zoom calls, but one team member always brings along her catEP 120 · 6 Aug 2024·workplace surgery· 31:48–37:1138:27The future of remote and hybrid workLee Rubin: It's a good question. It's definitely a controversial one because there's definitely lots of schools of thought on what's going on. But I don't know if it's just coincidental in terms of just the people that IEP 119 · 30 Jul 2024·interview· 38:27–45:381:36Walmart's RTO mandate and the research against itLeanne Elliott: Well, last week, Al, you might remember that we chatted about a survey that found that flexible and hybrid working is now the number one work perk that employees are looking for Al Elliott: I do Leanne ElEP 101 · 28 May 2024·news roundup· 1:36–6:4811:50The great office return debate: Boots' mandate and expert insightsAl Elliott: Oh, okay Leanne Elliott: Uh, they don't sell shoes if you're not from the UK. They are actually a pharmacy and they sell snacks and shampoo, like a drugstore makeup type thing that you might get in USA, CanadEP 84 · 26 Mar 2024·news roundup· 11:50–17:1429:01Remote work, autonomy, and isolationLeanne Elliott: No chat about culture is complete without talking about remote working. As we've said for years, remote work is a modifier of culture. In other words, if you have a great culture, then adding or improvingEP 80 · 29 Feb 2024·interview· 29:01–36:2223:55Remote work — Wistia was remote-friendly before COVIDAl Elliott: He's fairly high up Leanne Elliott: Fairly high up. Freaking name drop, Al. Is he not the chair? Al Elliott: He is the chairman. Uh, really interesting guyEP 68 · 8 Dec 2023·interview· 23:55–26:3338:18The remote work debate — where Michael standsLeanne Elliott: And of course, we had to ask Michael about the argument, the debate of 2023. Where does Michael stand on remote versus hybrid versus in-office working? Al Elliott: Uh, it totally depends upon the company EP 64 · 16 Nov 2023·other· 38:18–42:0953:33Martin's hot take on remote vs. on-site workAl Elliott: Controversially, Martin believes that remote work isn't always brilliant. It could have a detrimental impact on our kind of what he calls The interpersonal sensitivity. So Liane asked him, where do you stand EP 59 · 5 Oct 2023·hot take· 53:33–61:4750:29Closing words of wisdom: office vs. remote workingAl Elliott: Maneesh went on to turn this motto into an actual business. He founded this company culture consultancy that basically challenges this work-life divide. They help companies to foster engaging company culturesEP 56 · 14 Sept 2023·interview· 50:29–55:5826:03Myth 4 — Culture doesn't work in remote or hybrid setupsLeanne Elliott: Go for it Al Elliott: So lie number 3 is that workplace culture doesn't work if you're fully remote or a hybrid Leanne Elliott: That's bullshitEP 50 · 3 Aug 2023·other· 26:03–38:016:20News roundup: LinkedIn finds on remote workAl Elliott: What else you got, Leah? Leanne Elliott: Well, something that I thought was quite interesting actually. I was on, I was on the old LinkedIn. as I've mentioned, I like to dip my toe in from time to time. Me toEP 49 · 27 Jul 2023·news roundup· 6:20–9:510:33Framing the debate — is remote work a mistake?Al Elliott: Nice. Check out hopspot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses. And of course, what we see is lots of organizations panicking like hell because management is losing control and they're callEP 43 · 14 Jun 2023·other· 0:33–2:140:00The great remote vs office debate beginsAl Elliott: The dirty little secret is that most businesses think they know their customers. They have the data, the records, the history, but it's scattered across 3 teams and 4 systems. And in our case, it's about 216,EP 42 · 7 Jun 2023·panel interview· 0:00–4:224:58Meet Team Remote: Ross Simmonds & Bethany SamsonAl Elliott: Our second guest is Bethany Sampson. Beth is People Director at Investors in People. That's a community interest company which is calling for organizational change to put people first. Now, If you're from theEP 42 · 7 Jun 2023·intro· 4:58–6:4613:00Ross's first internet memory and the evolution of workRoss: I'll take you back into time to my first experience with the internet, and it would have been while I was in university. I kind of was walking through the library. I looked at everyone's computers and I saw that thEP 42 · 7 Jun 2023·panel interview· 13:00–15:2915:29Why remote is the preferred choice for people-first teamsRoss Simmons: Beth has also observed that remote work was a preferred option of teams that invested in people, and since the pandemic has continued with a fully remote model? Beth: Yeah, so it's changed significantly forEP 42 · 7 Jun 2023·panel interview· 15:29–20:2820:28The massive opportunity for small businessesAl Elliott: Now, Ross went on to explain that this provides this massive opportunity for small businesses who are pursuing talent. Because if you imagine like huge companies, IBM, the likes, Amazon, they're like juggernaEP 42 · 7 Jun 2023·panel interview· 20:28–26:1926:19Work-life balance: the good, the bad, and the 'bing!'Ross: does work— Al Elliott: does working remotely make you happy? Beth: Yes!EP 42 · 7 Jun 2023·panel interview· 26:19–33:0244:52Ross's hiring secret: record yourself firstRoss: Before I made any hire, the first thing I did was I sat in a hotel room, set up a camera, and recorded myself recording a handful of videos to talk about our processes and procedures. And I did this intentionally bEP 42 · 7 Jun 2023·panel interview· 44:52–74:406:46News roundup: rust out, Elon Musk on remote work, and exercise vs therapyLeanne Elliott: I've got a new word Al Elliott: Lovely. New word alert Leanne Elliott: Rust outEP 40 · 24 May 2023·news roundup· 6:46–12:5829:03Freedom, flexibility and the death of face timeAl Elliott: Yeah. Yeah, so I think the biggest shift that I've seen, and it's something that I think we've always wanted, but I believe Claire mentioned this earlier, just about the change in the trends were really sped EP 35 · 19 Apr 2023·other· 29:03–35:4484:05No. 7: Make hybrid work actually workLeanne Elliott: Very good. Um, our 7th recommendation comes back to remote and hybrid working models and making sure that they are respectful. And you might be thinking, how could they be disrespectful? Well, if we thinkEP 34 · 12 Apr 2023·other· 84:05–86:3537:48Why the future of work took a pandemic to arriveLeanne Elliott: Yeah, it's true. And, you know, it's a trend that, that, you know, we're, we're more than likely gonna, gonna see over the next few years and older people either staying in the workforce or returning to tEP 25 · 8 Feb 2023·interview· 37:48–43:2043:20Remote work: a nice-to-have or a must-have?Leanne Elliott: A quote comes to mind, Al. Um, necessity is the mother of invention Al Elliott: Oh, I like it Leanne Elliott: Because I think it's, you know, Sophie's right there. It doesn't seem to— logically, it doesn'EP 25 · 8 Feb 2023·interview· 43:20–46:5560:00Sophie's final words on empathyLeanne Elliott: So I think Sophie really sums it up there. If we continue to resist this change of remote work, of hybrid work, of investing in development, in skills-based training, of making sure that we have the technEP 25 · 8 Feb 2023·interview· 60:00–63:2520:21Remote-first culture and HubSpot's post-COVID policyLeanne Elliott: Yeah, I think there can be a misconception that that innovation— there can be no boundaries or rules to innovation. I think actually, you know, narrowing that field down a little bit can actually empower EP 23 · 25 Jan 2023·other· 20:21–30:167:37How the COLC is changing the WFH conversationLeanne Elliott: Yes. So I think the— I mean, the cost of living crisis, and I mean, just in terms of we think before looking at working from home or hybrid working, if we just look at kind of the impact that's going to hEP 11 · 8 Nov 2022·other· 7:37–11:261:41Why Remote Work Isn't What Most People WantLeanne Elliott: So that's not true. I'm a business psychologist. That's what I do. It's what I've done for almost 15 years. I have worked in business. I've consulted with businesses, um, all things people and culture. SoEP 05 · 25 Jul 2022·other· 1:41–3:043:04Hybrid vs. Remote: Definitions and HistoryLeanne Elliott: Yeah, so hybrid working is something that's really gained popularity as a term from the pandemic, or post-pandemic, kind of the early life post-pandemic, where organizations have found themselves with a wEP 05 · 25 Jul 2022·other· 3:04–4:134:13The Stats: 99% Want Remote SometimesAl Elliott: And so you're the lady who's got all the stats. Have you got any kind of statistics around this that demonstrate or back up what you just said? I do Leanne Elliott: I mean, I have my own personal experience. EP 05 · 25 Jul 2022·other· 4:13–8:308:31The Psychology Behind the Push for FlexibilityLeanne Elliott: The reality is that working remotely, not having to be in a set place at a set time, brings a level of freedom that really appeals to us as just human beings. Having control is something that we're reallyEP 05 · 25 Jul 2022·other· 8:31–10:2210:23Why Leaders Are Still Clinging to the OfficeLeanne Elliott: Yeah, I think what, what we have experienced, and I think perhaps business owners or leaders are in, in still somewhat in a state of shock from the significant shift in our working patterns that's happeneEP 05 · 25 Jul 2022·other· 10:23–14:0620:16Silo 2: Managing Performance When No One's WatchingLeanne Elliott: I think you're right. And I think this is the, probably one of the key challenges that managers and leaders feel, you know, when they don't have those accidental or impromptu moments where they can speak EP 05 · 25 Jul 2022·other· 20:16–24:415:15Has the pandemic really changed work forever?Leanne Elliott: I think ultimately it hasn't. And I think this is the— a lot in the media that frustrates me, and particularly as business, particularly larger corporate leaders who are really using this whole remote hybEP 03 · 15 Jul 2022·other· 5:15–9:33
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