May ‘20

About 6 weeks ago, the world of office rental got turned upside down. Knowledge workers were told that they now must send each other gifs from their couch instead of their office block. Overnight, CodeBase turned into a ghost town.

The internet quickly worked itself up into a storm over the future of workplaces. People announced in droves they were quitting San Francisco. Twitter announced they were going fully remote, and soon Shopify followed (at least in the short to medium term). Backlash to these plans came in many forms - lack of human contact, WFH being a privilege that won't work for everyone, and how spending time around whiteboards just not quite feeling right over Zoom.

I think it's widely agreed that traditional office spaces won't vanish overnight, but definitely need to adapt, and be more flexible than ever. Many companies won't need a full time office, but there's likely going to still be a desire to meet up occasionally in person - say once a week, once a month, to share space, their thoughts, or a team potluck.

What I think needs thought about a bit is at what size this makes sense for companies. It seems like a no brainer if you have 50+ employees and are smashing it remotely, why would you pay six figures plus a year for an office? Think of the benefits you could afford your employees with that kind of cash. And I think this is totally possible due to your company having (for better or for worse) an established culture.

The culture is the way in which a company looks at itself and the world. It manifests in countless way - an attitude to collaboration, hiring procedures, how you manage employee mental health. The culture will still change with every new hire and every passing day, but there'll be a degree of rigidity about How We Do Things. I suspect, although it is yet to be proved, that strong company culture with happy and productive employees will make working remotely a breeze..

But what does this mean for a company just starting out? Economically, it makes total sense for them to stay working on their kitchen tables or garages - startups in my part of the world are typically extremely cashflow efficient. But I think they'd be missing out on something that will prove detrimental in the long run. You see, when your company has a handful of people, the company culture is extremely fragile. Small actions can have big ramifications. The danger is that if a company is growing quickly, they'll end up with a narrow view of what's important. They need a bit of friction, ideally provided by other startups, to challenge them and their way of doing things - even their ideals.

I guess the question that needs answered is can we achieve this online via curated Slack communities, Twitter conversations, email groups, etc.? Maybe. But the thing with culture is that it's not what you say you're going to do - it's what you do. Sharing physical space, having your employees talking to the employees of other startups on their own terms, lets that behaviour seep out of one startup and into another. There's no mask of "company values" to hide behind. Just a peek behind the curtain of how others walk, not talk. And it's really helpful.

So, I don't know what the future looks like for office space. There's no one size fits all solution, and I expect many employees are going to get swept up in a tide of change they never asked for. But let's think about how young companies learn from each other, and work that into our plans.