How to Stop Remote Work from Killing Company Culture

When the verdict in the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial was announced, all of a sudden I was reading "stan" this and "stan" that. I confess that the word was foreign to me. I also remember my son telling me about taking a selfie, and I was like, "To what?"

Wait, that was almost 20 years ago.

So don't boom me for what I'm about to say. Elon Musk recently proclaimed that at Tesla, working from home is now prohibited.

I thought, "That makes a lot of sense."

Believe me, there are a lot of things I disagree with Elon Musk on. But when it comes to remote work: he's absolutely right.

Am I too old school? I understand it's easier to work from home, and once you eliminate commuting...it's hard to go back. Going back to the office can feel like a prison sentence. I understand.

And I also understand it from the employer's point of view. They save money on a physical office and other expenses associated with being in the office five days a week.

Company culture governs everything. And five days a week fully remote is a recipe for disaster.

Now let's get this straight. Throughout my career, about 25% of my time has been spent working from home, and so has a lot of my team. I've been doing this since 2010, a decade before I even heard of the hybrid workforce.

After all the time I spent creating an office space that demonstrates our culture in every nook and cranny, and designing said office to force cross-departmental interactions between associates, you may be surprised to know that I was an early advocate of telecommuting.

I particularly benefited from it when I needed to think without distractions. An open door policy only works when the door is open, which invites valuable and unplanned interactions with associates.

Remote work is great for solitary, in-depth work. But five days a week in solitude without spontaneous interactions or cultural reinforcement leads to inefficient and overworked teams.

I'm not a fan.

Game-changing ideas are not discovered on Slack

"Okay, Team – In these 30 minutes, we need to come up with ideas that will change the business. Stacey – we'll start with you. Any ideas?"

What you don't get with remote work is the ability to observe people working or trying to collaborate or the obstacles they may face unless you are here to see them in person.

The more people who discover more things and are able to collaborate on them, the more likely large-scale improvements can be achieved - which many pain sufferers don't didn't even know it was a problem.

Also, without being physically there, one would not spontaneously discover pain points or processes that could be improved.

Instead, we replaced our spontaneous interactions with more work. This doesn't give teams time to think about the big picture. No time to be creative. No time for fun. No time to improve relations. No time for real team building efficiency.

Believe it or not, some people really enjoy working in an office with other people.

It's amazing that I even had to write this as if it were some sort of massive contrarian point of view. It shows you how much it has changed in a few years.

Workplace office visits have increased by more than 300% since...