It could be the places I spend my time online (including HN), but employee demand for remote work is growing and I expect it will take a relatively small number

It could be the places I spend my time online (including HN), but employee demand for remote work is growing and I expect it will take a relatively small number of companies changing policy for remote work to gain momentum. Right now obviously the standard is the office model, and remote is so rare that the office companies aren't having a hard time competing for talent with the remote shops. Once a higher percentage of shops start going remote, the companies that don't offer it will start having a harder time competing. I don't think we are too far off from seeing remote being more widely accepted, but it's hard to tell when that change will be. At say 5% the offices still can get their hires, but if it gets around 20% (and with no major public failures) you'll start to see companies reconsidering policy.