It doesn’t take long for the typical remote worker to discover that working on the beach is mostly an Instagram fantasy.

The promise of fast Wi-Fi, a comfortable desk and decent hot beverages is more than enough for coworking spaces around the world to survive and turn a profit. These pragmatic workplaces cater to the serious side of the remote work spectrum, offering a more professional experience than awkwardly setting up shop in a café for the day.

These organisations aspire to be community hubs. By hosting events, talks and workshops, they hope to foster a truly collaborative culture — with some degree of success. Indeed, for a lot of professionals, coworking spaces provide the remedy to the ailment that haunts the remote work lifestyle: loneliness.

Nevertheless it should be noted that many remote workers choose this life to escape the distractions of the corporate office and really concentrate. Furthermore, in most coworking spaces there are not enough social lubricants or incentives to sustain any organic collaborative ‘buzz’. Professionals employed as part of a remote team can find this particularly frustrating — they tend to feel a responsibility towards their colleagues, leaving Slack and Skype as the only natural outlets for ‘workplace socialising.’

If the company’s communication culture is anything less than excellent, remote team members can struggle to find a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

The remote work ecosystem is starting to understand that the balance between concentration and socialising in the workplace is delicate. All manner of innovative models have emerged, persistently challenging our assumptions about the relationship between life and work. Organisations offering digital nomad cruises, curated work-plus-travel experiences, and integrated coworking and coliving arrangements have all made their mark on the landscape in the last few years. These projects have a compelling proposition for young remote workers with plenty of skills and few commitments, but they have yet to offer something that appeals to mature professionals. In order to do that, an organisation would need to challenge the very definition of employment.

You’ll quickly notice a pattern if you ask enough remote workers what attracted them to this way of life. Freedom to set their own hours or to work from a location they enjoy both come up often, but these mask a deeper desire. Ultimately, remote work is about freedom in general; and this freedom has a lot to do with the balance of power between employer and employee.

Employers make all kinds of concessions to retain control over their employees’ behaviour; relaxed dress codes, events, flexi-time, and occasional work-from-home policies to name but a few. What employers struggle to do is let go and entirely trust their employees. This is perhaps an uncharitable interpretation; building trust takes time and employers have much at stake, taking on new risks with each new appointment. Knowledge is a company’s most important asset, and the ultimate owner of this knowledge is the individual professional, not the corporate entity.

In this context, a completely different kind of organisation is emerging.