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Often however remote cultures quickly can fall to least productive employees set the pace of the larger org

• al_borland 2y ago
  My company closed my old office. Most were laid off, but I got to work from home. The larger initiative was to get everyone into a strategic office location, with the goal of fostering these collaborative cultures. Eventually I was forced to relocate to an office. The big new office they built was in a city chosen for its low cost. No one wanted to move there, those who were there wanted to leave. I was originally supposed to go there, but then got routed somewhere else at the last minute. Fast forward a few years. I’m back to working from home, after ever promise around the relocation turned out to be a lie. That new office they were bragging about never gets brought up anymore. It was in a location people didn’t want to live, they didn’t get great people as a result. Any good people they did find eventually left the company for an opportunity in a better location. The office I left, that I felt forced to move, is about to be shutdown. The brain drain that happened as a result of all of this has been massive. There is no culture anymore, just a revolving door. It used to be common to have a room full of people who had been with the company for 10-20 years. They knew each other and there was a deep culture. Now, no one know anyone, and no one cares, because they won’t be around long anyway. These office-based business decisions are nothing if they can’t get good people, and they push away all the good people they have. Culture takes time and doesn’t exist with high turnover. At least that’s been my experience.