Recently I traveled to visit a customer who has an in-the-office culture. They have multiple large buildings outside a major US city and almost all their employees (7000+) live nearby and are expected to be in the office the whole week. More senior people can opt for 4 10-hour shifts rather than 5 8-hour shifts, but with few exceptions, they have people in the office.
I hadn’t seen that in a long time. Almost every customer is mostly remote or some level of hybrid (usually 2-3 days a week in the office). What’s more, they have an open culture, with rows of desks for teams and spaces between the rows for managers and directors. No cubes!
Everyone below a senior VP/C-level is at a desk. There are conference rooms and smaller quiet pods, but mostly everyone works in wide open spaces. From developers to sales to finance to human resources. It’s both chaotic and loud, but also refreshing. I also loved seeing so many people wearing company logos on t-shirts, jackets, hats, and more.
The environment reminds me of my time at JD Edwards. We had cubicles, but mostly open ones with half walls to the side and one full wall at the back where two cubes met. However, it was a very strong culture of comradery and closeness that I hadn’t seen at any large company before or since: until now. Teams might be close in some places I’ve worked, but the entire company at JD Edwards felt like a family of people who were working together. We didn’t always get along and argued, but we were all united. It was a great feeling.
I miss that. Redgate is a great company, and I enjoy my co-workers, but I miss going to an office and seeing everyone inside it. Most people come to the office once or twice a week, but I miss my visits when most everyone was there every day. I’ve worked remotely for over twenty years, but I do still miss the office some days. Certainly my visits to the various Redgate offices, while good, have me wishing I saw more people there every day. I’m heading there tomorrow, and I hope I see lots of people.
I don’t know that mandating everyone in the office is a better choice, but I do know there are good things about gathering groups of people together. Strong leadership, empathy, a clear vision, and a balanced workload are important for any organization, but especially important if you want everyone in the office these days. This customer did a great job with it, and I think they would still have a strong culture with remote work, but their choice works, and I’m a little jealous.
Steve Jones
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The problem is with management specifically higher up executives. There seems to have been no changes in the last 50+ years to the mindset about business that is taught to anyone who is an executive type. Granted this is not ALL as there are always exceptions so it’s about the majority. They’re convinced that if you work form home then you’re ripping off the company and goofing off even if what is expected from you in terms of work get’s done. And if by chance someone is a lazy type and get’s caught as such when supposedly working from home then the execs are more convinced that everyone is goofing off on work from home days. On the flip side if you are at the office and get less done no one says a word at least as long as that does cause problems/backlogs elsewhere or for others. In my experience you can do less and goof off more at the office and nothing is said. It’s very strange. It’s as if employee productivity isn’t measured by what you get done but by how much time you appear to be in front of your computer
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For some reason not all of my post was saved. The rest was that I believe a mixed or hybrid approach is teh best way to do this. We have 3 days at teh office, 2 at home and all must be at the office on Monday.
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I think it’s easy to look at media and think that it’s represents something, or add weight to your situation.
What I see when I ask a lot of different customers is that most are hybrid, but quite a few 100% remote. Lots of teams split across the country that have never met each other. Others are geographically close, but may or may not get together. I don’t have a good way to measure, but I’d say 15-20% are completely remote, most 60%+ (?) are hybrid, and relatively few are fully in the office. I’d guess < 10%.
As for management, I think it's all over the board. My view is that there are plenty of people who cheat the company and don't do much work, or aren't that productive. They do their jobs, but barely. Management often thinks they add pressure to people in the office and can catch this better, but my view is that they don't. I think they likely get lots of people goofing off in the office.
I do think it's easier for managers to lose track of people that are remote, especially when managers are remote. They may give less oversight, but that's a management problem, not a "where-the-worker-sits" problem
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