Between a call and a barbeque, smart working rises to the next level

As the world reopens, there are those who choose to stay at home, and take only the best of post-pandemic life. It is the model preferred by tech startups, which in this year and a half have seen the advantages of flexible work in terms of productivity and employee satisfaction. But, as Apple CEO Tim Cook pointed out, human contact is irreplaceable in the tech world as well. Hence the idea of ​​bringing teams together on out-of-office occasions, but not to talk about work: the aim is pure entertainment. Not business trips or team building events, therefore, but trips, more or less adventurous depending on personal propensity, to strengthen contacts between those who work together but remotely, to break the routine of work from home and improve mood . Not only that: while the tech greats, while equipping themselves to keep part of their work in smart working, have all planned a mandatory return to the offices at least for a few days a week, an organized system of flexible work combined with frequent reward trips could be the key. to help startups compete in the race to grab the best talent. Also because in recent months many of them have hired staff even in cities very far from their headquarters, trusting in remote work, and now they would find it difficult to organize mass transfers. Travel funds can be recovered by divesting from physical offices. People.ai Inc, for example, a company that studies and implements artificial intelligence solutions for business organization, is a striking case of this new formula of agile work with benefits. Taking advantage of the months of the pandemic, he reduced the offices of the San Francisco headquarters, closed the satellite offices and redesigned the London office to make it entirely remotely. In this way, he was able to use 85% of the 2019 real estate budget reinvesting it in employee benefits, including a trip for all the staff of 200 people, and others organized in reduced form for individual teams. “Bringing everyone back to work in the office would be a mistake” explained CEO Oleg Rogynskyy “it is with rigidity of views that talents are lost.” Even the startup incubator All Turtles Corp. has decided to close its Paris offices , Tokyo and San Francisco to move everything online. In return, his entire staff plus the employees of some of the startups he helped launch were invited to Memphis in October to meet up with barbecues, bourbon, and a trip to Graceland. The CEO himself moved from Silicon Valley to a more human-sized location in Bentonville, Arkanas. Others, like Lunchclub, have rented pool villas for longer stays where you can relax with a cocktail between a meeting and a hackaton, deciding whether to stay a week, two, or a month. Of course, a formula that is only possible for the leanest startups, and without forgetting those who could be put in difficulty by the request to travel several times a year. Rogynskyy has also budgeted a babysitter bonus for employees with children, and in some cases plans to plan trips that include the whole family. And there are the risks of a school trip climate, too many drinks and partying late into the night to be taken into account. For now, the enthusiasm for officeless companies that compensate with travel and benefits is palpable, but there are those who have chosen. a more cautious approach, such as Office Together CEO Amy Yin, who recently opened an office in New York to allow employees who want to work on-site. Remote working isn’t always an advantage, and can sometimes turn into a trap. The CEO of the software startup connected to healthcare Bayesian Healt is well aware of this, which after closing its offices in Baltimore and New York found the hot potato of a turnover of 15% in its hands. The cause, the difficulty of coordinating complex tasks from home isolation, and the high risk of burnout due to overwork in solitude.