At Automattic, everyone can work from the location of their choice. This, of course, means they can live anywhere in the world. But they can also work from any environment within a geographic location. You can work from home, from a coffee shop, from a co-working space, from a park, from a library, on the move… literally anywhere!
In fact, because the work environments Automatticians work from are so diverse, we even have a blog we post photos on and talk about it! Check out the different locations Automatticians work from here:
I haven’t been as adventurous yet. Chatting with multiple customers and colleagues at the same time has been a skill that takes time to cultivate. I have finally started getting the hang of it, working with multiple displays in my home office. I’m not comfortable enough to continue that with just one laptop screen anywhere else.
But recently, we have started offering Localized Support to non-English speaking WordPress.com customers. As part of the team looking after Japanese support, my responsibilities at work has had a bit more diversity. Responding to customer emails and forum inquiries, training other support agents, and the admin work involved with support expansion are tasks I can comfortably do on a single display.
So, I decided to try going out and co-working in public places, to see what that was all about. My wife also has some work-from-home ministries she does for church, so we decided to hit the nearest coffee shop together. Automattic has a co-working allowance for employees to cover the cost of a coffee. That let’s me sit there with a clear conscience, knowing I’m not just idly taking up precious store space.
I was initially a bit skeptical about work productivity, wondering if the people and noises around me would be a distraction. But to my surprise, I found it easy to hone in to my work, and it never really bothered me at all. Once my earphones are in, 3-4 hours go by without me even realizing it.
My wife and I both found the change in atmosphere actually refreshing. I still don’t feel like I could do a lot of my work outside my home office, but the work I can do on a single laptop, I look forward to doing out of the house more from here.