I’ve listened to a lot of startup leaders, and most seem to break into one of two camps:
- Staying 100% distributed. Perhaps with local mini-hubs, but staying 100% distributed.
- Going “hybrid” 2-3 days a week in an office (often 2, and often 2 fixed days). The general thinking is the 2 days will be the same for groups or pods. The thinking is to facilitate the unplanned interactions from IRL, but keep the core DNA ‘distributed’ so the company maintains the tools, processes, and playbooks necessary for distributed team members not to feel second class.
But what about bigger tech companies, that really have to plan? Because they have 1000s and 1000s of employees.
Well, Salesforce has announced its plan:
“We learned that nearly half of our employees want to come in only a few times per month, but also that 80% of employees want to maintain a connection to a physical space. So we are giving employees flexibility in how, when and where they work with three ways of working:
- Flex – When it’s safe to return to the office, most of our employees around the globe will work flex. This means they’ll be in the office 1-3 days per week for team collaboration, customer meetings, and presentations.
- Fully Remote – For employees who don’t live near an office or have roles that don’t require an office, they will work remotely full-time.
- Office-based – The smallest population of our workforce will work from an office location 4-5 days per week if they’re in roles that require it.”
Personally, I love the benefits of being distributed, but I can’t imagine going into an office without a dedicated workspace where I can be creative. The hybrid-with-no-desk-at-all approach is the worst of all worlds for me personally.
But right or wrong (well, there probably is no ‘wrong’) here’s how the #1 largest SaaS company is rolling post-Covid.
