Why working from home is good for business | The Way We Work, a TED series

The basic problem with working in an office

譯者: Carol Wang 審譯者: Helen Chang

is you're just not in control of your work environment.

[The Way We Work]

Howdy, my name is Matt, and I'm the CEO of Automattic,

the company behind WordPress.com, Jetpack and WooCommerce.

在辦公室工作最根本的問題，

We're coming up on over 800 employees, and they live everywhere,

就是你無法掌控工作環境。

【我們的工作方式】

from California to Alabama, Mississippi, to where I live in Texas.

【Dropbox 為其提供了可行性】

大家好，我是馬特， Automattic 程式設計公司的執行長，

They're also in 67 countries.

旗下有 WordPress.com、 Jetpack 和 WooCommerce。

Canada, Mexico, India, New Zealand.

Some of them choose not even to have a home base, they're nomads.

我們目前有 800 多名員工， 他們分布在各地，

Whether they are in RVs or traveling through Airbnbs,

從加州到亞拉巴馬、密西西比， 再到我所在的德克薩斯州；

they are in new places every day, week or month.

As long as they can find good Wi-Fi, we don't care where they are.

他們也分布在全球 67 個國家，

像加拿大、墨西哥、印度和紐西蘭。

Our focus on distributed work didn't happen accidentally.

他們有些人到處遊歷， 甚至沒有固定居所，

It was a conscious choice from the very beginning.

無論是住在房車裡， 還是旅途中住宿 Airbnb，

Notice I don't use the word "remote,"

每天、每週或每月 他們都在新的地方。

because it sets up the expectation,

只要他們能找到好用的 Wi-Fi， 我們根本不在乎他們的位置。

that some people are essential and some aren't.

I use the word "distributed" to describe what we do,

我們著重於分布式工作並非偶然，

where everyone is on an equal playing field.

I think a distributed workforce

從一開始就是有意識的選擇。

is the most effective way to build a company.

可能您已注意到 我沒用「遠程」這個詞，

The key is you have to approach it consciously.

因為它預設了

When we started WordPress,

有些人必不可少，另一些則否。

many of the first 20 hires were people I'd never met in person.

我使用了「分布式」這個詞 來描述我們所做的事情，

But we'd collaborated online, sometimes for years.

在分布式環境下，人人平等。

我認為分布式工作團隊

I wanted to continue that for one simple reason.

是建立公司最有效的方式，

關鍵在於您必須有意識地去處理它。

I believe that talent and intelligence

are equally distributed throughout the world.

當我們剛成立 WordPress 時，

第一批 20 名員工中， 許多人我未曾謀面。

But opportunity is not.

In Silicon Valley, the big tech companies fish

但我們在網上合作過， 合作有時持續多年。

from essentially the same small pond or bay.

我想繼續這種合作 只有一個簡單理由：

A distributed company can fish from the entire ocean.

我相信人才和智慧

Instead of hiring someone who grew up in Japan but lives in California,

均勻分布在全球各地，

但機會則不是。

you can gain someone who lives, works,

在矽谷，那些大型科技公司

wakes up and goes to sleep wherever they are in the world.

基本上從同一個 小池塘或海灣「捕撈」人才。

They bring a different understanding of that culture

而分布式公司則能夠 從整個海洋「捕撈」才俊。

and a different lived experience.

與其僱用一個在日本長大、 目前生活在加州的人，

At the base of the decision to go distributed,

there's a desire to give people autonomy over how they do their work.

不如聘請一位

衣食住行在世界任何地方的人。

Unless you're in a role where specific hours are important,

他們帶來對當地文化的不同見解，

you can make your own schedule.

Everyone can have a corner office, their windows, the food they want to eat,

以及每日不同的生活體驗。

選擇分布式工作的根本，

you can choose when there's music and when there's silence.

就是希望人們對自己的 工作方式擁有自主權，

You can choose what temperature the room should be.

除非工作職責對時間有特殊要求，

You can save the time you'd spend commuting

否則您完全可以 製定自己的工作時間表。

and put it into things that are important to you.

每個人都可以有位置絕佳的 辦公室，帶兩扇窗，

A distributed workforce is ideal for a technology company.

並選擇自己想吃的食物，

But people often ask me,

您也可以選擇何時 播放音樂，何時安靜。

"This works great for y'all, but what about everyone else?"

您還可以選擇房間的溫度。

If you have an office,

也可把每天省下的通勤時間

you can do a few things to build distributed capability.

用來處理您認為重要的事情上。

First: document everything.

分布式員工團隊 是科技公司的理想選擇。

In an office, it's easy to make decisions in the moment,

但人們常常問我：

in the kitchen, in the hall.

「這對你們都很有用， 但對其他人呢？」

But if people work remotely

and some members of the team are having those conversations

如果您有辦公室，

只需做幾件事 就可以構建分布式功能。

they don't have access to,

they'll see these decisions being made without understanding the why.

首先：記錄一切。

Always leave a trail of where you were and what you were thinking about.

在辦公室裡，容易立刻做出決定，

不論在廚房還是大廳。

This allows others to pick up where you left off.

但是，如果員工遠程工作的話，

當總部團隊成員在討論時，

It allows people in different time zones to interact,

而遠程的員工卻無法參與，

it's also great to think about as an organization evolves,

當看到總部的決定時， 他們會一頭霧水。

people leaving and people joining.

所以，總是留言寫明您的所在地 和所處理的事情及想法，

Try to have as much communication as possible online.

以便他人了解該項事情的進展。

When everything's shared and public, it allows new people to catch up quickly.

這樣，不同時區的人 才可以互動交流；

You also need to find the right tools.

還有，這樣有利於組織運作中

There are so many apps and services that help with day-to-day communication,

人員離職和入職的工作銜接。

與此同時，盡量多進行線上溝通，

video conferencing, project management.

The things that changed how you work probably aren't objects anymore.

當所有內容都共享和公開時， 新人通讀後就能快速上手工作。

They're things you access through your computer.

第三，還需要找到合適的工具。

So experiment with different tools that enable collaboration,

有許多應用程式和服務 協助日常例行的溝通，

see what works.

像視訊會議、專案管理，應有盡有。

Create productive, face-to-face time.

環顧辦公室，您會發現，改變您 工作方式的可能不再是物體，

In a traditional office,

you're in the same place 48 weeks out of the year

and you might have three or four weeks apart.

而是需要透過電腦取得的內容。

We try to flip that: we come together for short, intense bursts.

因此，要測試和嘗試不同的 可以實現協作的工具，

看看哪個最有效。

Once a year we do a grand meet-up

where the entire company comes together for a week.

第四，創造高效能的面對面交流。

在傳統辦公室裡，

It's half-work, half-play.

一年 48 週你們都在 同一個地方工作，

The primary goal is connecting people.

可能只有三到四週不在一起。

We want to make sure everyone's aligned and on the same page,

我們試著反過來： 舉辦短而緊湊的閃電聚會。

and they have a deeper connection with their colleagues.

每年我們組織一次大聚會，

When they work together the rest of the year,

全公司人員相聚一週，

they can bring together that understanding and empathy.

有點半工作、半玩樂的性質，

And the final practice:

主要目的是聯絡彼此感情。

give people the flexibility to make their own work environment.

我們要確保大家 在離開前已達成共識，

Every person at Automattic has a co-working stipend

與同事有更深的感情聯繫。

that they can put towards a co-working space

在一年的其他時間裡，

or just to buy coffee, so they don't get kicked out of the coffee shop.

他們還可以帶著這種 理解和共鳴而一起工作。

最後的做法是：

One group in Seattle decided to pool their stipends together

讓員工靈活創造自己的工作環境。

and rented a workspace on a fishing pier.

Automattic 的每個員工 都有共享辦公室津貼，

Each person who joins the company gets a home-office stipend.

他們可用於共享的辦公場所，

This is money they can invest in getting the right chair, monitor,

或只是買杯咖啡， 以免被轟出咖啡店。

the right desk setup, so they can have the most productive environment for them.

我們西雅圖的一個小組 決定將他們的津貼湊在一起，

在釣魚碼頭租了個工作場所。

Today, there are just a few companies that are distributed first.

加入公司的每一個人 都有家庭辦公室津貼，

In a decade or two, I predict that 90 percent of companies

這筆錢可用於購買 合適的椅子、螢幕，

that are going to be changing the course of the world

以及必備的桌面設置， 以創造最高效率的工作環境。

are going to function this way.

They will evolve to be distributed first, or they'll be replaced by those that are.

今天，只有少數公司 一開始就是分布式工作。

As you think about what you're going to build next,

如果快轉到十年或二十年後，

consider how you can tap into global talent,

我預測那些會改變世界發展的公司中，

give people autonomy to live and work where they feel they should

有 90% 將採用這種工作方式。

and still participate fully in whatever it is that you're creating together.

他們會發展成以分布式為主， 或者被分布式公司所取代。

當您考慮下一步要打造什麼的時候，

請務必考慮如何開發全球人才，

給人們自主權去選擇 他們想要的生活和工作方式，

與此同時，全心投入 你們共同創造的任何事物中。