Hey Insider, Happy Hump Day 🐪! Today is May 3rd, an overlooked date due to its more popular siblings - “May the Fourth Be With You” and “Cinco de Mayo”, but don’t be fooled May 3rd is an important day in internet history.

On this day in 1978, ARPANET received an ad that was believed to be the first spam e-mail!

But don’t worry, today we have the furthest thing from spam for you…

Today’s email is a 4min 50sec read:

• 🌍 World Economic Forum’s remote work outlook

• 📞 How meetings have changed since 2020

• 🍪 Pay with your hand using this new implantable chip

Do you see how we used a chocolate chip emoji as a substitute for a microchip? Yeah, we thought that was clever too! But we have an even “sweeter” start for this email… how realistic is it to convert offices into apartments?

🔬 DEEP DIVE

Converting Offices Into Apartments: Bringing Downtowns Into The Remote Work Era

By this point, you’ve likely heard the argument that due to the popularity of remote work, we should convert office buildings in downtowns into what cities really need - more living space.

But is this really possible? Or even what downtowns need? Let’s break down the pros and cons of the office-to-apartment conversion debate:

👍 FOR Office Conversions:

• The downtown office demise is not the cause of COVID alone, in fact, office space usage has been dropping in downtowns long before the pandemic.

• Many downtown office buildings are from the 70s and 80s & companies have been moving out of downtowns in search of more modern office space

• While office buildings need major updates to become living spaces, some of the most expensive necessities (like HVAC) are already in place.

• Converting offices into apartment buildings will help turn downtowns into vibrant 24/7 neighborhoods.

📖 Read more: The developers that see dollar signs in abandoned downtowns

❌ AGAINST Office Conversions:

• While some office buildings can be easily converted, the layout of most office buildings is not conducive to a living space due to the placement of windows.

• Downtowns definitely need more living space, but office building conversion alone simply can’t meet the demand. They can be a small part of the answer, but there needs to be a larger plan (a recent study found that convertible offices could only meet 11% of Denver’s housing demand)

• While downtowns need more residents, what they really need is more “mixed-use” development. Offices don’t just need to be converted into offices but into entertainment venues, retail, restaurants, etc.

It’s easy to see the 50% vacancy rates of office buildings in some American cities and quickly jump to the conclusion that we just need to convert those buildings to housing, but unfortunately, it’s not that simple…

It turns out that the number of office buildings that could be converted into apartments at a cost that makes sense is very low

Cities need a much larger plan in place for transitioning downtowns into a remote work-first, post-pandemic world. Downtowns need to become 24/7 locations instead of 9-5 parking lots, and while office conversions are certainly a part of that solution, they alone won’t be enough.

💬 FAV TWEETS

Next time someone tells you offices improve collaboration, send them this!

🚨 WORD ON THE WEB

🌍 World Economic Forum: Here’s what we learned from 3 years of working remotely

• The UK is the most remote work-friendly country in the English-speaking world.

• The most remote-friendly jobs are those with high computer use (obviously) and that on average require higher levels of education.

• You don’t need to work in person to have highly effective collaboration, but you do need to be intentional about designing your organization to be remote-first

• Many countries, including the UK, Norway, and Spain are passing laws to support remote work

💻 Four ways to bridge an international time zone gap when working remotely

• Don’t assume that your international employees have the same traditions and expectations around work. Over-communicate what they are looking for and what you expect out of them

• Embrace technology as a way to get your work done async

• Host regular video chat check-ins. This can be difficult when working with people from Asia, but making the sacrifice to stay up late or get up really early from time to time to video call your team is priceless.

📞 No, remote employees aren’t becoming less engaged: Remote meetings are getting smarter and shorter

• Research published in Harvard Business Review analyzed data from popular video chat software like Zoom & Microsoft Teams

• The findings show that since 2020 meetings have gotten shorter by 25% and more frequent. In 2022 there were 59% more meetings per employee compared to 2020

• Meetings have also become smaller. In 2020 the average number of people on call was 20 🤯 Since then the average call attendance has dropped by 50% most likely driven by a large set of 1-on-1 meetings.

• The data shows that meetings are also more spontaneous. In 2022 a whopping 66% of 1-on-1 meetings were unscheduled compared to only 17% in 2020

• INSIDER TAKE: More spontaneous meetings might actually not be a great sign. It points towards the use of meetings as a fix for common problems instead of relying on documentation. Documentation is a critical component of being remote-first and async-friendly.

📆 UPCOMING EVENTS:

May 24-28: Vivel [📍 Multiple Locations, Turkey] - networking meets music at this one-of-a-kind conference for location-independent professionals

May 28th-June 3: Nomad Cruise 11 [📍 Mediterranean Sea] - The original conference at sea is back! Join 250 digital nomads on board a cruise ship in the Med to discuss remote work, business, and personal growth

May 28-June 4: Porto Santo Nomad Fest [📍 Porto Santo, Portugal] - A festival celebrating the digital nomad community, on a beautiful island off the coast of Madeira. Limited attendance.

June 16-19: Camp Indie [📍 Kent, Connecticut] - adult summer camp & conference for digital nomads & those living an unconventional life

June 25-July 2: Bansko Nomad Fest [📍 Bansko, Bulgaria] - for digital nomads, freelancers, and founders in the mountains of Bulgaria

💾 TECH

Sci-Fi IRL: You Can Now Implant a Chip For Daily Use

🌍 WFA JOBS:

Looking for a job that’s not just remote, but that you can work from anywhere in the world? We’ve done the heavy lifting for you. Check out these awesome WFA positions 👇

⭐️ Senior Project Manager for Cloud Applications @ University of Virginia

⭐️ Contact Researcher @ BBE Marketing

⭐️ People Operations Technical Assistant @LeadSimple

📊 POLLS:

On Friday we asked you about your experience with Airbnb and if you feel like you’ve ever been deceived by an Airbnb listing. To be honest, we were shocked by how many of you have dealt with this before:

Here’s what some of you had to say on the topic:

🏚️ J.K: “Miami Beach listing looked perfect, and was two blocks from the beach. Alas, we should have paid attention to the square footage in the listing (846). Everything in the place was 2/3 the standard size! I’m 6’1”, so it felt very crowded and small. So beware the photography! Just because the proportions look correct doesn’t mean they are.”

🏚️ H.T: “We stayed at an Airbnb that was described on a golf course resort with a view. It ended up being an apartment complex off a busy 8 lane road. Definitely stretched the description.”

Thanks for spending a few minutes of your day with us, we’d love to hear from you!

Please take a second and let us know what you like about the newsletter and if there is anything you think we can do better 👇

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See you Friday, Cheers 🍻

Today’s email was written by Mitko Karshovski