Team Anywhere is Atlassian’s approach to distributed work. Since 2020, Atlassians have been able to choose where they work, every single day. This decision means our workforce has become highly distributed: instead of being contained to our 12 global offices, Atlassians now collaborate from 10,000+ locations. Given that we’re so distributed, it’s mission-critical that we get really good at collaborating online. We don’t have everything figured out, but we’ve made it a priority to use data to inform our decisions, and we’re starting to run experiments focused on improving how we work. We’re al ..read more

Subscribe to Work Life Get stories like this in your inbox Subscribe 5-second summary With 71% of knowledge workers working remotely at least once a week, most companies are already collaborating in a distributed way – but they’re not doing it well. Half of knowledge workers who go into the office are only doing so because of enforced mandates – not desire – and one in four say they feel pressured by leadership and their teammates to make a physical appearance. Workers with location flexibility and zero office mandate experience improved quality of life because they can structure their day ..read more

Subscribe to Work Life Get stories like this in your inbox Subscribe Among the storm clouds known as COVID-19, there were few silver linings. One was that being forced to work from home all of a sudden changed our collective ideas about remote work. Though the pandemic is no longer front-page news, the dust has yet to settle on the long-term fate of remote work. Return-to-work and hybrid mandates continue to cause controversy, even as research increasingly shows that remote work makes for happier and more productive teams. We firmly believe that remote work is the future, and those who are l ..read more

Statistic after statistic extols the virtues of remote work – it’s a boon to productivity, it boosts morale and lowers stress for the majority of workers, and it reduces operating costs. As the practice grows in popularity, many have called it the future of work, and the new normal. And yet, businesses often take remote workers for granted, even those participating in hybrid models. Many, unwittingly, take an “out of sight, out of mind” approach when an employee is out of office but still available and working diligently as ever. As a result, loneliness is the biggest challenge that workers fa ..read more

Subscribe to Work Life Get stories like this in your inbox Subscribe 5-second summary During the height of Covid, customer-service staffers in the cruise industry were under incredible pressure to reassure and help customers, while also navigating massive changes in their own lives. Royal Caribbean Group turned to Atlassian’s Team Playbook to help create an empathy-centered customer service experience.   Playbook exercises also helped the team build strong bonds with each other during a tumultuous time. Let’s be blunt: of all the businesses damaged by the coronavirus pandemic ..read more

5-second summary Building bonds between teammates is extra-important when you’re in remote or hybrid mode, as a growing body of research confirms. Whether an activity is just for fun or helps move your work forward, taking time to help your virtual team to get to know each other is an investment that pays dividends in team cohesion and performance. We collected a list of activities used by real teams at Atlassian that can help virtual teams get to know each other as people and colleagues. The bad news: team building is a lot more challenging when all or some of your people are working rem ..read more

5-second summary Research shows that having a “work bestie” can increase your job satisfaction. Feeling isolated at work can actually have a negative impact on your job performance.  Team leads can help nurture work friendships by creating opportunities for people to connect.  Engaging in casual chit chat in the minutes before or after a meeting can be enough to spark a connection that turns into a friendship. So many of our friendships are built on proximity. We become friends with the people we see all the time – our next-door neighbor, the college classmate who sat next to us ..read more

Subscribe to Work Life Get stories like this in your inbox Subscribe 5-second summary Strong team cohesion – how bonded people feel to one another – is a key element for success in distributed teams. Icebreakers can be an effective way to help teams get to know each other and feel more comfortable collaborating. It’s important to choose the right icebreaker for your team. Teams that know each other well may be more comfortable sharing personal information. Newer teams may want to start with lower-stakes games that focus on work-specific topics. “Icebreakers.” The very name is enough for a ..read more

Subscribe to Work Life Get stories like this in your inbox Subscribe 5-second summary: Trust is a key ingredient for successful teams, but it’s even more important for virtual teams. Meeting in-person when a team forms or when a new project kicks off can help distributed teams build trust faster. Creating opportunities for team members to depend on each other and succeed together promotes team cohesion. Formalizing processes to decrease cognitive load may help prevent overwhelm. It’s an interesting time to be a researcher. As someone who has always been fascinated by the ways that people ..read more

Subscribe to Work Life Get stories about workplace trends in your inbox Subscribe 5-second summary Researchers at Stanford University studied brain scans and found that video meetings require greater cognitive processing power than in-person meetings. Managers can reduce Zoom fatigue by clustering meetings into defined blocks of time separated by short breaks. Scheduling breakout sessions for chit chat into meeting agendas may help people feel rejuvenated during longer meeting sessions. Earlier this year, I started and ended a job due to one thing and one thing alone: Zoom meetings. Count ..read more