Aug. 19, 2025

Is the World YOUR Office? The Work From Anywhere Workforce Trend You Just May Want to Adopt

Show Notes
Transcript

Work from Anywhere (WFA) isn’t a trend—it’s a transformational shift. In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Prithwiraj Choudhury unpacks how WFA boosts access to top talent, improves productivity, and fosters innovation. When location is no longer a barrier, companies win by hiring from anywhere and workers thrive with flexibility. Learn why WFA, done right, is a triple win—for companies, workers, and communities.

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What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the

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answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose

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at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their

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lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization

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that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their

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highest potential. Business can be such a force for good

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in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide

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guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we

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all want working on Purpose. Now here's your host, doctor

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Elise Cortes.

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Welcome back to the Working and Purpose Program, which has

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been brought to you with passion and pride since February

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of twenty fifteen. Thanks for tuning in this week. Great

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to have you. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. If

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we've not met before and you don't know me, I'm

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a workforce advisor, organizational psychologist, management consultant, logo therapist, speaker

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and author. My team and I at Gustri and I

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help companies to enliven and fortify their operations by building

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a dynamic, high performance culture, inspirational leadership, and nurturing managers

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activated by meaning and purpose. Many organizations are not aware

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of just how critical it is to invest in developing

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their leaders and managers not just for their own effectiveness,

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but also to avoid burnout and keep them fulfilled. And

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you do know that inspired employees outperform their satisfied peers

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by factor of two point twenty five to one. In

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other words, inspiration is good for the bottom line. You

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can learn more about us and how we can work

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together at Gusto dashnow dot com or my personal website

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at Leiscortes dot com. Getting into today's program, we have

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with us doctor Prithburra Chowdhry, a globally recognized expert on

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the future of work, serving on the faculties at Wharton

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and Harvard Business School for over a decade. He studies

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how technology is shifting wherever we work and how we work.

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He has pioneered research on the change in geography of

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work and how work from anywhere affects workers, organizations, communities,

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and smaller towns. He also studies the impact of AI

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and organizations and how AI and automation can help both

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desk workers and desk desk list workers work from anywhere.

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His book, The World Is Your Office, How Work from

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Anywhere Boosts talent, productivity, and innovation, which we're talking about today,

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was published by Harvard Business Press in April twenty twenty

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five and became a national bestseller in the United States.

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He joined us today from Boston, where he has been residing.

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He'll soon be relocating to London, where I have to

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come and see him. Raj, Welcome to Working on Purpose.

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Thanks for having me.

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It's wonderful to have you. And when I first all

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your book and I reached out to you, I said,

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you've got to come on and talk to me about this,

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because you know, as somebody who is helping organizations steward

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their culture, their leadership, and being in the middle of

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all these conversations about this forced return to office, I

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was like, I've got to hear what this man has

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to say. So thank you very much for coming on.

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I devoured your book. We have a shorter episode and

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I want to get through as many topics as we

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possibly can. I just want to start with the promise

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of your book, Raj, and as somebody who would love

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I live in Dallas, I would love to work from

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Greece and Italy and other places and such, I want

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to just start with this idea of the war. You know,

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you're moving past the idea of work from anywhere, not

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just a workforce perk, but as a transformational shift. Can

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we start with that idea?

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Sure? Absolutely so. I'd like I described in the book.

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Work from anywhere is the idea that I've been working

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on for over it, you know, many many years now

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close to a decade. And work from anywhere is not

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the same as work from home. So work from anywhere,

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as I say this twice and every session that I attend,

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work from anywhere is not the same as work from home.

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Work from anywhere is about having the freedom to choose

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where to live. So which city with state, which region,

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sometimes even which country, and then once you've chosen that location,

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you could be working from home, you could be working

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from a co working space, you could be working from

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a small satellite office of the company. All of that

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is worked from anywhere. And as I discussed in the book,

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this is a win win. It's good for the worker,

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it's good for the organization, and now we know enough

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about how to work from anywhere, we also have a

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solid repertoire of best practices.

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You know, when the COVID nineteen pendem was going down,

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I was also getting very interested in how people were

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going inward, looking at what do they want from their

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lives and their work, And I wrote about that too

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in a couple of my books, and I became very

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fascinated with the connection of people's work to themselves in

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their lives. Where did you start to get fascinated with

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this idea of working from anywhere?

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Yeah, So I've been a scholar of geography, so I've

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studied this question about how do firms access talent that's

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living far away, distant talent. And the premise there was that,

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you know, we know that talent is everywhere, but opportunities

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are not and so the dominant way firms have managed

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to access distant talent is by forcing talent to relocate.

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You pack your bags and you move from the West

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coast to the East coast, or from China to the US,

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or from Australia to India or whatnot. And that's worked

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for firms for many, many, many years, but it has

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also created lots of problems for both companies and workers.

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Think about regulation, think about licensing, occupational licensing things, think

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about visas. Think about leaving your parents back home and

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moving seven thousand miles and you can't now take care

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of them. And so, as I was studying migration and

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documenting very meticulously both the benefits of migration, I also

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realized that migration and relocation has lots of challenges. And

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about twenty fifteen I then started thinking, why is there

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not an alternate model instead of having people move? Why

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can't companies let the work move to places that people

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want to live in? And I call that work from anywhere.

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It's just yummy, Raj, It's just yummy. Okay. I know

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you talk about how this idea is really something that

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leaders need to embrace. So let's maybe situate next some

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of the benefits for companies. As I say, I'm just

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fascinating with these mandates of work, you know, return forced

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one hundred percent work from the office that I see

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large organizations trying to erect. And so you talk about,

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of course this notion that talent without borders, and so

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now organizations have the opportunity to it to access all

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kinds of talent they wouldn't otherwise have any access to.

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Yes, and you've already stated the main reason. So the

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main reason to embrace work from anywhere as a leader

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is work from anywhere allows companies to hire from anywhere,

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So you dramatically expand your labor market access. So now

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you can even though you're in the East Coast, you

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can hire from the West Coast. You can hire from

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the Heartland, you can hire from Canada, you can hire

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from Mexico. You can even go and hire from a

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different continent if you want to do that. There are

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other and that kind of hiring does two things. It

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expands the talent pool. It gives you access to more

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diverse talent, So diversity based on gender, based on ethnicity,

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based on geographic region. And we know that diverse talent

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leads to better innovation. I think that's been established in

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the research community for decades now. The second thing that

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Work from Anywhere does is it converts real estate cost

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into a variable cost. So now you don't have to

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commit to a thirty year lease or building a huge

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building that's fifty percent occupied all the time. Now for

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Work from Anywhere, teams they need to meet. That's very,

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very important, and in the book I stress that a

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lot that intentional in person is very important. But you

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can now rent the real estate when you need it.

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You can hire a coworking space when the teams want

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to meet. So you're converting real estate into a utility,

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just like electricity or water, and that saves a lot

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of money for companies if it's done well. And they

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could also be some productivity benefits, which I document in

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both my research and the book. But again to summarize,

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the main reason is accessing talent beyond one single geographic location.

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I'm convinced, of course. However, I do know that chief

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financial officers and chief human resource officers can be really

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skeptical in part because they worry about managing costs or

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especially losing connection to workers. Now I know, you go

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into detail about how to address that. But because people

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haven't read the book yet like I have, can you

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say a bit about how your research overcomes the turnover

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and organizational performance issues.

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So, first of all, work from anywhere, as I've shown

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in my research, leads to luring attrition because now that

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you are allowing people to live, they want to live.

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They are more happier employees, the work life balance is

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much better, and especially for women, this is the game changer.

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So I'll just mentioned a couple of things. So we

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know for at least three decades now in the search

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community that in dual career couples, the woman disproportionately praise

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pays a price because of geography, and it doesn't have

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to be a new job. So imagine a woman working

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in a large company in Boston if the next promotion

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means that she has to move to San Francisco. But

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the research shows is that in many cases the person

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is not able to move because the partner or sometimes

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even the kids don't want to move. So geography becomes

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a spanner in the wheel in career progression. Work from

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Anywhere solves that problem. Now both men and women can

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take a promotion without moving, without relocating. That's the first part.

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Think about military spouses they've had no career continuity whatsoever,

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or the spouses of diplomats, same problem. Work from Anywhere

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solves that problem. And what my research shows is that

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these groups of workers become incredibly low and stay longer

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and work harder and a're more productive under a work

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from Anywhere scenario. And then in the book and I

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can go deeper, alis like there are many ways to

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build connection, but the most important idea is to bring

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people together at some frequency that works best for the team.

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So for some teams, it could be weekly meetings. For

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some teams, it could be monthly meetings. For other teams

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could it could even mean a quarterly retreat. But when

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the team is together, the only thing that people are

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doing is socializing. So no one is sitting in the

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corridor wearing headphones getting on zoom, no one is sitting

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in the corner office working on Excel. For that week

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or those three four days, you are spending it with

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the team in a very deep, meaningful way. And that's

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the best way to build connection.

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I believe, Oh yeah, quality experiences totally and I really

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appreciate this is why I get so excited about your

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research and your work, Raj, is that you're giving you

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your really extending the opportunity for more humans across the

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planet to participate in the world of work that in

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a way that works on their terms, and therefore you're

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actually helping people to realize more of their potential. And

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I could get behind that every day all day long. Okay,

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So speaking of that, we got to talk next about

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some of the ways that working from home helps human

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and social impact really really interesting things. You already talked

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a bit about how it helps empower people and families

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to stay together and to be able to have more

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of what they want from their respective lives, but then

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you also talk about rebalancing economic geography, and I was

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really interested. You do talk about the research that Suhani

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Jalada and also Lisa Hoe have been doing which has

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really speaking to elevating employment opportunities for women in countries

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and communities where the social and religious norms are stacked

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against them. So working from home opens that for them,

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and I think that's really compelling. So if we could

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talk a little bit about the human and social impact

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and working from home affords.

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Yeah, sure, But first of all, you know that study

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is a work from home study, which I respect my

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book in my research mostly is about work from anywhere.

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It's about choosing the geography. The same principles apply. So

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what they find in their research is in certain communities. So,

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first of all, their main motivation is that in India,

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it is really surprising that a pretty progressive country with

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a very vibrant democracy has a really a bimissile female

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labor rate participation, So it's really really low. And one

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of the reasons they argue it's low is that in

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many communities in India, women are not expected to socially

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because of the family norms, step out and be working.

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And so now what this remote work option does is

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it alleviates this problem. And what they find fascinatingly is

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that in many cases, the family doesn't even know the

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woman is working. I think they're playing some sort of

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you know, working on some app on their phone, right,

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But the fact that they are now participating in some

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economic activity for which they're getting paid, it's something that

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you know, it's opening up a new whole world for

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these women. Yeah, and so I think and I've seen

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replications of this study in Africa. Now the same issue there.

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But you know, just on that theme, the one thing

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we didn't talk about is people with neurodiverse conditions or disabilities, right,

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And you know, the research has shown that these people

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don't want to live in a bustling city and commute

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every day. They would much prefer live in a smaller

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town where they have access to their amenities. Work from

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Anywhere opens up the door of employment to them. So

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I can keep going on and on and on about

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how this is inclusive and how it allows multiple people

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to participate in the labor force.

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Love your passion. Let's grab a quick break on that note.

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I'm your host doctor really scored. Has we've been on

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the air where doctor Perthraraj Childry. He goes by Raj, who,

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while serving on the faculties of Wharton and Harvard Business

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Schools for over a decade, has been studying how technology

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is shifting where we work and how we work, as

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well as the impact of AI on organizations and how

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a on automation can help both desk workers and desk

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list workers work from anywhere. We've been talking so far

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about the idea behind work from how working from anywhere

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and also its benefits to companies as well as its

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impact on families and socially as well. After the break,

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we're going to talk about really how leaders can embrace

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implementation in the future of work. We'll be right back.

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Doctor Release Courts has as a management consultant specializing in

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meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps

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companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose

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inspired leadership and meaning infuse cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance,

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and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to

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invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her

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at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get

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your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose

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with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or

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to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to

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Alise A Lisee at eliscortes dot com. Now back to

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working on Purpose.

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Thanks for stating with us, and welcome back to working

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on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes, as I

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also am dedicated to help them create a world where

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organizations thrive because they're people thrive. They're led by inspirational

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leaders that help them and find them, contribute their greatness,

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and we do business a better the world. I keep

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researching and writing my own books, so one of my

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latest came out. It's called The Great Revitalization. How activating

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meaning and purpose can radically in life in your business.

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I wrote to help leaders better understand the lay of

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today's discerning and diverse workforce and what they can do

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to provide something that will make them want to come

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to work for them, and then provide twenty two best

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projects to equip you to be able to inculcate that.

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You can find my books on Amazon or my personal

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site at least Cortes dot com if you are now

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just joining us. My guest is Prith Barrage Chowdri He's

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the author of the World is Your Office How work

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from anywhere boost talent, productivity and innovation. So I want

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to talk next here if we can raj about how

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we can implement this and how leaders can embrace it,

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because I do know there are fears out there, and

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we certainly know right out of the gate we do

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need some leaders to be able to embrace trust and

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allow for and unleash the autonomy. And I know that

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that is a major issue for many organizations. And so

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can we talk a little bit about what you recommend

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for leaders to either develop in terms of their competencies

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their behaviors to be able to embrace this idea, especially

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around trust and autonomy.

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Yes, I'll just summarize, you know, and then the book

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gives a chapter by chapter detail on all of us.

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So the first thing that you know I write about

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in the book is that this cannot be a one

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size fits all for the whole company. The unit of

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analysis should not be the company and shouldn't be the

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person either. The right unit of analysis is the team.

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So the team should have freedom to choose what I

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call among three forms of hybrid. So what I try

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to do in the book is expand our imagination about

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what hybrid is. What most people call hybrid, I call

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it weekly hybrid, where the team is meeting every week,

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so the frequency of meeting is weekly. In the book,

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I write about two other forms of hybrid, which I

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call monthly hybrid and quarterly hybrid. So in a monthly

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hybrid model, the team working from anywhere for three weeks

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every month, and for one week they're coming together for

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three or four days. So imagine living in Connecticut for

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the whole month, and then you are taking the train

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or driving down to New York City to meet the

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team in the fourth week every month for three days,

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and then you get back to your home in Connecticut.

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So that's monthly hybrid. And the European Central Bank, one

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of the largest federal banks in the world, is now

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practicing monthly hybrid. They let their bankers live anywhere in

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the EU for about one hundred ten days a year,

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and the condition is that you have to meet your

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team once every month for a few days. The other

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form is the quarterly hybrid model, where now you're living

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anywhere in the country or sometimes even anywhere in the world,

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and you are coming together once a quarter for a retreat.

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And what I do in the book is I say,

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once the team has chosen whether to practice weekly, month

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or quarterly hybrid, there are a set of management practices

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that you need to master, so I can go through

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all of them. But if you think about a weekly team,

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the most important practice is scheduling. Because when a company

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says come to the office three days or two days,

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if part of the team is coming Monday Tuesday and

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part of the team is coming Thursday Friday. Then the

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whole team is never together. You need to get your

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schedules aligned. And similarly for monthly and quarterly hybrid you

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need to do some other management practices Differently. You have

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to codify knowledge, you have to participate in virtual water coolers,

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you have to get the off site planned really really well.

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So in the book, I say the first choice is

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choose among the three hybrid models, and based on that

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recipe book I layout. Then you have to you know

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what management practices you need to master as a team.

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How would you be able to start to address I've

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seen this all the time, Raj, this idea of managing

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my present smith. If I see you, I think you

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might be working instead of really looking at the output

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of productivity or what is it that actually want you

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to do? And I do know that under that very

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much is a mistrust. I do not believe my people

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are working. How can leaders start to move away from

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that anchored What do I want to say, chain around

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at the ankle?

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Yeah, So the two things to be done. The mechanical

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thing to do, which I write about in the book,

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is to start measuring performance based on quality of work

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and not how many hours you worked, how many days

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you worked, how many times the manager sees your face.

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That's the mechanical thing to do, and it's a tough

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thing to do, but it's very doable. And with one company.

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What I'm doing right now is I'm going by role,

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task by task and revisiting all the KPIs for how

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people are getting their performance rating. But the more fundamental,

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deeper issue, I think what you're hinting at, Alice is

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something I completely agree that there is a fundamental lack

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of trust among some managers, I wouldn't say everyone, and

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a certain graphic of managers in my opinion, where they

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think that if people are working remotely, they are shirking.

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My response to that is you are confounding your lack

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of trust with remote work. If a person is a shirker,

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trust me, that person will also shirk in the office.

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They will appear to be busy and they'll have other

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things open on the computer. So it's a hiring problem

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Is the World YOUR Office? The Work From Anywhere Workforce Trend You Just May Want to Adopt

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