Why we decided to try working remotely full-time

It wasn’t very long ago when working in an office was the norm, and working from home was viewed as something to be avoided. We sat in traffic for hours, worked under artificial lights, breathed recirculated air behind windows that didn’t open. We only got up from our desks to go to meetings, the bathroom, or to eat lunch (sometimes). We got to see the outside world on our way into work and on our way home. In short, working in an office sucked.

Then the pandemic hit. Suddenly we were forced to adjust the way we worked. We started attending meetings virtually, cooking at home more often, and finding comfortable work spaces within our personal spaces. Many of us were surprised to discover that taking the dog for a walk during the day felt good, maybe even great, when the weather was nice. We realized that we could still get our work done from somewhere other than an office. Work had changed, and so did our expectation of how work should be done.

Now that most pandemic-related restrictions have been lifted, companies are struggling with a difficult decision — do we go back to the way things were, or do we embrace a new way of working? We struggled with that question too as we were thinking about setting up our company. After much discussion and research, we decided to ditch the office in favor of full-time remote work. Here’s why…

Better for our employees

We concluded that working remotely is better for our team. Many of us had very long commutes. Commuting is largely wasted time, it contributes to burnout, and it’s expensive (think gas, tolls, public transportation costs, wear-and-tear, etc.). Without a commute we can save that time and money.

Eliminating the commute also reduced some of the stresses working in an office put on our personal lives. For example, we can now take our kids to school or pick them up ourselves without having to worry about finding someone else to do it, and then having a babysitter for the afternoon. It allows us to spend more time with our families. Simple things like eating dinner together, helping our kids with their homework, or even taking a break to chat about our day goes a long way towards restoring balance in our lives.

And on that note, working remotely allows us to get be healthier, happier people. We can take the dog for a walk, or go for a jog instead of sitting in traffic. We can make our own lunches instead of ordering out (or worse, skip meals to save time). Our home offices can be arranged in a way that is most comfortable to us, that allows us to be most productive. We can reclaim the work-life balance that we’ve been missing for so long.

Better for the environment

We also concluded that a virtual office is better for the environment. Less commuting means less carbon emissions. Not having an office also means that we’re not using energy to light, temperature-control, or otherwise operate an office. These uses of energy are largely wasted because the entire building is consuming energy regardless of the number of people that are actually there. When we work from home, we have much better control over our energy consumption. We can open a window instead of turning up the air-conditioner, or turn the light off when we leave the room.

There are also several indirect environmental benefits to having a remote office. For example, less eating out means less wasted takeout containers, fewer office outfits that we rarely wear, less office furniture that is sitting around in conference rooms, and much less wear-and-tear on our vehicles. When we added all of these benefits up, it just made sense. It was also the right thing to do as part of our mission to combat climate change.

Better for our business

Lastly, we concluded that a virtual office is better for our business. We succeed when our employees are engaged, healthy, and happy, and when we’re contributing to solving the climate crisis. Eliminating commutes increases the amount of time we have to be productive without extending our workday. When we work in our own space we are also less likely to be distracted by what’s happening in the desk next door, or by people talking in the hallway. Fewer distractions improve productivity. We’ve learned to collaborate remotely using a variety of messaging and conferencing tools, and our team still delivers top-quality work on time. We also continue to be engaged in our mission and contribute ideas to solving the challenges that we’re working on on behalf of our customers and the planet.

There are also several cost that we avoided by not having an office. Not leasing an office eliminates a huge expense (do you know how much it costs to lease an office in the San Francisco Bay Area?!). It also eliminates the costs associated with maintaining an office, such as utilities and furniture. We also benefit from having a healthier workforce. Healthy people take fewer sick days. There is also an argument to be made that healthier employees leads to lower insurance premiums, but we’re still working through that one. These savings are reinvested in our employees and our customers, which in turns strengthens our business further. It’s a virtuous cycle.

But, it’s not always easy or straightforward

We’ve thought a lot about the benefits of a virtual office. But, we’ll admit that working remotely is not always straightforward. We’ve had to adjust on a number of fronts, including on how we on-board employees, communicate internally, and foster our culture.

Take training, for example. Being together in the same space allows for a more seamless transfer of knowledge. We can sit down together and go through things in real-time. This is not as easy in a virtual context. To address this challenge we implemented team stand-ups and an internal messaging system. Stand-ups allow for a structured sharing of knowledge, while the internal messaging system is more dynamic and available all the time.

But the most challenging aspect has been team-building and culture development. We miss seeing each other, and we miss that sense of camaraderie that you develop with someone that you hang out with a lot. Video conferencing helps somewhat, but something as big as culture requires more than a computer screen. That’s why we still favor hiring people within defined geographic areas, and we try to avoid hiring people that are so far apart from our team that the only way to see them would be to fly (that’s not to say we don’t consider them — we’re always looking to add smart, motivated people to our team). Having population centers also makes it easier for to get together regularly for social events, and if we wanted, we could open small collaboration spaces in the future so people have a place to get together when they wanted to. Apart from that, we make sure we celebrate every achievement, connect with our team members one-on-one regularly, and over-communicate at every level of the organization. It’s one part of our strategy that continues to evolve.

After all the factors and opinions were considered, we decided that virtual office was the right approach for us. But, we continue to experiment, learn, and adapt. If you’re working through similar changes at your company, we’d love to connect. We can be reached on LinkedIn, Twitter, or at hello@theagain.co.