The CEO of Automattic, which is responsible for developing the WordPress content management platform, stated that the company will close one of its large offices in the American city of San Francisco because employees do not come to work.
The CEO, Matt Mullenweg, told QZ that the 15,000-square-foot office has been around for six or seven years, but the total number of employees who come in a day is only five at most.
The company has more than 550 employees, and they are given the selection between working from the office or remotely from anywhere they choose, as it gave them the opportunity to work in shared work environments other than the official company office. She also mentioned that the employees wishing to work from coffee shops, the company will pay for their coffee costs.
The company has other offices in scattered places around the world such as South Africa, and it also follows the same concept where it prefers to give the employee the freedom to drive productivity rather than restricting him to a specific workplace.
Automattic is not the only company that follows this approach. Other companies , such as Yahoo and IBM, followed in the same footsteps, but later retreated due to the preference of officials that the employee be located within the company’s headquarters itself.
It is reported that Elastic, which specializes in programming, has more than 500 employees and is distributed in more than 35 countries around the world. It holds annual meetings in America and Europe in order for them to come together. Other than that, all conversations remain via email or via apps like Slack.