{"id":4535,"date":"2023-11-03T08:12:09","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T15:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/distributed.blog\/?p=4535"},"modified":"2023-11-03T08:12:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T15:12:11","slug":"atlassian-distributed-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/distributed.blog\/2023\/11\/03\/atlassian-distributed-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlassian Doubles Down on Distributed Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a recent interview with Fast Company<\/em>, Annie Dean, Atlassian\u2019s VP of Team Anywhere, made it clear that the Australia-based software company\u2019s future is distributed.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dean was a proponent of flexible work long before she came to the company known for collaboration tools like Trello and Jira, but in the years before the pandemic, her point of view just wasn\u2019t catching on. Even in the early weeks of 2020, Dean was doubting whether remote work would ever catch on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cYou have to think about where we were. CIOs did not have Zoom links in calendars as a matter of default. People were still largely working shoulder to shoulder at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The COVID pandemic and its subsequent periodic spikes changed everything, obviously. After a stint at Deloitte and then becoming Meta\u2019s first Head of Remote Work, Dean moved to Atlassian, where she\u2019s working to help the company transition to what she calls a \u201cdistributed-first model.\u201d Interestingly, that work includes a team of researchers who are investigating \u201cdistributed work pain points and solutions\u2014and how we might solve that for ourselves and for the industry at large.\u201d (We\u2019ll certainly be paying attention to their findings!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with every company wrestling through the pros and cons of having a distributed workforce, Atlassian and Dean are trying to understand productivity. The ultimate question for them is simple: do employees get more done in the office or out of it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the countless answers I\u2019ve seen in response to this question, Dean\u2019s is the most cogent: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWhat I can say is that when we look at the challenges at work today, I think it\u2019s pretty well accepted that our greatest challenges have to do with distraction, the lack of ability to focus, the fact that we can\u2019t prioritize important work fast enough because we\u2019re letting our calendars dictate on time. And when you look at those as the key problems and impediments to productivity, fixing where<\/em> we work is not the answer to any of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Entrenched work cultures are hard to overcome; Dean readily admits that \u201cthe status quo is a powerful thing.\u201d But she and her team, like many of us at Automattic, are in a unique position to push back against it. As distributed employees of distributed companies, we\u2019re able to advocate for the tactics that have helped us find success\u2014even if that model isn\u2019t yet the norm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out Dean\u2019s full interview<\/a>\u2014which is well worth your time\u2014over at Fast Company<\/em> (subscription required). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent interview with Fast Company, Annie Dean, Atlassian\u2019s VP of Team Anywhere, made it clear that the Australia-based software company\u2019s future is distributed.\u00a0 Dean was a proponent of flexible work long before she came to the company known for collaboration tools like Trello and Jira, but in the years before the pandemic, her\u2026More <\/svg><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","_distblog_audio_source":0,"_distblog_audio_iframe":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paXfVj-1b9","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/distributed.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/distributed.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/distributed.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/distributed.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4535"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/distributed.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4538,"href":"https:\/\/distributed.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4535\/revisions\/4538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/distributed.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/distributed.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/distributed.blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}