This piece by David Niu on Entrepreneur made me think. In it he outlines his view that remote working inhibits company culture.
He notes his own views:
I firmly believe that a strong company culture determines your success, and you can’t have a strong culture without people working together in an office setting.
and
A strong workplace culture is an organization’s No. 1 competitive advantage because you need enthusiastic, excited employees to build great products and delight your customers. When a majority of your employees work remotely, you lose the ability to build that culture.
That’s not so say that remote working is without benefits. From their own conducted research he notes that remote workers are generally happier, more productive and felt more valued.
Whilst he provide stats and studies about the benefits of remote work, he only provides opinions (his) about the inability to build culture in a remote environment.
Others would disagree, but perhaps only armed with opinions themselves. Matt Mullenweg (WordPress) is a good example and there are others. Important to note that all of the top performing remote working companies have regular staff meetups. So perhaps it’s about getting the balance right.
