Wordpress Parent Automattic Is Closing Its San Francisco Office Because Its Employees Never Show Up (qz.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: Automattic, the technology company that owns WordPress.com, has a beautiful office in a converted San Francisco warehouse, with soaring ceilings, a library, and a custom-made barn door. If you like the space, you're free to move in. The office at 140 Hawthorne went on the market after CEO Matt Mullenweg came to the realization not enough employees used it. As he explained on the Stack Overflow podcast earlier this year: "We got an office there about six or seven years ago, pretty good lease, but nobody goes in it. Five people go in it and it's 15,000 square feet. They get like 3,000 square feet each. There are as many gaming tables as there are people." Automattic has always given its 550 employees the choice of working remotely; the San Francisco space was an optional co-working space, spokesman Mark Armstrong said. The company maintains similar offices in Cape Town, South Africa, and outside Portland, Maine, and gives employees a $250-a-month stipend if they want to use commercial co-working offices elsewhere. And if they'd rather work at Starbucks, Automattic will pay for their coffee.

Comments

Nice, real nice

[TimothyHollins]

What I would like to know is "Does it work?". Does it really work to have all/most of your employees working from wherever they want?
I would love to believe it does, but I also know that not everyone functions the same way.
So, assuming that my previous assertion holds, how do you go about getting everyone, including the undisciplined, to function in an office-less work environment?

Re:Nice, real nice

[Plugh]

Same way to get "the undisciplined" to function in the face of any other adversity/distraction/what-have-you.

Do you have a daily interaction with your staff, such as a daily scrum? If not, that's your problem, you need frequent real-time interaction. It used to be called "management by walking around" and it's extremely effective. Nowadays it could be literally in-person walking around, or via video/webconf, or IM/slack, or via phone/Skype. Just make sure it's regular so people can plan for it, and make it real-time interactive. Make it in person or mandatory video at least once in a while. If in person, offer food. Even just coffee & donuts goes a long way.

Are there people who don't show up to those meetings, or who always seem to have an excuse, or just can't seem to get their shit done, or consistently produce poor-quality product? It doesn't matter whether their problem is family trouble, drugs/alcohol, or too much fantasy baseball. The work has to get done and the employees need to be able to produce, or else make way for someone who can. Those are good people to put on a buddy system (oh wait it's called "Agile" these days, right?) Make sure to give them clear realistic targets and deadlines, and let them know that if they are not met, they're not welcome to stay (and if they are met, they're fine).

Personally my executive VP drank some kind of kool-aide a few months ago, and decided that everybody has to work in the office 3-4 days a week. I'd been working from home 4 days a week for the past 12 years, during which time I got a house 45 mins from the office. I generally work 10+ hour days, despite being salaried. The loss in productivity having to drive to the office, deal with people who have too much free time and want to stop by to chat, etc, etc, is immense. I wear headphones all day so I can concentrate; most of the people I work with are thousands of miles away and we're in constant contact via webconf, IM, phone, and email. Having to come to the office is... incredibly counterproductive for me.

Re:Nice, real nice

[Plugh]

Hello AC, nice to hear from you

Actually, it does matter. You the employer should offer (1) family counseling and (2) rehab, as medical benefits, or (3) more challenging work, since the fantasy baseball hobby is apparently more rewarding than the "productive" bullshit work you do.

You're quite right on the first two, of course. Counselling / rehab services are the right way to deal with family and substance issues. With respect to fantasy baseball and other distractions, I'd find it hard to give something more challenging to someone who's not able to get other presumably easier things done in a timely, high-quality fashion. If the employee specifically says they're bored with the current tasks, then sure, give them more and harder stuff to do -- provisionally, and make sure someone can catch the ball if this person who is already flaking drops it. Don't impact the customers just because internal styaffing issues.

The work has to get done and the employees need to be able to produce, or else make way for someone who can.

If you can't be bothered to invest in the wellbeing of your employees so that they can produce, then you're a soulless objectivist scumbag, and your company deserves to cease to exist immediately. FUCK YOU.

Well, someone's a bit sensitive on the topic. I'm not saying don't invest in people or help them succeed; I'm saying, if somebody consistently can't get work done in reasonable time at acceptable quality, they have to go. What is more fair, make everyone else work harder to carry their load? Collectivism generally doesn't incentivize people well for exactly this reason. At the end of the day, what matters is happy customers. Unless of course you're in a monopolistic situation where customers have no choice; the most extreme example of which is a government-provided service, in which people have to pay for it via taxes or else men with guns show up and *make* them pay. Not very ethical, that.

Re:Open-Plan Offices Are Death.

[SimonInOz]

I worked for a major bank. They built these beautiful new offices. Gorgeous, lovely atrium, glass lifts, great coffee machines, lovely building.
And then they populated it with desks. Not even cubicles, just desk dividers.
And then they said "pick your desk when you come into the office" - yup, hot desking.
Well, I hated it.
If you came in late, there were no desks available (so you don't want me to do any work then? Ok, sure).
When you did find a desk, you had to spend a while moving everything so it fitted you.
Then you had to get the computer going - that mostly worked, but not always.
And of course the killer - what if you need to chat with someone - where the hell are they? People wandered the office, seeking - I built a "FindPeople" app but they took years to get it installed.
And of course, it's so lovely to work among strangers every day. Great for morale.

It was horrible. I cannot imagine what miserable effect it had on morale overall, but mine certainly plummeted. Eventually my work deteriorated so much I had to leave.