Bruno Solari traveled around Spain in August, starting with a week in Ibiza, followed by Madrid, Malaga, Marbella and Barcelona, before finally returning to Ibiza for his bachelor party.
He also managed to squeeze in some meetings and calls with clients.
Solari, founder and CEO of New York City-based public relations firm SolComms, was one of the company’s 53 employees enjoying the first August Work from Anywhere campaign. Other employees logged on from all over the United States (Jersey Shore, Hamptons, Florida) and around the world (Berlin, Prague, London, Portugal).
“I was in Spain the whole month of August. If I had gone to Spain and inducted the team, I would have felt like a hypocrite,” Solari, 33, told CNBC Make It. “So I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to do this myself. Let’s give that flexibility to the entire agency.'”
SolComms, which typically requires employees to come into the office four days a week, began allowing employees to work remotely from anywhere in the world in August.
Provided by Solcoms
The late-summer experiment felt like a risk worth taking for the three-year-old startup. Experimental employee surveys showed increases in productivity, work-life balance, and happiness, along with a small increase in business revenue. It also runs counter to some large companies cutting back on remote work flexibility in an employer-dominated job market.
“I think people were surprised that I chose that,” Solari says.
Test new remote work benefits
Working completely remotely from anywhere in the world for four weeks was a bold move for the millennial founder, who came from a PR agency during the height of hustle culture, and says he has more “traditional” workplace values, such as building company culture through face-to-face interactions rather than “behind a screen” in fully remote work. Since our founding in 2023, SolComms has operated with a four-day in-office requirement, working from home on Fridays and ending at 3pm most weeks (12pm in the summer).
A recent report from videoconferencing technology company Owl Labs, which surveyed 2,000 people in July, found that about 25% of full-time workers in the U.S. work in a hybrid configuration, with the most common requirement being three days in the office, followed by four days. Most, 65%, work full-time on-site and 10% work remotely full-time.
SolComms is a New York City-based PR agency founded in 2023 by founder and CEO Bruno Solari.
Provided by Solcoms
Solari said his company surveys its employees each year about the perks and benefits they want, and each year they are asked to increase their work-from-home days. Solari was wary of allowing remote work days again during the week and instead considered offering 100% flexibility within a month.
He and his leadership team came up with the idea in January, announced it to employees in February, and spent the next six months devising best practices to set everyone up for success remotely.
Some of those guidelines include adhering to work hours of 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET, keeping cameras on for all meetings, attending meetings dressed as you would wear to the office, being proactive with Slack status updates, taking lunch and other breaks, and not using sensitive calls or screens in public.
You don’t have to be chained to your desk to prove you’re doing a good job.
Bruno Solari
SolComms Founder and CEO
Solcoms also communicated its remote plans for August to the agency’s more than 80 clients across healthcare, technology, AI and consumer brands, splitting the remote month between Rhode Island and Minnesota, said Natalie Valicenti, 30, the company’s vice president of operations.
Companies are reducing workplace flexibility
SolComms’ benefits come in a tight labor market where employers have the upper hand, with many company leaders cutting back on employee flexibility and benefits.
In September, Uber announced plans to cut about 3,300 corporate jobs, reduce remote work staff, and tighten internal rules. Disney said it would require more employees to come to work four days a week and later announced layoffs of about 300 employees.
The rate of people returning to the office for five days has been on the rise in recent years. The percentage of Fortune 500 companies that require five days in the office nearly doubled from 13% to 24% from mid-2024 to mid-2025, according to a study by Flex Index, a resource within advisory firm Work Forward that analyzes office requirements data.
SolComms employees spent the month of August working from all over the world (Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal) and the United States (California, Florida, Rhode Island, Minnesota).
Provided by Solcoms
But for SolComms, the risk of relaxing office requirements for a month appears to have paid off.
According to documents reviewed by Make It, 21 employees responded to a survey after the first remote month, with 76% saying they were more productive, 90% saying they had a good work-life balance, and 100% saying they would like to return to work next year, anywhere in August. Some say this experience has helped them improve their communication and self-management skills, and many say the shortening of commuting time is the biggest attraction.
There were also some drawbacks, such as staff feeling tied to their computers and finding it difficult to step away from them, whereas it felt more natural to take breaks for lunch, coffee or a walk when in the office.
Solari said he sees this “internal pressure to be available” as a common struggle with remote work.
“I think it’s important to continue to let our employees know that we’re flexible,” he says. “You don’t have to be chained to a desk to prove you’re doing a good job, and at the end of the day, the first responder isn’t necessarily the power player in producing results.”
Solari said the business also had financial benefits, although that wasn’t the goal. Sales rose just 4% from July to August and 12% from August to September.
Solari has already promised to reinstate the program in August 2027.
“[We’re]1,000 percent sure we’re doing the same thing again,” he says.
