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Culture isn’t foosball and free bagel Fridays.
It’s respecting employees’ personal time, treating them as grown adults who don’t need a chaperone (WFH), and paying them what they’re worth.
THAT is culture.
depends on if the company has any culture to begin with.
I actually think remote helps culture in a lot of ways if it’s implemented right. Way less shit talking, gossip, passive aggressiveness, political maneuvering, coworker hookups and overall messiness. Also eliminates any trace of “one big family” energy. That said, people are definitely more distant and are much less likely to become friends outside the office
I love working remote, but if everyone works from home, there is no culture.
The company I work for is a team of about 30 people. At the start of this year we got the lecture of how it was mandatory to go into office once a week because leadership didn’t feel we were as productive and communicative as a team as we could be.
What’s funny is like 20% of the team doesn’t live in the area and most weeks people usually go in on the day lunch is catered, but it’s not always the case.
I went in today and only 5 people were in office (including myself), 3 of which have their own offices and had their door closed most the time.
Other than saying hello and being offered a macron, I don’t see the point of going in. If anything I’m annoyed I pay for gas, put wear and tear on my car, have to make or buy a lunch, and commute for about an hr.
When we were fully WFH I’d be willing to give an extra 15-30 mins since I can multitask. I can do laundry as I work or I can prep dinner at 4:30. Now, I do my time and leave. No part of my job was more efficient today from me going in.
Just one person’s 2¢.
It definitely impacts culture, but more importantly it makes it impossible to have one in the future. I understand why most senior level people prefer to be remote, but I can’t see how the young talent that’s starting will learn anything or build a career by being remote.
PDX office is a great case study in this exact thing. The one group that's expected to be in-person every day is also the most cohesive and produces the best work.
You can argue there's a chicken/egg situation where a good culture/track record also makes people more willing to come in, but you're damned either way.
It hurts. I’m not saying it’s not worth the trade off, but it no doubt negatively impacts culture.
Screw company culture. I care about my peace.
Rising Star
It definitely hurts it. You can work somewhere for a year and barely know your coworkers, except for the ones you work with very directly.
I’ve worked with people for a year remote and most genuinely feel like family. Depends on who you are I guess
I think it can depend on what part of the culture we are talking about. I've been fully remote and I've been in office 5 days a week, and there's pros and cons.
Being a part of a company that was primarily remote meant that the ways they encouraged bonding and built up their culture was different. We encouraged a level of vulnerability to help make work life balance better. It was normal for people to be inactive some during the day and still get plenty of work done. Company saved money on rent, so we would travel to see each other more to help make those connections. Our culture was probably one of the best I had ever been a part of because it was way less gossip and coworker drama.
Being fully in person meant we built a culture of doing things together, fun surprises in office, etc. The downside was the drama, gossip, and the cliques. As a female, I absolutely hated it because I didn't fit in with the clique of women and was often left out of things, which kind of made me sad. I know i was there to work, but it doesn't help that human nature is to want to belong and be included. Being in person helped me to know people better, though, as well as meet people I typically wouldn't.
Now I'm hybrid and I cant tell if I love it or hate it. My schedule doesn't align with a lot of people's so im only in the office with certain people, maybe once a week. Some days it feels like im at home with how few people exist. Some days I wish I was at home because of how loud it is. I wouldn't say hybrid is really better or worse than fully remote or fully in person culture wise, but I will say that it does have some significant downfalls if a company bases all of their culture on things they do in person, especially for those in the company that are hybrid or fully remote because it just makes those people feel alienated and often leads to higher turnover.
A culture that trusts I can do my job, ask for help when I need it and ultimately get things done? Yeah, WFH can go a long way in creating and establishing culture.
I’m all for remote and hybrid work, some of the most creative and effective team members I’ve worked with are fully remote. That said, when most of the team is in the office and just one or two people are dialing in, it can get a little awkward. The conversation tends to default to those in the room, even if unintentionally. It’s not a flaw in the model it just depends on how strong your remote hires are. Maybe the issue isn’t remote work… maybe your remote hires just aren’t it.
Chief
Define “people”. Not everyone thinks the same.
Yes, by saying people, I am asking for a breadth of different opinions from the community.
People = Not AI.
I think people forget for how many WFH is the only option, so agencies that are open to fully remote have a wider net of candidates 💯. There’re still ways to maintain “culture.”
I work at a big network agency where no one really talks to each other anyway. Don’t even know half of the creative department, let alone people in the other departments. So if there’s zero culture to begin with, what’s there to ruin?