If there’s anything positive that’s come from the pandemic, it might be the degree to which it has changed perspectives on work. At Tyrannosaurus Tech, we went from developing and fine-tuning our work from home policy to going fully remote essentially overnight in early 2020.
As a result, our views on work from home have changed significantly since 2018, when we first weighed in on remote work and how to find the right balance for a creative team. Like most companies, we never really considered a situation in which our offices were entirely off limits , and Tyrannosaurus Tech had to feel out that situation along with the rest of the world.
The Current Tyrannosaurus Tech Work From Home Status
Looking through our original post on this topic from 2018, we thought folks might be interested in hearing how things have changed around here since then when it comes to work from home, flexible hours, work-life balance, and more.
Our road to remote work hasn’t been perfect, but we like to think that our policies are consistently evolving with employee needs. Business is always a work in progress. As we said in our 2018 article: “At Tyrannosaurus Tech, we’re evolving and rethinking day by day how we can be our best.”
When asked about how the pandemic changed things for us, our Co-Founder Richard Simms shared that “The idea of finding the right balance was pretty much turned upside down when COVID hit. The option to work from home was no longer a cool perk we could offer as a small tech firm. For everyone’s safety, it became the norm across the board, and we had to really rethink how we’d manage our team and culture”. Millions of other managers and business owners likely share these same sentiments.
Remote is the New Normal
Let’s face it. For many employees and industries, remote work is the new normal. You can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube. Things are unlikely to go back to how they were before, and that is mostly a healthy and positive thing.
Of course, many industries require on-site work. For those with greater flexibility in how and where work gets done though, at a minimum, hybrid work options where employees can work from home but can (or are expected to) come into the office on occasion, maybe the minimum as far as employee expectations.
For many of us, as our CoFounder, Richard Simms, shared, “Face time still means something.” But when and where that face-to-face time needs to happen is open to interpretation. In a largely remote workplace, the occasional happy hour, team outing, or on-site brainstorm session may be enough to keep team rapport strong and stem creativity. Only time will tell really.
At the end of the day, many employees now expect the option to work from home and a better work-life balance overall, with massive companies outwardly admitting that rejecting remote work will cost them quality employees. The writing is on the wall. Companies have to adapt to this new reality or risk losing their edge.
Finding Our Work From Home Footing
Tyrannosaurus Tech was lucky enough to have a fairly liberal WFH policy already in place when the world came crashing down. We already allowed employees to set their schedules, to a degree, so COVID was fortunately not as disruptive for our team as it was for many others.
Unlike many industries, the tech world lends itself well to remote work and flexibility. We’ve repeatedly expressed our sympathy for those in industries (such as food service) that could not easily adapt to remote work. We understand that it’s just impossible for some, but we were thrilled to find our work from home footing relatively seamlessly.
“At the end of the day, we’re lucky to work in an environment and have tools where results are constantly tracked, logged, and reported on.” Even amid a global pandemic, tech companies can carry on.
Work From Home Balance and Adaptability
Like most other companies, Tyrannosaurus Tech adapted to a fully remote model out of necessity.
If our team has proven one thing clearly over the last two years, it is that they can each be trusted to work from home responsibly, manage their own schedules, and perform just as well (if not better) as they do in the office.
In our previous post on this topic, we said that “every company and team is different, so talk to your team, experiment, and see what is right for you.” This remains true despite the dramatically changed landscape. The old perception that flexibility should be a “perk” for employees has shifted considerably. We now see that performing well from home is more than possible for most employees, and we’re thrilled to offer that option to everyone we employ.
Work From Home Then Vs. Now
Though remote work does cause some interesting side effects, both remote and hybrid office models aren’t going anywhere, so it’s time to adapt. It will be interesting to see how things continue to change and how we look back on this transformative time in the workplace.
In a sense, COVID asked us to each revisit how we live our lives. Many of us realized that even post pandemic, we want to continue seeking a better work-life balance. It’s vital to Tyrannosaurus Tech that we retain our exceptional employees and make sure that they feel safe and valued. Remote work is now a major part of that equation. Tyrannosaurus Tech employees have proven that they can thrive while working from home, and we’re embracing the rejection of strict, in-office expectations.
Conclusion/WFH Policy Opportunities and Challenges
One of the biggest challenges of going remote is keeping the company culture healthy. It is difficult to imagine building a tight knit team without some degree of that face-to-face brainstorming and camaraderie. At Tyrannosaurus Tech, for now, we’ve kept our physical offices in Atlanta, though we use them differently and more limitedly.
Our team members can come in when they have to, for client meetings or whenever necessary, but we don’t expect them daily. There are team members that value being in the office, and we respect that, allowing them to use the space when they feel they might be more productive in an office setting.
COVID levels have dropped locally recently, so Tyrannosaurus Tech is happy to begin building back our team’s get-togethers through happy hour meet-ups, on-site strategy sessions, and volunteer events. We’re exploring ways to stay connected without coming into the office and sitting side by side every day.
Without a doubt, Tyrannosaurus Tech has considerably changed our outlook and policies concerning remote work. We believe that even though it came as a result of the pandemic, these new policies have changed us for the better, and we look forward to developing them further.