A Fortune commentary by Tulsa Remote managing director Justin Harlan argues that many critiques of remote work are valid, especially around training, mentoring, and isolation. The mistake, he says, is treating “return to office” as the default solution, instead of rebuilding the structures that made office life workable in the first place. (Fortune)
Key points
- Remote work can fail people when teams do not invest in mentoring, training, and connection. (Fortune)
- Tulsa Remote’s model is deliberately “anti-isolation”: coworking, events, integration support, and community scaffolding. (Fortune)
- Evidence on hybrid and “work from anywhere” suggests outcomes can improve when flexibility is paired with solid management systems. (Stanford News)
- For employers, the question is less “where is the work done” and more “what infrastructure supports good work”. (Fortune)
- For remote job seekers, the best roles come with clear routines, career pathways, and intentional collaboration, not just a “work from home” label.
Imagine doing great work from anywhere and still growing your career. Browse Remotly’s fresh remote roles and let your next adventure begin.
Remote work backlash is often a management story
Remote work debates tend to be framed as culture war: office loyalists vs laptop loyalists. Harlan’s point in Fortune is more mundane and more useful. If remote work is going badly, the cause is often missing scaffolding: fewer informal mentors, patchy onboarding, unclear performance signals, and managers who were never trained to lead distributed teams. (Fortune)
That framing matters because it changes the fix. A mandated return can create proximity, but it can also paper over deeper issues, especially for global teams hiring across time zones, or for companies competing for specialist talent in the US, UK, Canada, Europe, India, and Australia.
What remote work critics are getting right
Harlan agrees with critics who say remote work can disadvantage younger and earlier-career workers. Fortune references concerns raised by figures like Scott Galloway, plus reporting on research suggesting younger workers can receive less training and fewer advancement opportunities when working from home. (Fortune)
In practice, these critiques show up in predictable ways:
- Weaker “learning by osmosis.” New hires miss quick context, shadowing, and informal feedback loops.
- Mentoring becomes accidental. If no one owns it, it often does not happen.
- Performance becomes harder to interpret. Inconsistent expectations lead to anxiety, presenteeism-by-Slack, or quiet disengagement.
None of this is inevitable. It is what happens when teams try to “lift and shift” office habits into remote, without redesign.
What Tulsa Remote built, and why it is relevant beyond Tulsa
Tulsa Remote began in 2018 as a place-based talent strategy for a city looking to reverse “brain drain” and diversify its economy. (Fortune) Tulsa Remote’s grant program is widely known for offering $10,000 to eligible remote workers who move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, but the Fortune piece is clear that the community layer is the real product. (Fortune)
Harlan describes a model designed to counter the isolation trap:
- Dedicated integration support: newcomers are paired with a “member integration specialist” to connect them to groups, volunteering, and activities.
- Coworking as default infrastructure: free coworking space so remote workers can work alongside peers.
- Frequent in-person moments: regular events, from casual meetups to cultural trips, built to create repeated contact.
- Always-on community channels: Slack with interest- and identity-based groups to make “finding your people” easier.
- Upskilling for remote careers: Tulsa Remote has added professional development led by members, and launched a remote work certification course in partnership with NYU, with a culminating module hosted in Tulsa.
Tulsa Remote also publishes an economic impact report. Its 2024 report highlights 3,475 “Remoters” and reports $622 million in direct employment income as of December 2024, plus a reported 70% retention rate for participants who completed the program year since 2019. (landing.tulsaremote.com)
Independent research adds more context. The Upjohn Institute highlights findings from senior economist Tim Bartik indicating Tulsa Remote’s benefits to existing residents were worth more than four times its costs, in one detailed assessment of a worker-attraction program. (upjohn.org)
The evidence base: hybrid and geographic flexibility can work
Harlan’s argument is not “remote work is magic”. It is “remote work needs to be managed properly”. The broader research record supports that general direction, especially for hybrid models.
A 2024 Stanford Report summary of research led by Nicholas Bloom describes a large study of hybrid work at Trip.com. It reports that employees working from home two days a week were just as productive and as likely to be promoted as fully office-based peers, and resignations fell by 33% among workers moving from full-time office to hybrid. (Stanford News)
On the “work from anywhere” side, a Harvard Business School working paper (forthcoming in Strategic Management Journal) analyses a natural experiment at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It reports a 4.4% increase in output when workers transitioned from work-from-home to work-from-anywhere, with no increase in rework, and discusses mechanisms tied to geographic flexibility.
This is not a universal guarantee. Roles differ, companies differ, and poorly designed remote setups can still be miserable. The point is narrower: location policy is not a substitute for management design.
A practical remote work playbook for employers hiring anywhere
If you are hiring remote, whether in Tulsa, Austin, Toronto, London, Dublin, Bangalore, or Sydney, the basics are similar. Here is what the Tulsa Remote argument translates to inside a company.
1) Make mentoring a system, not a vibe
Assign mentors, set expectations, and measure whether it happens. If early-career people are struggling, the solution is rarely “more Zoom”, it is structured coaching and shared work.
2) Invest in “third spaces” and planned collisions
Coworking stipends, regional meetups, or quarterly team days are not perks, they are how you rebuild social learning without forcing daily commuting. Harlan explicitly calls for investment in coworking, regional meetups, and all-company summits. (Fortune)
3) Teach managers how to run distributed teams
Remote management is not intuitive. Train managers on asynchronous communication, performance clarity, inclusive meetings, and feedback loops.
4) Redesign onboarding for speed and belonging
The first 30 days matters more in remote setups. New hires need a map: people, context, routines, and a cadence of real conversations.
5) Put career growth in writing
Remote employees panic when promotions feel mysterious. Publish expectations, sample project scopes, and what “good” looks like.
What this means for remote job seekers
Remote job seekers often focus on benefits, pay, and flexibility, then get surprised when the day-to-day feels lonely or stalled.
When you are evaluating remote jobs, ask questions that reveal whether the employer has infrastructure:
- How does onboarding work in the first month?
- Who owns mentoring for new hires?
- How do you evaluate performance and promotion in remote roles?
- How often do teams meet in person, and who pays?
- What is the standard meeting and documentation culture across time zones?
If the answers are vague, you are not judging culture, you are spotting operational risk.
Remote worker relocation is a city strategy, Tulsa shows why
One reason Tulsa Remote resonates is that it treats remote work as a community problem, not just a company policy. Research suggests there are now many programs trying to attract remote workers with incentives, often combining cash with support like coworking and networking. (upjohn.org)
Examples include:
- Ascend WV (West Virginia): advertises $12,000 plus outdoor recreation incentives for remote workers. (Ascend)
- Vermont: has offered reimbursement grants up to $7,500 for eligible relocation expenses for qualifying remote workers. (thinkvermont.com)
- Topeka, Kansas (Choose Topeka): runs a relocation incentive program with employer participation and specific eligibility rules. (choosetopeka.com)
- Northwest Arkansas (Life Works Here): is frequently cited as another remote-worker attraction initiative, with national-level summaries describing incentives and perks. (Congress.gov)
If you are a remote worker choosing where to live, these programs matter, but so do basics like broadband, coworking density, airport access, and whether you can build real relationships outside work.
Imagine doing great work from anywhere and still growing your career. Browse Remotly’s fresh remote roles and let your next adventure begin.
What this means for employers and remote job seekers
For hiring managers and people leaders
- Remote and hybrid work need a budget line for connection, training, and meetups, not just software subscriptions. (Fortune)
- Hybrid can improve retention without harming promotions or productivity, in at least some well-studied contexts. (Stanford News)
For founders and operators
- If remote work is “not working”, check the management system before blaming the model.
- Consider whether your team needs hybrid rhythms, geographic flexibility, or structured in-person time.
For remote candidates
- The best remote jobs come with clarity, mentoring, and routines.
- A “remote-first” label is meaningless without proof of how the team actually functions.
Closing reflection
The Tulsa Remote argument is a useful counterweight to lazy remote debates. It does not pretend remote work has no downsides. It says the downsides are often predictable, and therefore fixable, with the same seriousness that companies once applied to office design, leadership development, and onboarding.
The larger shift is that remote work is now both a company capability and a local ecosystem question. Cities like Tulsa are effectively building “human infrastructure” to make remote life sustainable. Employers that want to hire and retain remote talent may need to do the same inside their organisations.
Two questions for 2026: Who is willing to fund the unglamorous bits of remote work, and who will keep arguing about office attendance while their early-career talent quietly stalls?
Takeaways
Why do critics say remote work hurts early-career workers?
Because training, mentoring, and informal learning can drop when teams rely on ad hoc support instead of structured systems. (Fortune)
What does Tulsa Remote do beyond the $10,000 grant?
It leans heavily into community-building, coworking, and intentional connection so newcomers do not end up isolated at home. (Fortune)
Does hybrid work hurt promotions?
In one major Stanford-reported study of hybrid work at Trip.com, workers at home two days a week were as likely to be promoted as office peers. (Stanford News)
Can “work from anywhere” improve productivity?
A Harvard-affiliated study of USPTO examiners reports a 4.4% output increase when moving from work-from-home to work-from-anywhere, with no increase in rework.
What is the simplest remote work fix for employers?
Make mentoring, onboarding, and performance expectations explicit, then fund in-person touchpoints like meetups or coworking where it helps. (Fortune)
How can candidates vet remote-friendly employers?
Ask about onboarding, mentorship, documentation norms, and how promotions work for remote roles. If they cannot answer, expect friction.
Why are cities paying remote workers to move?
Because attracting workers without relocating employers is a new economic development strategy, and some programs combine cash with support services. (upjohn.org)
Is Tulsa Remote “working”?
Tulsa Remote reports thousands of participants and publishes annual impact reporting, while independent research has analysed costs and benefits for residents. (landing.tulsaremote.com)
References
- Fortune (Jan 11, 2026): Justin Harlan commentary on remote work critiques and management solutions. (Fortune)
- Tulsa Remote (2024): Economic Impact Report landing page with reported participation, income, and retention figures. (landing.tulsaremote.com)
- W.E. Upjohn Institute (Research Highlight): Bartik analysis summarised as >4x benefits vs costs for Tulsa Remote. (upjohn.org)
- Stanford Report (June 12, 2024): Hybrid work study summary reporting productivity, promotion parity, and 33% lower resignations in the study context. (Stanford News)
- Harvard Business School PDF (forthcoming SMJ): USPTO work-from-anywhere analysis reporting a 4.4% output increase.
- Congressional Research Service (2024): Overview of Remote Worker Relocation Assistance Programs. (Congress.gov)
