Six months ago, millions of workers left their offices for the last time without realizing it.
Many would be laid off because of the pandemic, but for those fortunate to keep their jobs, some of their employers still haven’t determined whether they will open their workplaces again.
Some of the biggest tech employers in the United States, like Facebook and Google, have vowed to keep their offices closed until at least 2021, which experts say is a realistic timeframe to develop a vaccine. Twitter went all in, allowing its employees to work from home for as long as they choose, even permanently.
Although the pandemic helped propel the work from home revolution, not all companies are calling it a day on office life just yet. Flexible working is here to stay and is likely to be as important to prospective employees as more traditional company benefits.
TechCrunch spoke with three tech companies that have long embraced flexible work — Auth0, Duo Security and Yubico — about how they adapted during the pandemic and their plans to return to the office.
What’s clear is that although flexible working has been an important part of their culture, it’ll take more than a pandemic to end the office era for good.
Auth0 plans to reopen its six offices
Before the pandemic hit, more than half of Auth0’s employees worked from home. Even its chief executive Eugenio Pace split his time between working from the office and his home.
“Since day one, our employees have had the freedom to do work on their own terms,” said Pace. He said that flexible working helped make his employees more productive, while allowing the company to expand its pool of talent — where more restrictive companies might demand an employee relocate.
“It’s also important to recognize that remote work isn’t for everyone,” he said. But the pandemic made working from the office impossible. Now, the company’s more than 700 employees are working from home.
“I truly miss going into the office and look forward to going back soon,” he told TechCrunch. “I’m hearing similar sentiments from our team as well.”
Pace, who co-founded the identity management company with its headquarters near Seattle in Bellevue, Washington, said Auth0 will reopen its six offices — subject to the lifting of local restrictions — in line with social distancing and safety guidelines.
“While the benefits of remote work and flexible work options are endless, working remotely requires discipline, structure and boundaries,” said Pace. Auth0 offers its employees access to health and wellness resources, and encourages flexible work schedules and to take time off when it’s needed. “We do a lot of activities such as online trivia and happy hours to help everyone stay connected, de-stress, facilitate cross-departmental relationships, and minimize loneliness,” he said.
Remote-friendly Duo Security evaluating future office plans
Duo Security, the multifactor authentication giant bought by Cisco for $2.35 billion in 2018, has always had a dedicated portion of its employees work remotely, so moving the entire business to remote-only wasn’t painful, said Dug Song, the company’s co-founder and general manager.
“That being said, face-to-face interaction is a key part of creative collaboration — random conversations in the midst of real human engagement,” he said. “You can certainly operate and run an existing business 100% remotely. But this is not the most ideal formula for creative innovation, except for groups such as open-source engineers whose primary interface to a community has been through a screen (and are deeply steeped in its tooling, cultural pathways and practices).”
In other words, he said, places and people matter.
Song said the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company is “continually evaluating” its future office plans. Duo now has more than 900 employees, after adding at least 100 new employees in the past year. “Our goals would be to ensure efficient use of our facilities and align for future workforce demands,” he said.
“While many employees appreciate the flexibility that the current remote work environment provides, many miss their colleagues and the ability to see each other in the office,” he said. “And working from home during a pandemic is very different from traditional remote work. It’s vital to build healthy boundaries between work and home.”
Duo’s parent company Cisco has offered employees additional paid time off, invited medical and health experts to virtual town hall meetings, and offered further flexibility outside the traditional workday.
“Keeping lines of communications open when we’re no longer face to face is vital,” he said. “We’ve encouraged our managers to talk about mental health openly with their team and shared strategies and best practices for managing a team through extended remote work. Some teams are having meetings without an agenda just to talk about life. We are also allocating the first 10 minutes of some meetings for small talk, which helps us have a personal touch in this remote work world.”
Yubico to offer more flexibility for WFH employees
Before the pandemic, about a third of employees at Yubico, maker of the popular YubiKey security keys, worked remotely. Now it’s closer to 80%, with some exceptions for the company’s supply chain and hardware engineering teams, who are deemed essential workers.
Yubico has nine offices around the world, including its headquarters in Stockholm, where the number of coronavirus cases has dropped since its peak in June but is steadily rising again.
“All of our employees miss seeing each other at some level, whether it’s an interactive white boarding session or socializing at lunch and other gatherings,” Yubico’s chief executive Stina Ehrensvärd told TechCrunch. “Many also enjoy the increased flexibility, have shown higher productivity working from home and value the time saved by not having to commute to and from work.”
“As a company we’re doing our best to support those who are finding remote work more challenging and have virtual activities to keep the company culture strong and morale high,” she said.
Ehrensvärd said she has no plans to downsize the company’s office space, but has put its future expansion plans on hold.
“After COVID we will offer more flexibility when it comes to working from home,” said Ehrensvärd. “But we’re also excited to offer an in-person collaborative space for our team again.”