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AT THE MOMENT, there are 650 remote job vacancies, at the very least, here in Ireland.
That’s excluding the IDA’s recent announcement of 100 remote jobs. So why don’t more skilled job seekers in the regions and rural Ireland know about them?
Or to quote a community member of ours: “Every Gitlab job available in Dublin is available in Donegal, I just can’t understand why someone isn’t standing with a giant sign in every town in Donegal shouting this daily.”
This is exactly why we created Grow Remote. We’re a group of community people who started a WhatsApp group in 2018 when we were curious about remote work and how that could help our communities.
As a social enterprise group, we felt aggrieved that no one told us about remote jobs in brilliant companies – companies where remote was a way of working and not a perk.
Slow changes
For years we as community developers have been demanding remote work, but what we really meant was remote from Dublin, and local to us. Remote working from anywhere, as location-agnostic is still new.
So if we have been asking for it for so long and it’s here, why do we not have a town crier? The problem is that there is no-one who would pay a sign holder, a town crier, or anyone else to promote the vacancies.
Because when it comes to remote work, companies don’t need to advertise locally. All of the traditional channels like careers days, local recruiters, or posters in the local shops are redundant.
We need to step in to build awareness. We need the equivalent of the campaigns and programmes we ran when we were building awareness around the internet in Ireland, something akin to Brexit Ready, but for remote.
Today’s announcement
The new government strategy on remote working is a welcome development. After two consultations it has summarised the viewpoints of the many stakeholders.
It is not, however, a magic bullet. Nor could it be. It is a foundation over which we need to solve for two additional challenges – increasing the supply of location-agnostic employment and stimulating demand from all corners of the country.
In increasing the supply of sustainable remote working opportunities we need a shift from remote-friendly to remote-first cultures in Irish organisations.
This is the only way that we can make our hybrid working model of future work for both people and profit.
For years, large Irish employers have done remote on an ad hoc basis. We have over 70 communities of remote workers at Grow Remote and we meet these people regularly.
They have given up on any career prospects, but are happy to settle to live where they love. This is no longer good enough - not for a company’s bottom line and not for the people who should have equal access to employment opportunities.
If your remote teams can’t progress, they won’t stay. And that removes any benefit you could see in remote work aiding talent retention targets. If processes are not designed to be remote-first, only those in the office will be able to perform their job to its maximum potential, so forget about productivity gains.
Founder of Automattic, the company behind WordPress, Mat Mullenweg devised the 5 levels of remote. The top tier is ‘remote nirvana’. He describes this as working more effectively than could have ever happened with 100% in the office. And it is so possible.
Having worked with over 30 companies on the transition to remote – we’ve seen first hand how companies can progress up the levels.
Pushing for a cultural shift
We need to create new distribution channels for this form of employment. We need to stimulate demand from all corners of the country.
Remote has always seemed like an elusive thing that someone should really do something about, sometime. Not only do we need a cultural shift in companies, but we need it in our communities.
When it comes to remote work, our communities are still waiting for a large Irish household name to go remote before it becomes a real possibility they can embrace.
If they get more curious about remote work, they may search online, where some WFH community groups consist mostly of scams and pyramid schemes. There is a big gap between our communities and the jobs that can enable them to thrive.
Have you ever heard of Shopify launching in Roscommon – a €1.5 billion company with 5,000 staff? Why is it that although one of the largest eCommerce sites in the world employs talent all across Roscommon, and beyond, we still don’t really associate the two?
There is still a common local perception that ‘there are no jobs here.’ Is it about seeing a ribbon cut in the local media? Automattic and Gitlab, two of the world’s largest remote companies already employ people all over Ireland, yet there’s no fanfare about this.
This was because when they advertised the jobs, they did so without specifying a location. It just so happened that the best talent was based in West Cork, Westport, Cavan, Leitrim and everywhere in between.
Where do we go from here?
We can talk about the right to disconnect, but if you’re not working in a culture where there is an effort made to include remote workers, you’ll be working longer just to stay visible.
We can legislate for the right to request remote work, but in one company we worked with, 74% of people managers wanted people in the office, and 90% of workers wanted to be out of it. If the culture isn’t there, you can forget it.
Now is the time to build upon the work of the Western Development Commission (WDC), The National Association of Community Enterprise Centres (NACEC), and the government. We need to turn to large Irish companies and get some real leadership in transitioning to remote in a way that works for people, profit, and planet.
Remote.com has dozens of well-paying jobs open now, and that’s just one company, and plenty are non-tech and go from admin to legal and sales. Why haven’t we heard more about that in our social or mainstream media?
Remote work is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Covid-19, as difficult as it has been, has proven to all that remote working is possible, overnight. For remote working to become more streamlined, we need new methods of distribution.
We’re still talking about remote work in Ireland as though it’s something someone should really do sometime, but it’s here right now, so how do we do a better job of raising awareness about it?
The announcement today is a very encouraging step to a remote ecosystem. The upside is that as a country we still have an opportunity for first-mover advantage – to do something that hits home more than the mover campaigns that generate so much fanfare. In a new world where these jobs can be anywhere, we can land them locally.
Tracy Keogh is co-founder of Grow Remote.
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Another attack on private property rights. THIS is why we have a housing crisis. Sure why would anyone want to become a landlord now. This ruling sets a dangerous precedent and will actually lead to more landlords leaving the market and will put a stop to new landlords entering the market.
@MTB Mayo: invest in the stock market . Put your money in a different market . You would be mad to stay in it with the incoming government
@MTB Mayo: that’s their plan. Get everybody into public housing and then if you don’t support Putín isk politicians you get thrown out of your state housing.
@MTB Mayo: The ‘signs’ have been there since the end of covid. I had two houses rented out in North Cork…..luckily, great Tennants for years & years…..no issues re rent or damage—- earlier this year both Tennants advised they were moving on ( & best of luck to them)……. ” For Sale” signs went up straight away…..both sales closed in September. I’d stay miles clear of the rental market in Ireland…stay well clear…… any landlords that haven’t heeded the signs will only have themselves to blame.
@MTB Mayo: are you advocating that landlords not be held to any standards or rules? He violated multiple conditions, including advising some people of their eviction by text message rather than the legal documentation required. He was offered market value for the property by DCC but not only refused to sell to them but refused to engage with them at all. He used dubious tactics to try and get around the tryellstown agreement until he gave up the other day knowing he couldn’t prove hardship when DCC were offering market value. Decent landlords won’t leave the market because of this because decent landlords would never treat their tenants like he has.
@Peter Laurent: International Equities in case they start nationalising Irish companies. Venezuela, which has “friends” amongst irish politicians nationalised Smurfit’s branch there. Irish media didn’t publicise for whatever reason ?
@MTB Mayo: imagine believing such insanity… Ireland’s rental market is very mildly regulated… Germany has far less housing issues with a market that is infinitely more regulated. In some places they have excess stock.
More regulation, more housing, less problems.
This guy ^^^ wants you to believe that the market must be given free reign… Well it essentially has been, for decsdes. The result? 10k homeless people. Most of whom are Irish.
Maybe stop listening to people when their arguements are based on a profit motive. Crazy right?
Stop believing right wing nonsense. Better systems exist, and produce better results.
@Chris O’Brien: U could not compare Germany with Ireland Most people rent there U have to look after the property if u are a tenent, The house or appartment is painted mostly white when u move in you can paint it whatever colour u want but u must paint it white before u leave plus its inspected before u go with no breakages or damage
@Peter Laurent: a lot of capital is already on the move ahead of a possible IRA government. Anyone with savings would be mad to leave them in an Irish bank.
I’m glad for those tenants but don’t agree the building should become social housing.
@GVR: Sets a bad precedent, refuse to leave and get the council to buy the house for you.
Good luck to them though, good win for them.
@GVR: the alternative was making multiple families homeless. He could have sold the building to a another private landlord and kept his tennents in situ but he refused to do that. So Dublin city council did their job and stepped in to offer to buy it. The alternative was multiple families in emergency accommodation which costs a fortune and eventuality rehomed in council houses anyway.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: Sure why don’t the council just house everyone?…..why do some people get handed a gaff for a pittance and have it maintained for life and the rest of us in the real world have to do it on our own?
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: That’s the catch 22 situation with social/council housing. Unless the council can deduct the outstanding (low) rent directly at source, there’s zero incentive to pay the rent in the first place, because the council would have to put you in emergency accommodation at a much higher cost. Therefore, it will never happen.
In addition to this is the issue that you can “inherit” the council tenancy.
As far as as know, that’s independent on whatever income you are and if you really need the 3-bedroom house as a single.
@uUleRhCu: anyone under a certain income is entitled to apply for social housing. It’s always been the case and always will. That’s not what this discussion is about. But if you want to do away with social housing feel free to run for office on that platform and see how far you’ll get.
@Wolfgang Bonow: yeah for sure there are issues with the system the ones you mentioned probably being the biggest.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: nobody is “entitled” to anything. You apply and if you are “eligible” you will be approved and put in the housing list.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: could he have sold to another landlord ? Don’t think there are many jumping in to buy property for renting as for the Council were they giving the market value? , nothing is clear here If this guy was anxious to sell the property why not sell with tennents in place He must not be getting the market value why would he put himself through a load of crap with the RTB & evicting a lot of people
@Helen McKernan: read what I wrote again. I LITERALLY said the same thing as you. Some people just love to argue.
@Sheila McNulty: yes, the council did offer him market value. I agree, there aren’t many private buyers at that level wanting to buy to let, I was just giving an example. But he was offered market value by the council, that I know for a fact. I am also aware of the income he was making from letting those apartments, that’s public information. Not exactly an amount that would cause “financial hardship”. I’m assuming he had an offer for the building from someone else, maybe more for the site than the building, otherwise he would have engaged with the DCC. It was his choice to get in the mess with the RTB, by issuing illegal evictions. I still don’t think he’ll sell to the council though. If I were to guess I’d say he will reissue evections but do it legally this time.
@Helen McKernan: She said ‘entitled to apply’. Best to actually read comments before replying to them.
What makes it ok to be allowed to comment on this article? Some kind of agenda?
Stephen Donnelly is the best health minister ever, also Darragh O Brien is the best housing minister
@Paul Gorry:
That you Mary Richard Bluebot Mongo McNeill of FG FrapeRoom infamy infamy….they all have itsh in for me!?! €;@)
Build more houses = more homes available
Its not rocket science. 4 thousand children will spent Christmas in a cramped hotel room, not for their first time either.
Half a billion. Half a billion. Not spent by Mr. Housing minister not spent this year on housing.
Disgraceful, absolute disgrace the government are.
Half a billion. How many homes could that provide?
Record numbers of (registered) homeless. The figure is more like double that with people sleeping on couches, floors etc. of friends.
Time for change real change enough is enough.
@Denis Rathsallagh Brady: Don’t think u have the true picture or that its as simple as u say How many places were there where people objected to housing in Dublin Which would have caused terrible delays also places to build & full planning permission It takes a lot of time plus not easy to get builders or any tradespeople don’t imagine a billion was left just sitting in the Bank just to anoy u or me
@Denis Rathsallagh Brady: not the housing minister, the local authorities are the ones that failed to spend the money.
But it’s hard to build houses when you can’t get people to do the work. 85,000 long term unemployed won’t work on building sites, it’s too hard and you have to get out of bed every morning.
have your say