Working remotely is becoming more popular, can boost productivity, and is now gaining profitability. A new program in Tulsa, Okla. offers remote workers $10,000 to move in for a year.
The City of Tulsa, like others before, is offering this incentive to draw in potential homebuyers. Mayor G.T. Bynum says, “Tulsa is gaining international recognition for the use of modern technology to better serve citizens, and one of the areas where we see great opportunity is as a home for remote workers,” and the city bills itself as "ideal" for remote workers with low cost of living and a variety of educational and recreational options. The $10,000 grant is broken down into $2,500 for relocation expenses, a $500 monthly stipend, and $1,500 at the end of the 12 months, MarketWatch reports.
The number of people quitting their jobs for flexible work doubled from 2014 to 2017 and the number of remote jobs rose 115 percent between 2005 and 2018, according to FlexJobs, a job-search site for remote work. Remote workers are shown to be more productive than non-remote workers: A 2017 study of 24,000 workers from the video and voice collaboration technology company Polycom Inc. found that 98 percent of people said the ability to work anywhere has a positive impact on productivity.
