While some tech CEOs are threatening employees to return to the office, some are doing the opposite — and going to the office just once every few months And allow his employees to do the same.
“I come into the office probably about once a quarter,” Scott Farquhar, co-chief executive of Sydney-based Atlassian, told Australian media.60 minutes” program.
Atlassian implemented a “Team Anywhere” policy in 2020 and has stuck to it, even as companies began introducing hybrid work schedules as the COVID-19 pandemic ended.
Farquhar said flexible working allowed employees to respond to increasing cost of living pressures by choosing to live in less expensive places without fear that it might affect their jobs.
“We want people to be able to work from home, from a cafe, from an office, but we don’t really care about where they work — we care about the output they produce,” he said.
“We haven’t seen a change in productivity yet,” he continued.
Farquhar is co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian, which provides tools for software developers and project managers. The company’s market capitalization is about $49 billion.
Farquhar himself is estimated to be worth $11.7 billion Bloomberg.
Other Atlassian executives don’t see hybrid work as a viable solution. “Hybridization is an illusion of choice,” says Annie Dean, head of the company’s “Team Anywhere.” wealth in July.
She noted that requiring any office work required companies to bear “all the costs of the old model”, such as real estate costs, while “the new model doesn’t have any efficiencies”. (Dean is Before Meta’s first-ever director of remote work, the company will begin requiring employees to work three days a week next month).
Some big tech companies disagree
Farquhar’s views on remote work have put him at odds with other major tech chief executives who are increasingly trying to bring employees back to the office at least part of the time.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reportedly told employees in an internal meeting this month that employees who work entirely remotely may not have a future at the company. insider.
Jassy reportedly warned those refusing to come into the office, “It might not work for you at Amazon because we’re back in the office at least three days a week and it wouldn’t be right for all of our teammates to be in the office.” .” Three days a week, people refused to do that. ”
Despite employee displeasure with the mandate, the e-commerce giant is pushing its hybrid work schedule, reportedly including telling employees Relocate closer to company headquarters.
Many tech companies that once praised remote work are now trying to bring people into the office, citing improved collaboration and productivity.
Even Zoom, whose video conferencing software helps facilitate remote work, is trying to bring employees back to the office at least twice a week. Founder and CEO Yuan Zheng told Zoom employees that building trust remotely is difficult, insider reported earlier this month.
However, some tech companies are still insisting on flexible working.
Airbnb is now in its second year of allowing employees to work from home, calling employees into work only when they need to collaborate.
Dave Stephenson, Airbnb’s chief financial officer, said: “I want people to know that they’re going to be in the office five days next week, committing to a specific project and getting it done, not just random three days a week because that’s a lot of work. The benefits of such a random interaction are negligible.”, told wealth in June.
Svlook
