The office is a productivity tool
The office is a productivity tool
Issue 214: Coming to the office as leverage, not attendance
Amazon recently announced its plans to Return to Office (RTO) and employees have until January 2025 to report back. COVID-19 forced remote work as the norm; a digital transformation McKinsey Consulting couldn’t pull off. As the world began opening up again, many people assumed that remote work would be here to stay. The abundant remote roles suddenly moved back to onsite at specific locations. Amazon’s RTO announcement re-ignited the discourse of in-office vs. remote.
I often get asked about which is better, and I sadly don’t have a quotable answer for people. I like both work modes for different reasons. The majority of my early career roles were remote—earlier than it was the norm. I also worked at companies that were onsite in San Francisco. My life approach is to have your cake and eat it and dislike viewing things in binaries. It’s more productive to harness the spectrum. The discourse of office vs. remote is a flawed debate and not a good use of time. Instead, let’s focus on how the office can be used as a method or resource in your toolbelt.
In-office alone doesn't solve productivity
It’s assumed that if people are in the office working, productivity will instantly increase. This alone is not true. As you can see the butts in seats do not automatically imply a productivity increase. The optics on the remote work end assume if people are working remotely, they are slacking off.
Through my observation, I can tell you many low performers work in the office. Though they badge in daily and stay late, their days are filled with browsing the internet at their desk, socializing with coworkers, and being inattentive in meetings. On the flip side, remote working can foster this identical behavior.
There are instances where performance has increased for people who come to the office. They are motivated by the energy of other people, get to jam with other designers, and through osmosis of the work are held more accountable. Other team members may thrive in a remote setting to limit distractions while remaining proactive in communication.
There’s a saying that culture is how people act when they’re not told what to do. When you have clarity on the culture, how you work will work itself out.
The office as design tool
In any office I work at, foster a studio environment where the best ideas can become tangible. It doesn’t require a dedicated room, only the mindset, the right people, and equipment to make it a positive environment.
Leverage point 1: high bandwidth human interactions
In-person’s latency is much lower than that. of an internet connection. This includes social time as well. High bandwidth interactions fill the well of energy that you take home with you. Though I appreciate remote activities and coffee chats, Zoom meetings drain my energy. This isn’t because of the time spent with my colleagues—quite the contrary. The reason is the video and screen time exhaustion. Remote meetings are inevitable and that's why maximizing the human connection when you are all in person.
Leverage point 2: Prompt serendipity
One of the most challenging elements to emulate remotely is serendipity. Inspiration of new ideas often comes from collaborating with cross-functional partners, late-night hacking, or conversations at the proverbial water cooler. Though possible online, it takes a lot of coordination and app switching for this to happen.
The office is a great tool to spend time with people who are not on your team. Twitter started as a podcast internal hackathon project called Odeo. At Square, Cash App was a hackathon project that became productized. Prompt serendipity to spark new ideas and innovations.
Leverage point 3: Hit the whiteboards (hard)
Despite all the innovation in collaboration tools and digital whiteboards, nothing emulates the real thing. Drawing ideas on a physical whiteboard is the quickest iteration cycle and the best version of Photoshop Tennis. In the past four places I’ve worked, some of the most transformative products launched came from whiteboarding sessions together.
Office use cases
Leveraging the office expands beyond having offsite. I treat it as a studio space and love the high-energy collaboration with people. I also love deep work at home in my studio.
Going to the office is valuable for:
Meetings for ambiguous problems that require rapid exchange of ideas
Deep social connection to build enduring relationships
What works well for remote:
Updates on progress: If it can be a Loom video or Figma file where I need to add comments, these don’t need to be in-office meetings
Rolling 1:1s: Once you establish trust and a relationship with teammates, remote 1:1s are effective (though sprinkle the occasional IRL gatherings)
What's more important than debating office vs. remote is building a culture of success. The magic happens when you have an inspiring space to work in. You'd be amazed how much people enjoy going into an office when they're not forced to.
Hyperlinks + notes
A collection of references for this post, updates, and weekly reads.
Dropbox has great blog posts about remote work on their blog: Work in Progress
Atlassian's Team Anywhere policy. If this resonates with you, Atlassian is hiring
Dynamic Abstractions Workshop → I wish I could go to this
Nichole Wischoff shared the deck she used to raise Fund III
public play by
Dive Club with Ben Blumenrose: Investing in the next wave of design founders
Like you, I spent a substantial amount of time working remotely before Covid (going back as far as 2008). The tech affordances for remote work have expanded dramatically, and in many situations, distributed work can exceed traditional office arrangements for productivity.
That said, I strongly agree with your observations here on thoughtfully leveraging co-location. Nothing beats a an office for brainstorming session with lots of walls, piles of stickies and markers, and some white boards to scribble over!
Ideally, offices can also contribute strongly to company culture, although this cultural benefit often can counteract productivity gains.