Unlike other technology companies embracing remote work as a long-term model, Atomic Object plans to return to our historical model of poly-skilled, co-located teams.

Mike Marsiglia and I believe that, as the world shifts back to safely working in the ways we know to be effective, technology consultancies that have formally shifted to all-remote work will be at a competitive disadvantage.

Remote Work Isn’t the Most Efficient for Early-Phase Creative Projects

The last year of remote work was certainly manageable, but we don’t believe it’s the most efficient or sustainable approach for the type of work we do.

Due to Covid-19, Atomic has been in remote-work mode since March 12, 2020. We’ve been able to effectively serve our customers during this time, but the simple truth is that remote work isn’t an ideal long-term model. We believe our value proposition is best delivered through our historical, in-person work model.

Atomic Object focuses on the early phases of software product design and development. Our work deeply benefits from close collaboration with our clients, customers and users, and our team members. Working in close proximity to one another creates a culture of strong relationships and trust. This leads to better collaboration, accelerated learning, innovation, and overall execution strength coming from the collective, co-located team. Working in a common location with smart, values-aligned colleagues also leads to many happy coincidences of teaching and learning.

Our project work goes through collaborative cycles of generative activities, synthesis, and execution. The cycle repeats during the course of a project. Remote work tools will never replace the efficiency of things like being in the same room together, collaborative whiteboard sessions, or sitting down with a team member at their desk to troubleshoot an issue in the moment.

Confusion About Remote Work as the “New Normal”

There are many thought leaders talking about how the Covid-19 pandemic has permanently changed the nature of work location expectations — speculating that remote work will become the “new normal.”

Some businesses are attracted to the remote-work model after experiencing increased profitability through decreased expenses in real estate, equipment, and supplies. And it’s true that some workers may feel and be more productive working remotely, based on their individual working style or job description.

But in the long run, we don’t believe remote work is desirable for many workers. Organizations considering remote work for the long term are at risk of confusing remote work as a one-size-fits-all trend. They’re overlooking human nature and the style of different work types.

The Style of Different Work Types

Routine work that’s transactional or that can be accomplished independently may effectively shift to a long-term remote model. This type of work is commonly found with service provider functions in an organization. Roles like customer support or internal support for IT or HR systems may fall into this category. Software updates and maintenance, or later-phase incremental development (done by experts following a set process), may fall into this category too.

Work like Atomic’s that is rooted in early-phase, collaborative design and engineering will always benefit from being done in person.

Human Nature

It’s human nature — hundreds of thousands of years in the making — to form and thrive in groups. We don’t believe twelve to eighteen months of remote work is going to permanently shift that.

People are naturally wired to be together and be social. Being together helps us feel part of a group, increases our bonds with one another, reduces fear and anxiety, and can boost our mood. And physical proximity is a strong contributor to a sense of group belonging.

We think it’s a mistake to overlook the value that working in close proximity brings. Even if work can be done effectively in a remote fashion, will people feel a strong connection to their team or organization over time? Or will work culture shift to a transactional mindset and individual self-optimization?

Atomic’s Plan to Return to Our Offices

We went remote relatively early in 2020 to protect the health of our team members. We also put our culture at the heart of all of our big decisions.

When we discussed the idea of remote work going forward, we thought about the points above, but we also thought about several elements of our culture like:

• Thinking long-term
• Being a source of fulfillment through forming strong connections to people
• Being relational and trusting
• Being a force for good in our communities

We have been in business for twenty years, and we have a goal to be a 100-year-old company. Thinking in that timescale, eighteen months of remote work due to the pandemic wasn’t going to change who we are.

We’ve held our leases and real estate over the last year and will likely start returning to work in our offices in 2021 in alignment with regulations and health and safety guidelines.

With what we know today, we are planning for the following, high-level phases:

Crawl (Spring 2021)

• Open for socially distanced, individual work.
• Still favor a remote-first work modality and offering our office as a remote work location for those in need of focus.
• Working in the office is optional.
• Initially, a low percentage (5-10% of facilities capacity) of people returning to our offices.
• Gradual increase of percentage (up to 50% of facilities capacity) of people back.

Walk (Summer / Fall 2021)

• In-person, collaborative work is starting to happen.
• Still favor remote-first work modality.
• Working in the office is optional.
• Continued increase in percentage (works towards 100% of facilities capacity) of people back.

Run (Winter 2021 / 2022)

• In-person, collaborative work more resembles pre-covid working style.
• Favor in-person work modality.
• Working in the office returns to our pre-covid expected yet flexible model.
• Continued increase in percentage (works towards 100% of facilities capacity) of people back.

We plan on starting with an opt-in model and transitioning to an onsite work expectation over time. A full-onsite work expectation likely won’t happen until 2022 and may still be affected by population density guidelines for each office.

How Will Remote Work Be Part of Atomic’s Future?

Throughout the past year, we have had healthy internal discussions with Atoms about what types of remote-work flexibility will remain at Atomic in the long term.

We’ve found ourselves looking back at how Atomic has always had remote work flexibility infused into our general expectation of working from our offices. We’ve offered flexible, remote work options that included:

• Individual start time schedule to be worked out with your project team. The general expectation was to be at the office by 10 a.m. for our office-wide daily standup meeting.
• The ability to work from home or remotely when necessary for a family reason or service calls at your home.
• Remote work from home or other location like a coffee house if you want to go heads-down on some individual work for a period of time.
• Working from home if you had a minor illness but still felt good enough to work.
• In-office working hours flexibility for those with a long commute or family reasons like school or daycare drop-off/pick-up.
• Part-time schedules, when possible, for some Atoms who wanted to make more formal structural changes to their working hours.
• Temporary, extended remote work arrangement for a family reason when there is an intention to eventually return to work from an Atomic office.

We’ve always trusted Atoms to sort out their working arrangements with their teams and their clients, so we haven’t micromanaged work location decisions.

We’ve also always trusted that Atoms are inherently motivated to work and live our values of Giving a Shit and Owning It. We don’t worry about loss of productivity or honesty of time contributions when Atoms work in a remote fashion.

As we phase back into working from our offices in the coming year, we will eventually return to the historical remote work options outlined above. We still believe in the value and power of having a general, onsite work expectation.

The journey forward to working in our offices will undoubtedly be a dynamic one, needing adjustments as we learn our way through it. We will continue to share our plans, insights, and experiences.