Remote Work's Second Evolution: The Rise of Async-First Companies

Remember when "going remote" meant awkward Zoom calls where everyone talked over each other, and meetings that could've been emails but somehow became two-hour video marathons instead? Well, that was remote work's awkward teenage phase. Now we're witnessing its glow-up.

Meet async-first companies—organizations that have figured out how to run entirely on written communication, shared documents, and the radical idea that not everyone needs to be online at the same time to get stuff done. These aren't just remote companies that happen to work across time zones. They're businesses built from the ground up around the assumption that most work happens when most people aren't watching.

When "Good Morning" Happens at Midnight

Take Buffer, the social media management platform. Their team spans from San Francisco to Sydney, with teammates scattered across literally every time zone on the planet. CEO Joel Gascoigne starts his day reviewing updates that were written while he slept, left by colleagues who've already wrapped up their workday on the other side of the world.

"We have maybe a two-hour window where more than half our team is awake at the same time," Gascoigne says. "And honestly? We rarely use it for meetings anymore."

Instead, Buffer runs on what they call "async by default." Major decisions happen in shared documents. Project updates flow through carefully structured written reports. Even brainstorming sessions unfold over days rather than hours, with ideas building on each other as different team members contribute across different time zones.

The result isn't just functional—it's weirdly liberating. Team members can think before they respond. Introverts get equal airtime with extroverts. And parents can actually attend their kids' soccer games without missing crucial work discussions.

The Death of the Status Meeting

Traditional management wisdom says you need regular face-to-face check-ins to keep teams aligned. Async-first companies are proving that wisdom wrong, one abandoned status meeting at a time.

At GitLab, which has operated as a fully distributed company since 2011, they've replaced most meetings with something they call "async standups." Team members post written updates about their progress, blockers, and priorities. Everyone reads and responds on their own schedule. What used to be a 30-minute meeting interrupting everyone's flow now happens seamlessly in the background.

"The dirty secret about most meetings is that they're performative," explains GitLab's VP of People Operations, Brittany Rohde. "People feel like they need to say something to justify being there. In async, you only contribute when you actually have something valuable to add."

This shift requires a fundamental rewiring of management practices. Instead of managing by observation—seeing who's at their desk, who speaks up in meetings—async managers learn to measure outputs and outcomes. They become editors rather than supervisors, helping their teams communicate more clearly rather than monitoring their daily activities.

The New Hire Profile

All this async magic doesn't happen by accident. It requires a specific type of worker—one that many traditional companies haven't learned to identify yet.

Sarah Chen, who runs hiring for the async-first design agency Doist, says she's completely rewritten her interview process. "We used to do video interviews where we'd chat about experience and ask hypothetical questions. Now we do async writing exercises that simulate real work scenarios."

Candidates might be asked to document a complex process, provide feedback on a project proposal, or explain a technical concept to different audiences. The best async workers, Chen has learned, aren't necessarily the most charismatic in video calls—they're the ones who can think clearly on paper and organize their thoughts for maximum clarity.

"We're looking for self-starters, obviously, but also people who are naturally good at written communication," she explains. "Someone who can explain complex ideas clearly, ask good questions, and know when they need help versus when they should figure things out themselves."

The hiring shift goes deeper than communication skills. Async-first companies prize what some call "documentary thinking"—the habit of writing down decisions, reasoning, and context so that future team members (or future you) can understand what happened and why.

Writing Your Way to Success

This emphasis on writing is creating unexpected career advantages for workers who've developed strong async skills. Take Marcus Rodriguez, a software engineer who transitioned from a traditional tech company to an async-first startup. His salary jumped 30%, but more importantly, his work-life balance completely transformed.

"At my old job, I was always 'on' during business hours, even when I didn't have much to do," Rodriguez says. "Now I work when I'm most productive—usually early morning and late evening—and I take long breaks in the middle of the day. My output has never been higher."

Rodriguez's experience highlights something counterintuitive about async work: it often leads to higher productivity, not lower. When people can work during their peak energy hours and aren't constantly interrupted by meetings and Slack messages, they often produce better work in less time.

But success in async environments requires developing new professional muscles. Rodriguez had to learn to write more comprehensive code comments, create better documentation, and communicate blockers clearly in writing rather than just grabbing a colleague for a quick chat.

The Challenges of Going Full Async

Not everything translates perfectly to async work, and the companies leading this shift are honest about the trade-offs. Creative collaboration can feel slower when it unfolds over days rather than hours. Building company culture requires more intentional effort when people rarely see each other's faces. And some personality types genuinely thrive on real-time interaction and feel isolated in purely async environments.

"We've had to become much more deliberate about creating connection points," admits Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, whose company has operated async-first for over a decade. "We do annual team meetups, we have virtual coffee chats, and we're constantly experimenting with ways to maintain the human element."

The learning curve for managers can be steep. Many leaders built their careers on in-person relationship building and real-time problem-solving. Shifting to async management requires developing new skills around written communication, trust-building, and outcome-based performance evaluation.

The Future is Already Here

What started as a pandemic necessity has evolved into a genuine competitive advantage for companies that have figured out async work. They can hire the best talent regardless of location, operate with lower overhead costs, and often move faster on projects because they're not constrained by meeting schedules and time zone coordination.

For workers, the async-first movement represents something more profound than just another remote work trend. It's a recognition that good work doesn't require constant surveillance, that creativity doesn't need to happen on command, and that maybe—just maybe—we can build better companies by trusting people to do their jobs on their own terms.

The first wave of remote work was about proving we could work from home. The second wave is about proving we can work better than we ever did in the office. And honestly? The results are looking pretty convincing.

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