10 Reasons Working for a Distributed Company Rocks

There is a lot of buzz in the business world about the concept of a remote work force and experiments in entirely distributed (off site employees with no central office) companies. Across a broad range of industries, it’s not that unusual to negotiate a partially remote work week. Even Yahoo tried it, and then backed off, bringing their employees all back in-house, citing the value of face to face collaboration and culture.

The idea of a completely distributed company is particularly appealing to start ups who are seeking to reduce overhead and attract employees who might be extremely talented, but not necessarily physically in the same part of the world. Working for a distributed company, however, is not for everyone. I meet folks, in equal parts, who think it’s “so cool” that my office is in my backpack, and those who “could never do that.” There does seem to be a demographic for whom it’s a dream, and for others, the whole concept is a total nightmare. Chacun son gout!

The Adjustment Period

In thinking about this piece and the different sorts of environments that suit different sorts of people, I talked to Taylor and Patrick. We work together at Tortuga Backpacks, and they’re both in the first few months of transition from show-up jobs to location independence, as Tortuga is an entirely distributed company. I asked them about the transition, pros, and cons; this is what they said:

Taylor:

“The first week was tough. I tried to follow all of the rules for productivity and work the same number of hours from my previous job. I guess I didn’t quite believe Fred when he said we made our own hours. I’m so used to being judged for how much and how hard I’m working. I loved not having a commute… but I hated working from my living room.

Setting my own hours was definitely the biggest adjustment and that adjustment probably took a month. I had a major guilty complex if I didn’t check Slack for an hour during normal “work times.” Now, I don’t hesitate to wake up later if I need to, or take three-hour midday breaks.

I can work WHEN I want, something I didn’t appreciate until recently.

My biggest challenges are working too much, and getting a read on my performance and on my teammates. Did I let someone down? Did my tone come across as snippy in an email, when I absolutely didn’t intend it to? Am I working enough? Do people think I’m doing a good job?”

Patrick:

“The transition to a distributed team has been very fluid for me. In the past, I’ve work as a freelancer and on very small teams. Working on a distributed team is very similar. To do well, you have to be self motivated and be able to confidently make decisions about your work… and what you work on.

When you work in a traditional office setting, you’re typically surrounded by managers not leaders. Many managers are more concerned with employees looking busy than inspiring employees to do great work.

When you work on a distributed team, you can focus solely on doing great work. You can work when you want from anywhere in the world. If I want to work in my PJs all day, I can.

Constant distraction may be the definitive feature of the modern workplace. Doing great design requires great focus, reaching the flow state. When you work for a distributed team, it is much easier to tune out distractions and to focus on the your work.

One downside of designing in a remote environment is loss of serendipity. Often, great design comes from looking at a problem from many different angles. When you are working with a team of designers in the same space, you have the opportunity for unexpected, unplanned, moments with your team that can lead to the ideas that make a project special.

Humans are social people. If you’re not careful, working on a distributed team can be really lonely. Working in a coworking environment and having a robust social life can help with that. You have to make a point to inject that kind of human interaction into your daily life in a way that you don’t have to if you work in a traditional office.”

In my case, I can’t imagine ever working for a company that required me to show up, bodily, on any kind of regular basis. I love the energy of working with people from all over the world and the ability to travel and take my office with me. In fact, I’m writing this from seat 20 C of Delta flight 5158 between Atlanta and Montreal. This week with my ailing Grandmother, in Florida, would have been an impossibility if I worked in a traditional environment.

That’s one of the reasons that working for a distributed company rocks. But there are others:

Core Value Alignment

Core Value Alignment is more important than just about any other measure of compatibility, in my opinion. I want to work with companies, and individuals who are paddling in the same direction. I want to choose my teams with those values in mind.

Working for and with folks who are innovative, full of integrity, dreamers of big dreams, and who are out to change the world through creating products and services that move humanity forward is invigorating. Partnering my efforts with those who are building trust in their industries, upping the overall game as individuals and in the work place, and who are creating products and communities that matter feels rewarding. I don’t want to work with a genius who doesn’t “get that” no matter how amazing she is.

Efficient Use of My Time

Working in a distributed company is the most efficient use of my time. My commute is about 70 feet, from my bed to the table next to the window where I work, by way of the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

I don’t waste two hours of my time in traffic. No one corners me by the water cooler to talk about last night’s game. I am never late coming back from lunch, because I’m not punching the clock at all. My on task time, that a company is billed for, is 100% on task time. That makes it more efficient for me, and cheaper for the boss. I love a win-win situation.

Leverages Technology

We live in a connected, digital world; in the industries that it makes sense, working in such a way that we leverage technology for the overall advantage of the team increases efficiency. Using tools like Skype, Zoom, Slack, Trello, or Asana, and a myriad of productivity and connectivity related apps, we can create a truly global office.

Every morning at 9:15 EST finds me on a fifteen minute (strictly) morning call with a team in Romania, Ecuador, Canada and the USA. That quarter of an hour frames our work day and keeps everyone moving in the same direction. Every Friday I get a slew of emails from another team answering three productivity related questions as a weekly round up. I love knowing what Giulia is up to in China on the production end of the product, while Patrick, in California, shares the design progress of the week, and Taylor weighs in from Uruguay as she rocks it out on her Remote Year.

Larger Potential Brain Base

The possibility should be considered that the best person for a particular job may not live within an easy commute of Company HQ. Distributed companies don’t limit themselves to the pool of applicants physically handy to the office. People all over the world have the amazing opportunity to work in another country without ever leaving home, and companies can cherry pick the best of the best, without having to wrangle visas or the costly process of moving families long distances.

Working with people who are scattered across the globe, but who share the same core values and the same motivation to build businesses forward, is exciting. I’ve pointed Australian friends, who are qualified, to jobs with companies I work with in America. Within distributed companies, the only constraints become an core value alignment, a capacity to thrive in a remote work environment, and whether an applicant is truly qualified. The possibilities are exciting for both companies and individuals.

International Experience

One of my favourite parts of working for distributed companies is the international experience. True, the companies I work for are within the travel industry, so this is a core value. But even if you were working within an industry that didn’t necessarily relate to going abroad, international experience is often a part of working with a fully remote team.

In the groups I work with, company powwows were held in Portland, USA, Spain, and Romania last year. In a couple of months Team Tortuga will assemble in Montreal, Canada, from as far away as China, Germany, Colombia and the west coast of the USA to catapult the company forward and build relationships in the real world that were started in the digital realm.

I love hearing from Andreea what life is like in Romania on any given morning, from Sean about his adventures in Portland, from Taylor on how her Spanish is progressing, and about the Italian Giulia’s liaisons with factories and providers in China. This environment continually focuses my attention on the reality that I am just one tiny piece of a beautiful mosaic that is the whole world. Taking a myopic view of life, when your morning coffee meeting happens across several continents and in snippits of multiple languages is impossible,.

Mistress of my Own Destiny

Perhaps you have noticed, from some of my other pieces, that I’m not a particularly conventional chick. I am relentless in my pursuit of my dreams, on my terms. This definitely extends to my career choices as well. A non-negotiable, for me, is the freedom to chart my own course and “do life” my way.

At the moment, that means renting a tiny cottage on an island that is only accessible by ferry, in Canada. Being able to work at 5:30 a.m. in my bathrobe with a cup of tea and watch the sunrise matters to me. As does the ability to knock off and take a walk mid day. Sometimes that walk lasts an hour, but once it lasted six weeks. The ablity to write at midnight if that’s when inspiration strikes and the ability to work seven days a week if I’m feelin’ it, and four when I’m not is important in my world.

I don’t make a very good caged bird, in any incarnation of my life; the office environment would feel stifling.

Flexibility Suits Family Life

So, here’s the other thing: I have four kids. They’re all teenagers now, but I took about 15 years off of all of the financially measurable stuff to invest in my young people. When I dove back into the pond, I did it in a way that would allow me to do the work I love and build a career I’m passionate about, but in a way that my kids wouldn’t feel the crunch.

Working for distributed companies lets me do that. I can take the boy to bagpipe lessons on Tuesday afternoons and no one freaks out. I knock out most of my work day before lunch, while the kids are schooling all around me. By cutting out the commute, and the associated dramas related to office accountability, there is extra time to dedicate to the things that matter most to me: the relationships with my family.

Women have gotten the short end of the career stick for as long as anyone can remember. One of the reasons for this is that we’re penalized for bearing children and then, *gasp* actually wanting to raise them. That sucks. Distributed companies level that playing field a little bit. All of a sudden, it’s possible to work a “real job” and not have to make the, often difficult, home-office balance judgements that too many families struggle with.

Location Independent

In almost a decade, there has not been a year in which living and working from fewer than three countries and two continents was not my reality. Some years we’ve punched out as many as 12 countries on three continents. How’s that for crazy? Being location independent in our jobs is what has allowed us to adventure far and wide with our kids through their formative years. Everyone makes different choices, but that is not one I would trade for all of the Apple stock we sold to hit the road in the first place.

Also, making first world money with the option to spend it in places that it goes a heck of a lot further does not suck. I much prefer feeding teenage boys on giant bowls of succulent Southeast Asian noodle dishes for a buck than clipping coupons in Massachusetts to keep the grocery budget down. Just sayin’.

Results Oriented Assessment

I am a no-nonsense gal. I do not like to have my time wasted and I will do my damnedest never to waste yours. I don’t want to sit in meetings that don’t matter. I don’t want to find inane tasks to fill 8 hours with when the job can be done in four. I am not interested in appearing busy. I am interested in being busy, making most of the time, getting the flipping job done and then using my extra time to up the game in some useful manner.

To me, one of the very best part of working on a fully distributed team is the results oriented assessment. We’ve got numbers that we measure, jobs to be done, shit to check off the list. We either get that done, exceed expectations, and delight our coworkers, or we don’t. No one is interested in how long it took to get done, we just want it done right and for things to be awesome. Virtually everyone I work with is a mover and a shaker, because this kind of environment makes it in our collective best interest to live at the peak of productivity and to partner with other people who do the same.

Of course there are industries where distribution just doesn’t fly. I’m not going to a virtual dentist, thanks (but I know a couple of virtual therapists). An auto mechanic can’t exactly phone it in. There is value to an office environment, face to face collaboration and the serendipity, as a result, that Patrick referred to. I’m not saying that working for a locationally defined company and showing up for a job sucks. I’m just saying that sometimes, having the option to organize life and work differently is successful too, can be very productive, and rocks, for the right kinds of people.

What do you think?

Photo Credit: Dave Meier & Jenn Sutherland