I am a proud and happy remote worker. I am also really productive. People often think that these two statements are mutually exclusive. But myself – and all my colleagues – are evidence that they are not.
Currently I am based in Melbourne, my work is predominantly associated with organisations across Latin America, and my manager is in San Francisco. This means I am living and breathing in one country and time zone, working in another, and reporting into a third. People often ask me if I feel lost, confused, unaccountable or disconnected. But to be honest I feel empowered, efficient and productive.
I regularly work at home, at cafes, co-working spaces or – now it is warming up – in parks. This way of working allows me to be get inspiration from different environments, get silence when I want it, work with people when I need it and also make it to the bank when it is actually open. Last week I also found productivity in a Melbourne laneway (True. Hub Melbourne shifted all their furniture outside for the day and it was superb).
This style of working regularly comes with small agile start-ups. Groups of people who are forming around a shared vision and passion, not a shared office space. And traditionally as you look at larger, older organisations the structure, cubicles and stacks of paper on desks increases.
Originally I was part a small start-up like this, Yammer. Then we were acquired by Microsoft and we thought that perhaps our days of being empowered to work where and how we were most productive would near an end. Pleasantly, we were so wrong. Microsoft is one of the few large global organisations empowering employees to do just this.
The Microsoft Australia head office, for example, is all activity based working (no-one, even the Managing Director, has a set desk or office), and employees are actually encouraged to work in locations other than the office. Earlier this year we had Summer’s Day Out and tomorrow, this is really being highlighted again. This time around though, Microsoft is calling it Spring Day Out, and it is global. A day where the whole of Microsoft is being encouraged to work anywhere but the office and still get things done.
I understand that this is not possible for all types of work and I am part of a tech company which provides the tools and devices to make this happen. But when most people have a smart phone, a lap top and a tablet is there really a need to be in the same place, all day, everyday to do a job that is rapidly changing and evolving? As Pip Marlow, MD Microsoft Australia, eloquently sums up ‘for some reason, so many Australian managers just don’t get the basic fact that work is something you do, not a place you go; people need to be accountable for outcomes, not for time served; 9 to 5 is a song, not a lifestyle’. Hear, hear Pip!
So tomorrow, as part of Spring Day Out, I am planning on starting the day early (while Mexico is still online) at Little Mule with good coffee & wifi, then head to an Australian customers office, get in a few hours at The Hub Melbourne coworking space, then finish up at my stand up desk at home so I can take some business calls while I stretch. Honestly – I find it makes me so much more productive 🙂
Where are you working from tomorrow?
Sarah Försterling 