Work in the office full-time? Never again, says Atlassian

With much of the workforce currently seeing signs of return- to-office (RTO) mandates, employees are working in the office, at least for part of the week. However, Atlassian, a tech firm focused on teamwork software, think that flexible working arrangements, working from home and other such perceived trends are here to stay, with the firm releasing a report detailing their first 1,000 days as a “distributed” workforce.

The report, titled Lessons Learned: 1,000 Days of Distributed at Atlassian claims that options to work from home (WFH) are essential for staff to work longer and more productively.

Scott Farquhar, billionaire and Co-Founder of Atlassian, argued that businesses that try to return fully to pre-pandemic working conditions will hurt their productivity – and fail to reach their full potential. Embracing flexible working arrangements is the way to go, and the idea of office spontaneity is outdated “corporate folklore” and no longer relevant.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.” 

The report, interviewing employees working in Atlassian, revealed that 92% of respondents agreed that the distributed work policy set by the organisation allows them to do their best work and be productive, while 91% agreed that it was an important reason why they stayed with Atlassian.

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Atlassian’s survey of leaders from 200 other large organisations across the world found that the biggest blockers to productivity were back-to-back meetings, vague priorities, confusing emails and endless distracting notifications – not location. 99% of executives surveyed agreed work will become more distributed in the future.

 “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.