Remote August at Passionfruit

Focus on being productive instead of being busy.

Tim Ferriss

This week marks the 3rd annual remote August month for team Passionfruit .

As an HQ that is in the office 3 days a week throughout the year, we like to take what tends to be a slower month (everyone and their dog being on holiday) to work from wherever in the world we like.

I’ve personally chosen France and I must say it is a refreshing break from the London skyline!

To Tim Ferriss’ quote above, this remote month has reminded me that it is all about productivity, not how busy you are. If you can do your work effectively without being busy in the office, then all power to you.

Remote work is new to literally no one, so this weeks edition is short and sweet:

• An argument for remote work
• Ways Passionfruit is rolling it out
• How Atlassian approach their distributed workforce

Without further ado…

An argument for remote work

Obviously the concept of remote work has been around for years, but peaked during the pandemic. However in the past 2 years we’ve seen the drive back to full time office work, with the leashes being shortened on flexible working opportunities across the board.

Whilst I do believe that the office is an incredible space for effective and impactful work to be done - if you can’t trust your team to work remotely, how can you say you trust them at all?

At Passionfruit outside of our Monday & Friday wfh days each week, we use August as a breather month where the entire company works remotely. There’s a few benefits to keeping it capped at this one specific month:

• There is only 1 month of adjusted working patterns to deal with. Some companies offer a work from anywhere for 30 days a year scheme which is great in theory, but in practicality means internal disruption as you navigate different timezones and working patterns. Limiting this to the same month for everyone minimises any larger issues that arise.
• It leads to deliberately focused work - being away from the office space leaves time for solo work to be done. For myself this is a time to research and deep dive into the world of EoR and global benefit schemes, something that is easier to do without the distraction of others in the office.
• It's an equitable way of ensuring that everyone is able to see loved ones. With young families they will have more time to spend with their kids whilst on school holidays, most people holiday in August so a great time for international friends or families to come to visit - or vice versa.
• Usually August is good weather - working remotely in the hotter months offers individuals an opportunity to get outside more, working in cafe’s or gardens and generally seeing more of the summer than they would in the office!

What we are rolling out

We appreciate that some team members prefer being in the office and seeing people regularly, and we want to ensure the team still feels connected with one another - without it feeling like the forced fun of the pandemic… As a result we’ve rolled out a few small measures to ensure everyone feels included, informed and supported throughout:

Team building face time

• Cooking class - we will spend one lunch time all together cooking one of the teams favourite dishes ????
• Movie club - we’ve all voted on one movie that is related to business/marketing in some way to uplift and inspire us. Towards the end of the month we’ll get together as a team, grab a drink, and chat about it ??

Creativity

• ‘Where you at Wednesdays’ - each Wednesday the team can share a picture of where they are working that day. Be it on a deck in south of France (guilty ???), a beach hut in South Africa, or looking out your window in London. The purpose is to get creative with where you’re working. Changing up your surroundings is one of the simplest ways to trigger renewed creativity - so get out there!

Comms

• Focus hours in calendars and connect to slack so you know when a good time to speak to someone is
• Timezones in slack titles - ensure everyone is aware of your working hours
• As always, our Monday commitments and Friday wins - ensuring we stick to these rituals throughout the month

What would you add? ??

???Company Spotlight ??

First of all they’ve created an entire new bucket of remote work - distributed work. For them hybrid work is too rigid (mandating days in the office) and remote work excludes those that do like an office space - so they developed distributed work. Their team are able to work from any country where they have a registered entity (13 and counting), in the office or not - totally up to the individual as to what works best for them.

They have an entire people team dedicated to ensuring distributed work is a success for everyone. Instead of rolling out the policy and viewing the job as done, they are actively working on ensuring every possible issue or situation is prepared for.

They choose to default to a-sync and written comms instead of face to face due to the varying working hours across the team. Still use meetings for kicking off important projects, decision making or brainstorms but ultimately want to approach work from a deep focus work angle which is best achieved without interruption.

When they do organise in-person events, they have a dedicated events team to organise. Whether it is an offsite, a small team social, or a conference - they purposefully work to make the gatherings as equitable as possible.

????

What we’re reading

• Atlassian’s team anywhere
• Seemingly work from home isn’t diminishing in the US
• Travel and creativity - how new experiences stimulate the mind

Work-life balance is not just a buzzy, self-help term that real business people laugh at. You need it.

Stephanie Ruhle, MSNBC anchor and journalist