• Remote work is harder to find. That could push workers to consider small firms or self-employment.
• Some bosses point to a desire for higher productivity, but remote work can boost engagement.
• Some roles, like those with tight deadlines, might be better suited to being in the office.

A couple of years ago, not long after getting divorced, Sherita Janielle wanted to make a big move.

So, she put most of her belongings in storage and headed from her pandemic redoubt in Austin to sunny Lisbon. After more than a month in Portugal's capital, Janielle eventually made her way to Colombia, Uruguay, and Argentina.

"I've been popping in and out of places," she told Business Insider. In between, she often returns to the US to see family and friends — and swap out her wardrobe.

Shifting her career from finance to marketing allowed Janielle to work from wherever, a luxury she's come to prize. It's one that fewer workers might enjoy in 2025.

Only about half of full-time workers can do their jobs remotely, according to polling firm Gallup. And among those, some who work for big-name companies like Amazon are increasingly seeing an end to workdays spent in sweatpants and camera-ready shirts as companies mandate a full RTO.

So, to keep or land remote roles, which are already harder to find than in the pandemic era, workers might have to consider going off on their own or looking to smaller firms.

Productivity worries

There's no consensus on whether a full RTO is "better" than hybrid or entirely remote roles. Bosses demanding that workers show up more in person often cite a desire to maintain culture, spur innovation, and foster collaboration. Some point to concerns about productivity.

Nicole Kyle, who researches the future of work, said that IRL work doesn't actually guarantee increased productivity and performance. However, these metrics can go up when employers allow for more remote or hybrid setups, said Kyle, who's cofounder of CMP Research, in part because workers feel more autonomy.

"Nothing is less engaging to employees than not having flexibility and choice," she said.

Gallup notes that full-time remote or hybrid workers tend to have "significantly higher" engagement than on-site workers.

Even so, there are times when being in the workplace makes sense, said Lisa Walker, a managing partner at the executive search firm DHR Global. She told BI that for roles like those in operations or where there's a short-term deadline, remote work can present challenges.

"You want to walk down the hall. You need an answer. You need to react," Walker said. That's harder on Slack.

Going off on your own

A decade ago, after years spent working in offices at big agencies, Curtis Sparrer cofounded a fully remote PR and marketing firm. Too often, he said, startups had to choose between paying rent or making payroll.

"I said, 'What if we never had to make that choice?'" he told BI.

Sparrer and his business partner have grown the firm, called Bospar, to about 70 people. In the early days, the company relied on conference calls and text messages to keep workers connected. Now, it uses tools like Slack and video calls.

The firm's productivity isn't a worry, Sparrer said, because workers are in frequent contact with each other. If someone does slack off, managers will address it, he said. Otherwise, he sees the quiet of home as a boon to productivity.

"When it comes to thoughtful, focused work, nothing beats work from home because that's the way you cut down on distractions," Sparrer said.

To help keep workers connected, the firm occasionally brings people together in person, though not to work.

"They want to do all the cultural things, but they absolutely do not want to work," he said. That's because the firm's employees report they do better work independently. So, they instead use in-person gatherings to connect with colleagues.

Focus on output

Deborah Perry Piscione, cofounder of Work3 Institute and coauthor of the forthcoming book "Employment is Dead," told BI that focusing on output rather than where the job gets done can be savvy for employers.

"I don't understand what the fear is. At the end of the day, this is not about control. It's about output and productivity," she said.

Piscione said that early in her career, working in Washington, DC, there was an expectation that employees should be at their desks from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., no matter what. She said she never understood why she had to stick around if she was more efficient or skipped lunch to wrap up her work early.

Increasingly, Piscione said, employers and employees need to view work as a partnership. That's especially important in the face of technology like artificial intelligence that could eliminate roles or rejigger how people do their jobs.

Besides, she said, workers have more ways of getting by than only a few years ago.

"We're in this hyper, super gig economy where I don't have to take your crap anymore," Piscione said, referring to overbearing employers.

For Janielle, the globe-hopping marketer who describes herself as an older millennial, an additional remote job looked enticing: chief nomad officer. She applied for and got the role at Shift, which makes a web browser aimed at boosting productivity. The goal of her work is to demonstrate that it's possible to get a lot done from anywhere, she said.

Janielle said she enjoys showcasing what's doable. She's been to some 45 countries and said the more she travels, the more she meets others who are succeeding outside the office without sacrificing productivity.

"There's still a lot of space in the economy for these remote workers to thrive," she said.

Do you have something to share about remote work? Business Insider would like to hear from you. Email our workplace team from a nonwork device at [email protected] with your story, or ask for one of our reporter's Signal numbers.

• Kyle Ankney is looking for a remote role in PR because he has cerebral palsy.
• Ankney's insurance covers in-home care, complicating in-office work.
• The 34-year-old has found there are fewer remote roles in PR — a broader trend in the workforce.

Kyle Ankney, 34, lives near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and works in public relations, including running his own firm. He's looking for a remote role in PR because he has cerebral palsy, which limits his physical abilities, and his insurance covers in-home care. Business Insider has reviewed medical records that confirm his diagnosis. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I never really wanted to run my own PR agency. Yet a client who didn't want to lose me convinced me to start my own firm. Now, the client is going on an indefinite hiatus and isn't sure if they'll return.

So, for the past few months, I've been trying to re-enter a traditional PR agency-type role, to have a team to grow — to do all the things I enjoy, minus running a business. I'm looking at, I would say, mid-senior level or something around director level.

I've been doing this work for more than 10 years, quite successfully — not to toot my own horn.

One recruiter told me I was super qualified but said I was probably hitting bumps because when you get to my level of experience, many people are expected to manage teams. Then, the recruiter told me I might have to consider looking for a more junior role because most managing jobs would be in person.

Some of the conversation now about remote work goes beyond it just being a perk. It's almost like it's a drawback for some employers.

My condition requiring the nurse three times a day is the reason that remote has gone from a luxury for me to now being a necessity.

The way my insurance works, it only allows the nurse to come to one address. So, even if I were to find a job here in South Florida, I would still have to be remote because of that.

Getting this care took decades

It took me 20 years on a waiting list to get this level of home care by a nurse covered through Medicaid. If I leave Florida and go anywhere else, I lose those services and have to go to the back of the line.

Needing extra help from a nurse started four years ago when I was 30. It changed my world in the worst way. It now feels like the cerebral palsy and the wheelchair and all of the other BS that comes with it is nothing in comparison to needing the nurse to help me go to the bathroom. This I literally, physically, cannot handle on my own.

So, it's been a rough year trying to run a business, trying to find a job — it's just been a lot. I'm not trying to be completely unrealistic, but having as much resistance as I've had has been surprising just because you're taught, at least in society, that the more senior you become and the more experience you get under your belt, the easier it is to make connections and find opportunities.

As someone who's managed a team of six, I know how difficult it was to direct them remotely because there was a lot of oversight needed to make sure that mistakes weren't being made. There was a lot of back and forth, and ultimately, I was able to figure out how to do that quite well at my agency.

I try to reiterate whenever I have opportunities to meet with anyone in my field that working from home is necessary and that I've figured out how to manage a team remotely. I say, "I understand that this may be a point of hesitation for you. However, I've been able to navigate it this way for so many years."

When the recruiter told me I should consider more junior roles, my ego was like, "That's absurd." Yet now that I've been looking for four months, which feels like four years, my savings are drying up, and I'm not making ends meet. I've been lowering all the search criteria and the salary range and I'm not really finding a bunch more.

The last time I was looking for a job, I got remote positions just by chance, but I would have been able to do in-office if it was absolutely required — and now I cannot.

There are fewer remote roles

In 2020, because of the pandemic, I saw a lot of PR opportunities becoming fully remote. It was a game changer for me in terms of opening up opportunities. But because I've been running my own agency for several years now, I hadn't been paying attention to what was remote versus hybrid versus in-person. I was shocked by the level of swing back.

I've reached out to everyone I know in PR, which is a substantial group. They're saying things like, "I'll send people your way."

I have looked up every agency I wanted to work for, and I wrote a blunt email. It wasn't, "Hey, I need a job." It was, "Hi, I respect you. I admire you. I need advice because here's what I'm running into. I would love the opportunity just to pick your brain." That has been successful in the sense that I have had three or four conversations with people at different agencies, yet no one is quite hiring.

If there's a role that I'm particularly interested in, I'll go to RocketReach, I'll look for the best email that I can find, and I'll say, "I've already applied. Here's my situation." I continue to follow up to try to make myself stand out.

You have to try. I'm shocked by how many postings and emails I've received that say, "We're not hiring for this role, but we want to collect résumés." Or if you apply for positions, you get "We're on pause." Or it's just complete ghosting. I've experienced all three.

I don't know if this is the best- or worst-case scenario, but I recently interviewed with an agency, and it went to six rounds. The role was listed as remote. Then they were like, "You know, we might need travel to be involved, so we have to take this a different direction."

You would think you would know that at round one. I don't just blindly apply to jobs. I read for things like whether travel is required. That particular posting said nothing about travel. So there have been a whole bunch of hurdles.

It's just a game of resilience at this point — just holding on and crossing your fingers and praying.

Do you have something to share about what you're seeing in your job search? Business Insider would like to hear from you. Email our workplace team from a nonwork device at [email protected] with your story, or ask for one of our reporter's Signal numbers.