The office vs remote debate
One of my tasks right now is coming up with a proposal for the San Francisco office on whether we should stay fully remote, go back to the office or some sort of hybrid.
The hard part about this question is that this is largely based on personal preference. I personally prefer to go into the office with the option to work remote as needed. I know others who prefer to be 100% remote with the option to go into the office.
With that said, the #1 thing that I’ve come to realize is that people want the option to be remote when they want or need to. There will be no option to be 100% in the office anymore. Companies that choose to do so won’t be competitive. People want flexibility and we need to offer it.
The question isn’t whether we will have flexibility but where on the hybrid spectrum we should end up. There’s good arguments both ways.
Being fully remote would allow us to:
Recruit from a larger talent pool and pay presumably less for equal or better talent than in the SF Bay Area.
Have better work life balance for those with children or other needs
Remove a potentially timely and costly commute
Of course there are downsides to the fully remote arrangement.
Lack of camaraderie and serendipitous encounters
Those remote potentially feeling like they’re left out compared to those in the office
The “accountability issue” - where people take too much advantage of the remote work
There’s no right or wrong answer to the office vs remote debate (besides being 100% in the office). It’s a matter of culture and a bit of business industry.
After a lot of thinking and research, my proposal to the management team on Tuesday will be to become a fully distributed team first with the office as an option for those who want it on a “hoteling” basis.
After going through almost an entire year of working remote, I’ve come to the conclusion that we are as, if not more, effective as a collective whole working remotely than we are in person. The pandemic has taught a lot of people that they prefer to work remote and have flexibility and we should give that option to people.
In terms of Secfi - we are already a distributed team with most of our team in Amsterdam. This means calls early in the morning starting at 7 or 8 am. In order to accommodate people to be at their best, we should give flexibility both ways. People can wake up at 7, take a call but use their late afternoons to get a workout in or tutor their kids. It’s only fair.
For those that want to use the office, we will always have one for people to go to. I love going to the office and I plan to use it when it fits my schedule or if we need to come in to collaborate.
This proposal of course will need guidelines to be successful. We need to make sure to accommodate the fully remote employees and ensure that they do not feel left out if everyone else is in the office. We should plan to build camaraderie by having regular meetings with each other somewhere and perhaps meet in person before we hire. We should also have a loose travel budget so people can come meet in person quickly and flexibly as needed.
No matter what side of the aisle you sit on in the office vs remote debate, one thing that we need to come to terms with is that the pandemic has changed things. Remote work is becoming a norm and we should facilitate employees being at their best rather than try to force them to a work style they don’t like.