Remote teams

Remote teams

Many organisations are entering the year facing economic headwinds, while the early promises of AI have yet to be fully realised and hybrid working has still not fully settled. Leaders will be asking what it will take to unlock higher productivity in a period of uncertainty. At the same time, the labour market will feel unusually static. With a frozen jobs market for recent graduates, fewer people will want to take risks by moving roles.

If you were building global teams in 2025, you wouldn't need me to tell you it was a crazy year. We experienced economic volatility and AI disruption. Plus, tightened borders caused companies to adjust and readjust their approaches. 2026 won't be calmer. But the elements we need to master to stay competitive are now coming into focus: Navigating mobility disruption, creating unity across increasingly distributed workforces, and building the transparent, compliant infrastructure needed to employ people anywhere.

I believe we've yet to fix the challenge around silos, but I have seen a lot of people being unafraid to start again and find their new potential, whether that's in a new workplace, a new country, or even a completely new sector. There's an appetite to learn more, know more, and do more, and honestly I love that. I think the bravery is also in the ability to share.

Modern workforce analytics help teams understand how work flows, where friction appears, and how productivity and well-being intersect. Sargsyan describes this as the foundation of "work intelligence," a model where time is just one signal among many. "The future isn't about tracking hours," he says. "It's about understanding what work produced, why it mattered, and how effort translates into results."

People love routine. It brings predictability, a sense of control, and a framework for our hopes, aspirations, and expectations. Every 365 days, we get the chance to close one chapter and begin another-celebrating what went well, letting go of what didn't, and setting intentions for what's next. Whether that means a new job, a lifestyle change, or a move to a new place, I hope the year ahead meets your wishes with a bit of luck and a lot of possibility.

For industries built on rigid schedules and office walls, Gen Z's flight toward flexibility isn't just a trend; it's a tectonic shift that threatens to leave traditional careers gathering dust. It's no secret that Gen Z is shaking up the workforce with their unique perspective on work, life, and everything in between. From their preference for digital interactions to their demand for work-life balance, this generation is steering away from careers that once seemed stable and go-to options.

Dave Ramsey says he prefers working from an office with real people because he believes working from home doesn't deliver results. Discussing the impact of the Great Resignation, a trend where Americans voluntarily quit their jobs en masse to seek better opportunities or retire, he said on "The Ramsey Show" that companies have repeatedly tested the work-from-home model and found that it does not yield results.

"They will see me chirp in on some random thread in some random channel," Grimm said. "People will be like, 'How the hell did you see this?'"

By the end of October, David, who works at a roughly 2,000-person finance firm in New York, already knew he'd be working during the holiday season this year. Usually at the office, he learned he'd at least get to work remotely between December 26 and January 1-with the way the financial calendar fell, it was inevitable that he couldn't just disappear for clients (like institutional investors and family offices) during that time.

Got a podcast idea but no time to produce it? Virtual assistant services now include full podcast management. Your VA can handle audio editing, write show notes, upload episodes to platforms, and even create short clips for social media. They use tools like Descript and Adobe Premiere Pro. This saves you almost 10 hours per episode. Many CEOs are using this service to build their personal brand without touching a microphone.

And I know I'm not alone. Collaboration overload has crept into creative teams everywhere-shaped by hybrid schedules, the pressure to stay visible when we're apart, and a steady flow of digital tools like Slack and Teams that keep us connected but can slowly chip away at focus. Creative teams have reached a point where we are spending so much time meeting, messaging, and circling each other's work that nobody has the space or clarity to actually create.

When was the last time you had a good day of work? The kind where you got into flow and stayed there long enough to think deeply about a problem? Paul Graham wrote about this in 2009: a single meeting can wreck an entire half-day for someone who needs uninterrupted time to build something. Sixteen years later, we've added Slack, Teams, always-on video calls, and a culture of instant responsiveness.