The company with 900 employees and no office

Is it good or bad for the workers?

This is the question that job badysis experts are facing with the growing trend of companies closing their desks and transferring work to the personal space of each employee.

Cate Huston leads the team of development experts for Automattic, a large multinational company where each of the 930 employees works remotely.

The company does not have a fixed office.

"It's a profound part of our culture, no one mentions the offices," he told the BBC's Wake Up to Money radio show.

"I am free from any office, we all love freedom and we travel to get to know each other, we also enjoy these adventures," he said.

Cost reduction

Huston's employer is part of a small but growing number of companies that choose not to have a seat.

Faster Internet connections, messaging and video applications, as well as an increase in the number of collaboration and monitoring software allow some companies to completely eliminate their offices.

Instead, they hire staff from various locations and ask them to work from home or in shared work spaces near their place of residence.

The Automattic staff works in 70 different countries and, instead of paying for a central office, the company pays employees for flights to attend meetings throughout the year.

She also pays them to equip their home offices and helps them cover the cost of renting a workspace or drinks if they work in a cafeteria.

All of this costs even less than maintaining an office.

"Money is definitely saved, no money is spent in the office, especially in technology centers such as London, San Francisco and New York, where rental costs are surprisingly high," says Cate.

"But because we value time-share ownership very much, we meet regularly, we have a general meeting every year, and most teams meet twice," he says.

"We spent money on that, offering them all the flights, and my team met at the beginning of this year in Thailand," he added.

Growing trend

Telework is growing rapidly, mainly because of self-employed workers and flexible workers.

According to the Labor Force Survey of the National Bureau of Statistics, the largest study on the conditions of employment, more than 1.54 million people work from home and work from home. UK.

At present, some companies reject the idea that they would even need a seat, not to mention an office for their staff.

"It's certainly an upward trend, and it's certainly very profitable and attractive for start-ups," says Ilke Inceoglu, professor of organizational behavior at the University's Business School. Exeter (United Kingdom).

"From the point of view of the employees, they do not go to work every day and it is a considerable advantage."

But there are problems

Remote work may seem idyllic to anyone who has had to travel during peak hours, but there are potential disadvantages.

"Some people have a hard time distinguishing between work and home, if you always work at home because you do not have an office, where you finish your job and where your personal life begins. house? ", explains Inceoglu.

"It's important to take steps to make sure there are limits," he warns. There are other risks when working from home.

The NGO on mental health issues Mind pointed out that those who work remotely may be at higher risk of feeling lonely and isolated.

However, in a company that works completely this way, Professor Inceoglu says that the risk can be reduced: "Feeling isolated is certainly a risk of working from a distance, but if everyone is in the same boat, you feel already connected. "

Jess Sims was working for a company where all the staff members were in the office, except her.

Now he's working for a totally remote freelance collective called The Doers and says it's really easier when everyone is dispersed.

"When you're away, but everyone is in the same place, you actually see the camaraderie from the entire office through a window, but you can not feel included," he says.

"People forget to give you information because you are not always there, you have to chase them to remind them that you exist," he says.

"Now I work with a distant collective and we are all in the same boat, we all work at home, so we are all a little more aware of how each one feels and cares for the other." he adds.