There’s a massive difference.
Remote-friendly means offices exist, and remote workers can dial in. They’re accommodated but not centered. Meetings happen in conference rooms with one remote person on a screen. Decisions happen in hallways.
Remote-first means everything is designed for distributed work. Even people in the same city communicate as if they weren’t. Meetings are everyone-on-video or async. Documentation is the default.
Remote-friendly creates two classes of employee. Remote-first creates one.↗
If you have an office and remote workers, you’re probably remote-friendly.
That’s a problem.
Commit to remote-first or go back to the office.
The middle ground serves no one well.