In March 2020 every knowledge worker in Australia began working from home. Most are back in the office now, at least for part of the week.
Not those at teamwork software behemoth Atlassian though.
Today the tech giant released a report into its first 1,000 days as a “distributed” workforce, claiming that work from home (WFH) makes staff work longer and more productively.
Billionaire co-founder Scott Farquhar argues that businesses that try to return fully to pre-pandemic working conditions will hurt their productivity – and fail to reach their full potential.
Atlassian argues that WFH, hybrid work and working from anywhere are trends that are here to stay, and says the idea of office spontaneity is outdated “corporate folklore” and no longer relevant.
“The conversation on remote work is too caught up in where work happens, and not enough in how it happens,” said Farquhar. “The reality is, most businesses already work in some form of a distributed way – whether that’s customers and clients in different offices, or colleagues across timezones.”
Atlassian has seen great success with its remote work philosophy, with financial results last year beating expectations.
The company has secured talent across Australia, and globally because the company has said employees can work anywhere.
The report argues that the nature of a modern company is distributed. All large companies need to enable their teams to collaborate effectively online and across a distributed digital network.
Lessons Learned: 1,000 Days of Distributed at Atlassian details the specific insights and practices the Sydney-based company has perfected to help their distributed teams collaborate.
It reveals that 92% of Atlassian workers (“Atlassians” apparently ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) say the company’s distributed work policy allows them to do their best work and be productive, while 91% say it’s an important reason why they stay at the business.
More usefully for other business leaders looking for productivity gains is the detail the report provides into key 2020s challenges: productivity, connection, real estate ROI, and culture.
Of course Atlassian hasn’t turned its back on the office completely, the company is building a swanky new Sydney HQ at an estimated $1.4 billion next to Central Station and has 12 offices globally.
But it doesn’t have 10,000 desks and doesn’t believe teams need to sit together 260 days a year. Instead, teams meet in person at one of their offices three to four times a year, where the priority is social bonding.
“Distributed work isn’t a sacrifice – it’s a huge opportunity for businesses and for people — especially underrepresented groups,” said Atlassian’s Annie Dean, global head of Team Anywhere.
“We’re finding that teams designed to be distributed are actually figuring out better ways of working.”
Atlassian’s survey of leaders from 200 other large companies globally found that the biggest blockers to productivity were back-to-back meetings, vague priorities, confusing emails and endless distracting notifications – not location.
Ninety-nine percent of executives surveyed agreed work will become more distributed in the future.
Prior to early 2020, I could never have imagined doing a job like mine mostly from home, yet thanks to the pandemic – and the trust of my boss – I’m a year into spending more than 75% of my time WFH.
Occasionally this means I am still in my PJs at midday, but only if I don’t have a morning meeting.
Typically, I am at my desk by 6.30am (actually my sofa for the first 90 minutes) rather than battling a commute, and most days have “eaten the frog” (aka nailed my most important task) before I officially start work at 8am. I go pretty hard until our daily edition is sent, then try – usually fail – to get offline for an hour at 1pm.
Most days there’s a virtual meeting or two (or three or four) from 2pm, and I still get time to “work late” before connecting with my kids and helping with dinner by 6pm, without any commute.
That’s at least eight hours of focused work every day, give or take the odd stroll around our orchard to grab an apricot or apple and think a problem through.
Am I more productive than if I was in the office? I certainly feel that I am.
I love visiting our Melbourne and Sydney offices, but I spend most of my time there catching up with colleagues, rather than doing much work!
And while I miss the regular unscheduled interruptions, extended chats by the water cooler, and twice daily strolls to a favourite coffee shop (my nearest cafe is five minutes away by car, so I mostly brew my own at home), I’m pretty sure my boss thinks I’m hitting my marks too.
Simon Crerar is the managing director of Impact&ble, a sustainable impact advisory firm. He was editor-in-chief of SmartCo Media from 2022-24, and before that the founding editor and then GM of BuzzFeed Australia. Simon began his career on Fleet Street at The Times, and has also worked for the SMH and News Corp Australia. He champions businesses having a positive impact on LinkedIn.
