Globally, founders and executives have taken the lessons from the past year to help them envision the future of their workplace. The future of work was a major topic at the Collision conference. However, founders had many expectations about how their companies would perform after the pandemic. These are some of my favorite.
Phil Libin, the founder of Evernote and All Turtles as well as the video presentation platform Mmhmm says that virtualization has given his company incredible capabilities. He isn’t willing to lose them by going back to physical offices. With his two companies, he has made a promise that his teams would never return to their offices following the pandemic. He cited the ability to find talent anywhere, not just in his own country. He says that all of the job listings for his company are ‘global.’ “I will never return the ‘in” to its rightful place.”
The second superpower: Not traveling to work. “Why would you give up your superpower of giving every person in my team two hours more per day?” Third, ensuring employees don’t spend too much on housing in large cities. “Why can’t everyone on my team live comfortably in a house with good schools if they wish?” He said.
Jason Fried, the founder of Basecamp, and author of Remote, Office Not Required is strongly against Zoom. He supports asynchronous work at his company which provides tools for employee communication. He hopes that other companies will adopt a larger idea, that remote work is very different to working in person.
Telecommuting can prove to be more productive for employees who are focused on specific projects that require concentration or creative thinking. Many companies make this mistake by allowing digital distractions like Slack notifications or Zoom meeting interruptions to interrupt the work flow that allows for solitary work from home.
He recommends that employees learn to manage their time and make the most out of long periods of solo work. This is done by keeping important decisions away from real-time chat. He says that expecting an immediate response to a question is toxic. “The best thing for people is to give them long periods of time to do their job without the pressure to pay attention to all of the decisions at once.
Jonathan Notaro is the founder and creative director at Brand New School. He says that fully remote work has made it more difficult to harness the creativity of his team. Collision: “Much of the work we do is done through speech,” he stated. These pieces of magic are more difficult to find in this environment.
You’ve also seen the bright spots and moments that have helped strengthen your company. He has been able to gain insight into his colleagues’ lives and their passions through Zoom windows. This has helped him and his team become closer. He says that it makes you think about your personal life more. This is a real gem of the whole experience. It brought us all together. After a year of telecommuting, Brand New School had to be more aware of their schedules and more disciplined in meeting planning. Notaro stated, “I feel like our focus has increased.”
Julia Hartz, Eventbrite CEO and founder, saw her company’s revenues drop to zero during the March 2020 pandemic. Your company experienced a boom in digital events after two rounds of funding. He expects that the physical events industry will also flourish now that all restrictions on meeting are being lifted around the globe. “We are headed into the roaring 20s!” “Do not underestimate the power of human beings that feel they are entitled to something,” he said.
Hartz says that he doesn’t expect his employees to start driving to work immediately after they return from vacation. However, Eventbrite was founded on meeting in person and will continue to have office “hubs” all over the world. The world is a place where employees can meet and work together. He says, “If we do it right people will come to the office to see each other, collaborate and work together.”
