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KEY, The mistake is many people in the latter group think they are in the former.

What's a bit interesting is that as a consultant with an OK rate I always attributed it to being onsite, directly talking with top management (what I do is routine so pay is basically for being able to interact successfully up and down org chart). This meant I felt very GEOGRAPHICALLY tied down.

Now I've not shown up onsite to ANYONE in 3+ months (we went remote early before shutdown). And it's not clear to me that value has diminished, though I need to up my zoom game a bit.

So some people may be discovering they thought they were geo tied / competitive but may be more broadly valuable or able to serve into that market remotely more easily than they thought?

You may be coasting in your past contracts and connections, although consultants are often better equipped to handle this chaos than the orgs themselves (e.g. a huge semiconductor company I consult for had all its labs shut down while my permanent home lab with their setups kept going).

You undoubtedly built your reputation onsite. That's why they trust you to operate remotely.

It's not yet clear if the same level of trust can be built by a purely remote worker with no pre-existing rapport or reputation.

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