Hey Hackers!
Welcome back to
This week, we’ll be taking a look at remote work.
It felt like we were always heading towards remote work; COVID just accelerated it by a couple of years. However, every month, there’s a news headline of this company or that company ordering its employees to return to office a few times a week or even full-time.
It seems that many executives and CEOs’ preference is in-office full-time; however, what do employees prefer? Let’s take a look at what the HackerNoon community thinks. Plus, we’ll take a look at the future of Zoom and of Meta in 2026.
HackerNoon Poll
Nowadays, you can work from home, from the office, or from both. Which do you prefer?
The winner of this poll won with over 40% of the vote in a clean sweep. The HackerNoon voters have spoken: they overwhelmingly chose fully remote.
Second place was a hybrid option with 30% of the vote. 19% of voters chose the option “whichever one pays the best.” And finally, all the way in last place, was the option “fully in-office,” with only 9% of the vote.
Let’s see why some people voted the way that they did.
One user wrote the secret to having a good experience working from home:
The trick is in good contact with people using available media, like video meetings, screen sharing, collaborative coding, whiteboards. I've done that over 7 years, not it's all thrown under the bus as all employees move to on-site model when I need to travel 2h one direction.
Another user explained why they like both in-office and remote work:
I miss the human interaction of in-person work sometimes. But the flexibility of remote work has been a game-changer for my time management. Ultimately, I'd vote for a custom hybrid arrangement.
That’s what the HackerNoon community thinks about the subject. Now, let’s take a look at what Polymarket and Kalshi predict will happen to the tech industry in the future.
Want to say your piece? Share your thoughts on the poll results
🌐 From Around the Web: Polymarket Pick
Which companies will be acquired before 2027?
Zoom is one of the most popular remote work tools, allowing people to hop on a video call from anywhere around the world. But some Polymarket users believe that the company could be acquired before 2027.
They believe there’s a 9% chance of this happening. However, it should be noted that this is one of the least popular options. Viking Therapeutics is sitting at 63%, Ubisoft at 30%, and Lovable at 28%.
Anything is possible. Who knows? Maybe one, all, or none of these companies get acquired. Only time will tell.
🌐From Around The Web: Kalshi Pick
Meta headcount in Q1?
Over on Kalshi, they’re trying to predict how many employees Meta will announce it has by the end of Q1. There’s a 75% chance that they will announce above 78,000 employees. Kalshi voters are less optimistic about anything higher than that. There’s a 61% chance that they’ll announce an employee count above 78,865 and only a 38% chance that the employee count will be above 79,000.
The tech industry is always changing, and we’ll just have to wait and see what 2026 brings.
That’s all for this week.
Until next time, Hackers!