Remote Frog

This was the script for an open talk hosted by People R-evolution a bunch of years ago. It slipped into the cracks as a draft, but I found it and thought it’s still relevant, so I decided to hit the Publish button.

WHAT DOES MAKE AUTOMATTIC SPECIAL?

Many tech companies have offices with ping-pong tables, free snacks, and other perks, but at Automattic, we do not -the closest to an office we have is this space in NYC- All employees work from anywhere since day one, converting Automattic into one of the most successful examples of a fully distributed workforce.

As described in Scott Berkun’s book “The year without pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work”, the company developed a unique approach to both attract and empower its employees to produce outstanding software by:

• Flexibility to pick the best work-life balance, as every employee is free to decide from where and when to work. There is no need to follow an 8 to 5 schedule or to be in a co-working space at a certain time of day, since most teammates are in different time zones or travel across the world throughout the year.
• As a remote-first company, Automattic attracts the best talent in the world.
• It relies on technology to keep employees in sync. Slack, P2 (a particular WordPress theme), and other tools are the connecting glue to keep members on the same page and capture all exchanges.
• Remote first by design. Everything is transparent to avoid excluding from the company’s professional and social life. All the conversations, documents, meetings, and leadership training are openly shared for everybody to read (and chime in).
• Automattic helps employees to equip their homes for remote work. Also, to pay the rent of a workspace or drinks in a coffeehouse.
• There is an open-vacation policy under which employees can take time off when and for how long they want
• Instead of spending huge sums on the central office, Automattic organizes week-long company retreats in a cool place to empower peers to meet, connect, bond, and spend time together. We call them meetups.

When I’ve given talks about this (it’s not a so popular topic these last 2-3 yearss :P) , I was usually asked diverse versions of this question:

IS THIS REALLY WORKING AT THE HUMAN AND TEAM LEVEL?

And this is a supervast question. Instead, I’d suggest a decomposition in bites that can be discussed, for instance…

• What is the economic value of a fully distributed workforce?
• Are employees taking advantage of the high level of freedom and trust?
• Can technology nurture that sense of connection, belonging, and togetherness so crucial both for mental health and professional productivity? What’s missing? Where are we nailing it?
• How do leadership and management look like in a “place” in which relationships are mainly “virtual”?
• How difficult is it for someone not used to a fully remote workplace to fit in and thrive in this culture? What are the mechanisms and workflows in place to smooth this transition?
• What is required of candidates to join Automattic? How does recruiting changes in such an environment?
• What specific rituals and techniques are effective in balancing the need for autonomy with the desire to feel part of a team even without physical touchpoints and water-cooler conversations?
• How has all of this played out during the COVID crises?
• What are the myths but also the easily ignored dark sides of remote first collaboration?