11. The comeback of the office
No, not the show. But actual offices. In this edition, we are thinking our way through the path for offices to make a comeback (and why it should).
Like most debates on the internet, Office vs Remote is a pointless debate. One is not universally better than the other. It’s a matter of preferences and your life situations.
I’m a massive advocate of remote and asynchronous ways of working. But there are many instances where remote just won’t work.
Problems with remote teams.
Remote work is not perfect. It comes with a lot of shortcomings. And some of them are relevant to this post.
Building connections
I built one of my closest friend's circles while at Freshdesk(now Freshworks). I started my first startup with a few of them. We have a group chat where we constantly talk about several topics. We meet in person when possible. All of them are within the startup realm - Either building their own or working for one. My connection with them wouldn't have been possible with a distributed team.
I still have made friends with my colleagues in remote teams. I've met amazing people. But the depth of the relationship is different. It probably also had to do with the period of my life and priorities. But I still miss being around people, building relationships and having fun with them.
Lack of positive gossiping
During my social Zoom call with a teammate the other day, she shared something meaningful. Paraphrasing her below.
The word gossip comes with a negative connotation. But with the lack of that and the organic conversation, I’m missing many things in the office, including people leaving the company, toxic people/culture and things that are not working out.
It is also true for learning new things. All the apps built in the past couple of years fall well short of solving this problem. You cannot recreate an organic lunch conversation on a scheduled Zoom call. It just isn’t natural.
(Well, let me also admit it - some real gossiping is fun too).
Team retreats and bonding exercises
By this point, most teams have realised that the best way to build meaningful connections is to go on team offsites. But for a large group spread across the globe, conducting offsites can be a big affair.
The other option is to do this on a team level. But for a globally distributed team, you still have the challenge of bringing together people from 10 different countries in a single place. Add to that the difficulties of visas. You must dedicate a lot of time and resources to make it happen.
A few months ago, I talked with my teammate about meeting up somewhere in Europe with the rest of our immediate team. Although we started enthusiastically, it dropped off since our immediate team is spread across three continents.
Better solution: Best of both worlds
A lot of companies adopted hybrid works as the best of both worlds. But in fact, it is the worst of both worlds. Visiting offices to spend time in meetings and busy work is the worst idea.
The best of both worlds is asynchronous work, with remote teams located in limited geographies. They can meet up in person quickly for creative work and socialising.
Companies already do this to an extent. But that is primarily due to logistics reasons.
But there is an advantage for remote teams located in similar geographies.
The good part of async work: Plan your day. Fit work into it. No more wasting time commuting in the rush hours.
The good parts of the office: Meeting up when necessary, primarily for socialisation and creative teamwork. The emphasis is on “when necessary”. Instead of going to the office through peak traffic every day, I can choose to meet up with someone whenever I want.
Once the team in a specific area is big enough, a company can rent an entire co-working space as their office. And people can choose to book slots and come in at their convenience.
A company can have multiple micro offices all over the world.
But these offices will look drastically different from today.
The offices of the future
The offices of the future will primarily solve two problems:
Socialisation and building relationships
Effective brainstorming and creative work
To an extent, many fancy offices around the world have these features. But are offered as a complementary feature to the space used to get busy work done.
In the future, these roles could reverse. Offices will focus on socialisation. Space for focused work would be a complementary feature.
Offices won't be the cubicle factories they are today. A good architect can take this and re-invent the existing meeting rooms.
Startup opportunity: An on-demand co-working space rental enabled by software (Think of it as Calendly, but for co-working spaces). You can sell directly to companies instead of remote workers.
They don't need to pay for space they don't use—bonus points for making creative spaces. (If you are building this and want to chat, hit me up).
Bonus
I started a Telegram channel where I share jobs that offers relocation to Europe. (600+ subscribers and counting). You can find it below, along with a set of resources that will help you relocate to Europe with a tech job.
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Cheers!