As the leader of one of America’s most successful remote work programs, I agree the critics are right—but their solutions are all wrong
Despite its growing momentum, remote work has accumulated its fair share of critics over the years. Corporate and government leaders frequently reissue return-to-office mandates, citing concerns about performance. Professor and bestselling author Scott Galloway has [blank] remote work as one of the most detrimental developments for young people. The New York Times recently [blank] that “younger workers faced career setbacks from working remotely, receiving less training and fewer opportunities for advancement.”
As the leader of [blank], the nation’s largest remote worker attraction program, you might be surprised to learn I agree with most of these critiques—just not their proposed solutions. While COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of remote work, insufficient resources and organizational investments have been made to support employees and managers in this new professional landscape.
How Tulsa’s Remote Work Initiative Achieved Success
As a historic oil and gas town grappling with population decline—and [blank] like many regional peers—Tulsa launched an experimental program in 2018 to attract remote workers and diversify its economy. While the program relied on workers’ ability to perform their jobs from anywhere, its success hinged on redefining what “working remotely” truly meant. We knew newcomers wouldn’t stay if they isolated themselves in apartments, spending most days on video calls without connecting to the local community. To counter this, our program overcompensated for remote work’s shortcomings by investing in in-person experiences and human connection.
In practice, each remote worker arriving in Tulsa was assigned a “member integration specialist” who provided one-on-one support to link them with interest-aligned groups, activities, and volunteer opportunities. Tulsa Remote offered free coworking spaces for members to collaborate with peers and hosted monthly events—from happy hours to baseball games and museum trips—to foster in-person engagement. To further boost connections, the program used Slack, with hundreds of channels organized by shared interests, hometown, or industry, helping workers find others with similar backgrounds or passions.
By facilitating these connections, we created organic mentorship opportunities and replicated the benefits of physical proximity to colleagues. Members supported each other through professional challenges: learning new tools, navigating management issues, advocating for promotions, and even negotiating salaries. We introduced member-led professional development sessions to help upskill workers for remote careers. Demand for these trainings was so high that we recently launched [blank] to help workers navigate this new professional environment and manage distributed or hybrid teams. Staying true to our belief in in-person connection, three-quarters of the course will be virtual, with the final module hosted in Tulsa.
Remote Work Programs Must Fill Critical Gaps
Simply put, Tulsa Remote closed the gaps left when the office shifted from a physical building to a laptop. Leaders need to do the same instead of expecting remote workers to rebuild the office on their own. For remote and hybrid teams, we must adapt the organizational structures that break down silos, enhance information sharing, and boost engagement in productive in-person settings to fit remote contexts.
This can be achieved through a strong commitment to fostering connections. Leaders should curate both remote and in-person interactions across the organization, help employees find mentors and mentees, and introduce remote workers to communities inside and outside the company. Training should be equally rigorous and tailored to the unique skills needed to thrive in remote roles or manage distributed teams. Finally, leaders must invest in in-person resources and experiences—whether coworking spaces, regional meetups, company-wide summits, or all of the above.
We’ve seen this approach work in Tulsa. Since 2018, we’ve helped nearly 4,000 remote workers move to our city, with [blank] and over 80% of members choosing to stay after completing the year-long program. Our engaged remote workers have [blank], launched [blank], [blank] nonprofits, and [blank] to support Tulsans in need.
When remote work is executed well, it also delivers significant organizational benefits. [blank], for example, found that “employees who work from home two days a week are just as productive and promotion-ready as their fully office-based peers.” [blank] of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s “Work-From-Anywhere” policy resulted in a 4.4% increase in output.
Remote work isn’t failing our workers—we’re failing to lead them effectively. Until we invest in connection and build infrastructure that helps employees perform better and stay engaged, we’ll continue mistaking poor management for a flawed model. If Tulsa, Oklahoma, can build this support system from scratch and help thousands of newcomers succeed in a new town, any organization can adapt to support its employees in our brave new remote world.