Well, yesterday Twitter decided to let all their employees work from home indefinitely. They have something like 5000 employees so this made the news everywhere. It's definitely been on my mind as the CEO of a small company and it's hard to get away from with all the news regarding this out there. Nevertheless, it's far too early to tell whether this is going to be a sea change in the work environment. So let's all calm down.
I can give two perspectives on this. These are things going through my mind. As someone who is currently working from home, I love the simplicity it brings to my life. I am here to see my wife and son in the morning and I am here to see them throughout the day when I emerge from my video cave....errr, office. There is no commute. Although I stopped driving into Hamburg regularly a couple years ago, the combination of getting to the train station in nearby Ahrensburg and using regional trains as well as subways led to, at times, close to two hours of travel in and out of town. Add to that fairly regular delays and disturbances and you see a ton of your time wasted. Due to the interruptions transitioning from bike/car, to train, to subway, one never really managed to get work done. Calls are possible whereas I primarily listened to podcasts. It's not the worst use of time but I sure feel those extra two hours per day now. I also don't spend much time on "getting dressed up". Yes, I do make myself presentable for video calls but I don't have to worry about whether it's cold outside or too warm in the office and whatnot. I also don't need to worry about packing my bag for the day (remember some lunch, laptop, chargers and whatever else I may need throughout the day). As I often headed to the gym on my way into town or on way home I can also skip having to pack all that stuff up. Once gyms do re-open, I can just go whenever, avoiding peak hours. I also spend far more time cycling. I can just jump on my bike and go for a quick ride in between things. I have a proper set up with a seperate office in my home (a luxury) and most importantly, my family adheres to rules around work time and non-work time. I won't get into all the minor details of my beloved coffee machine set-up or the fact that the fridge or my own toilet is never far away. You get the gist. Work from home works for me.
On the other hand, as the CEO of a company, I am torn about going all in on work from home. This is not because I feel that I need people in the office to watch over them. We have never been that kind of company. From the start of Receeve, we have let our employees work from home whenever necessary. What I am torn about is the idea of saying there is no office. Making a radical switch to no office and saying everyone works from home here on in penalizes many of my employees. I know that Twitter will also continue having offices and offers employees the option but here's where the problems start. Some people just aren't set up to work from home. They may not have the space nor accomodating families or roommates. You may even have the simple problem that your internet at home sucks. Put simply, they didn't set themselves up to be "remote". So, they would need to change a ton of things to become capable of being fully remote. Many may not wish to make this switch. You may also have the problem that people need to work together with colleagues. Sure, everything can be done by video but if you haven't prepared for that type of work environment or just don't like it, you'll think twice about sticking around. There are also financial issues. Who pays for what hardware and what about the perks you may have become accustomed to in the office? How do you account for things at home that may be private or may be work related? The list goes on.
There are a million more things I could list about the benefits of working from home. There are also tons of arguments about why making people switch is such a hurdle. As the CoVID-19 crisis has shown, when forced, people can adapt. Yet, once things settle down, employees as well as managers will have to make choices about going back to offices or working remotely. Or will some completely new hybrid models appear? Here is where I would argue that it's far too early to tell what the right path forward is. Can people who decide to continue working from home excel versus those who go to the office? Will those forced to physically appear in the office be burdened by the fear of infections, travel, time lost and so forth? Can we expect people to switch on such short notice from one way of working to a completely different way of working?
My gut tells me to wait and my experience with such major changes keeps me from picking a side. Twitter may be pushing this narrative far more for the PR potential than anything else. For all we know, a year from now they change course (see what Marissa Mayer did years ago). Many others will jump on this bandwagon, well....because, that is what always happens. But what may seem right today (still in the midst of a crisis) sure can look different fast. I'm not one to often say "wait this one out" but when it comes to the all the noise around "major shifts in work habits", I'm betting on being a bit late to the party versus first-mover advantage.