I love people and the energy and connection found at the office, yet my company has just gone all-in on a remote-first workplace model. After years of resisting it, I got on board because the way work happens has changed. I realized that to build the company we need to become, we needed to adapt.

I haven’t stopped believing in the value of people being together, so what shifted for me? Driving to an off-campus appointment in the middle of the day, I saw Silicon Valley traffic so backed up that I realized employees were already restructuring their workdays around commutes.

I’ve noticed people arriving around 10:00 am and leaving around 2:30 pm to avoid traffic, while also trying to manage personal and work commitments. When I got back to my office after my appointment, the parking lot was sparse. When I left, there was not much traffic. I asked myself: “Why can’t we get people to stay and actually build connections?” It was clear to me that the office model we had been using was not necessarily improving productivity or employee experience.

The decision to pivot to remote-first was not anti-office; it was a recognition that the old rhythm of office work no longer matched the rhythm of employees’ lives or the needs of the business. We’re also in the process of radically rethinking our next chapter, we have a flatter and leaner organizational structure, and we are on our way to becoming an AI-native company.

I have always believed that if you want people to trust you as a leader, and work smarter and faster for your company, you need to listen to them.

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