'Employees Can Work From Anywhere': Why This Billionaire CEO Is Defying The Return-To-Office Trend

At a time when big tech and IT giants such as TCS, Wipro, Meta, Google, Amazon etc. are pushing employees to return to the office and some even warning employees of losing their jobs if they don't do so, a billionaire CEO is defying this trend.

Billionaire CEO Allows Employees To Work From Anywhere

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Scott Farquhar, co-CEO of Atlassian is taking a different approach to the work-from-home versus work-from-office debate. After implementing a ¡®Team Anywhere¡¯ policy in 2020, he has stuck with it, even as companies began introducing hybrid working schedules and some forced their employees to return to the office. His company, worth around $49 billion, makes tools for software developers and project managers. The billionaire CEO has a net worth of $12.2 billion, as per the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

He said flexible work allows employees to manage increasing cost-of-living pressures by choosing to live in a cheaper location without worrying about how it might affect their work.

¡°We expect people to be able to work from home, from a caf¨¦, from an office, but we don¡¯t really care where they do their work¡ªwhat we care about is the output that they produce,¡± he said. ¡°We haven¡¯t seen a productivity change,¡± he added.

Also Read: Dell CEO Says Employees Should Have The Freedom To Work From Anywhere

¡°Employees & I Might Come To Office Once A Quarter¡±

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¡°I might come into the office about once a quarter,¡± says the billionaire CEO comes to the office just once every few months and allows his employees to do the same.

Other executives at Atlassian don¡¯t see hybrid work as a viable solution. ¡°Hybrid is the illusion of choice,¡± Annie Dean, the company¡¯s head of Team Anywhere, had said last month, as per Fortune.

Also Read: IBM CEO Warns Employees Against Working From Home

Many Big Companies Doing The Opposite

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The billionaire CEO¡¯s views on remote work put him at odds with other major tech CEOs, who are increasingly pushing employees to return to office. This week itself, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees in an internal meeting this month that fully remote workers likely would not have a future at the company.

Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg¡¯s Meta had threatened to terminate employees who did not return to office for three days a week.

Even Zoom, whose videoconferencing software helped power the pivot to remote work, is trying to get its employees back to the office at least twice a week.

Also Read: Why Apple & Google CEOs Fight To Hire & Retain Two IITians

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