Remote is a mindset, not a place

We started Litmus with a few old computers and a dorm room internet connection. There was no need (or money) for an actual office, so we worked from wherever we could. We’d get together now and then, but the bulk of our work was done in solitude.

Look closely and you can see our first server under my desk at college (in 2005)

These were formative years. We learned how to communicate and how to work independently. We learned to hire the best people, wherever they were. When we finally opened a real office, those principles were already established. We ended up working “remotely” from our individual offices in the Boston HQ instead of our homes or a coffee shop.

One misconception about remote work is that it hinders collaboration. In my experience, the inverse is more likely: offices hinder independent work. Collaboration tends to happen in short bursts, followed by longer periods of writing, designing, coding and thinking. It’s more important to give employees quiet time than it is to cram them into an open office.

The office still matters

Litmus is a remote company with a collective 15,000 square feet of office space. That might sound crazy, but I believe offices afford some benefits that distributed work simply can’t replace.

We’ve had a remote-first mindset since the beginning, but we’ve also always had some kind of office space for meetings, collaboration and socializing. First it was a little corner of coworking space, then a small office and eventually a full-fledged HQ.

Just because an office exists doesn’t mean people should be required to work in it.

Today, just under half of our employees live in the Boston area. They are free to come to our HQ whenever they like. We encourage (but don’t require) people to spend Thursdays in the office to catch up, have meetings and grab a drink afterwards. I don’t love the 9–5 culture that offices seem to require, but I do really enjoy spending time with our team. We’ve hired so many great people, it would be a shame to never see them.

The impromptu Litmus band at one of our meet ups

The opposite is true, too. We’ve hired so many great people, it would be a shame to herd them into an office if they could work better somewhere else. Just because an office exists doesn’t mean people should be required to work in it.

Offices matter, but not as much as happy, productive employees.

We don’t have all the answers

There are a few challenges we haven’t quite figured out yet. It’s difficult, for example, to plan for office space. Our 7,000 square foot floor in Boston is cavernous for the ten or so people regularly working from it. On the other hand, when we have team meet-ups, space is so tight that people have to cram on couches.

Offering equal perks is also a challenge. Each morning, office-based employees get an email asking them what they’d like for lunch. At noon, their food arrives, courtesy of the company. We still haven’t figured out how to offer a similar benefit to remote employees. A $10 lunch voucher just isn’t the same — perks like this don’t translate well into cash.

When a CEO uses their lunch break to hit the gym, others feel empowered to do the same. And when a manager spends their entire vacation answering emails, it’s harder for others to disconnect in their own downtime.

It’s easy to cast these issues aside as “first world problems.” And yes, we are very lucky to be in a position to invest so much in our employees. It’s also part of our strategy to grow. The decisions we make now validate our current employees’ belief in our leadership team and will attract more great people in the future.

The 10 tenets of a remote-first company

Success begins with a philosophy. I believe in the remote-first model, but there are plenty of nuts and bolts required to make it effective. Here are a few.