Team Anywhere: Atlassian embraces remote work by staff

Sydney software giant Atlassian says its employees will now have the ability to work from wherever they want.

Atlassian co-chief executive Scott Farquhar: ‘How we work has changed forever and we must pioneer this change.’ Picture: Hollie Adams

Sydney software giant Atlassian says its employees will now have the ability to work from wherever they want, with the company declaring its workers could feasibly never return to the office.

The company’s co-chief executive Scott Farquhar said in an internal blog post to employees, seen by The Australian, that the pandemic had accelerated a plan Atlassian already had in place to distribute its workforce.

“Let’s face it, 2020 has been a year of huge change for all of us,” Mr Farquhar said.

“How we work has changed forever and we must pioneer this change. While COVID-19 has turned our worlds upside down, it’s also accelerated goals Atlassian has had for some time. For years, we’ve been working as a highly distributed global company, experimenting with fully remote teams, and iterating on practices essential for building diverse distributed teams.

“While this time has been challenging, it has also presented us with an amazing opportunity to keep pushing further on this flexible way of working and stretch our imaginations to build what work could look like and how we can clear barriers for us to do the best work of our lives. We will no longer be held back by the old way of doing things — being cautious, fiercely protecting our norms and not reaching great talent beyond our offices.

An impression of Atlassian’s proposed headquarters at Sydney’s Central Station.

“We believe that the post-COVID world will see an increase in distributed work in all industries, and we want to lead this for ourselves and our customers. Our products help teams collaborate from anywhere, and our practices and learnings can help usher our customers into the future of work with us. But we can’t coach from the sidelines, we need to walk the walk — one mile in front of our customers. We need to run into the obstacles before they do, and clear them by building world-class solutions.

“To unleash the potential of every team, we need to unleash the potential of our team first. We have an exciting opportunity to create the future of work by living it. But we can’t do it with half-measures and wait-and-see approaches. Now is the time to be bold. That’s why we are seizing the moment and reinventing how we work at Atlassian, starting today.

“We’re calling this new way of working, Team Anywhere.”

In June Atlassian announced its new headquarters at the tech precinct at Sydney’s Central Station, in what the company said would be the world’s tallest hybrid timber building and generate 2500 jobs.