The Impact of Remote Work on Company Culture

Authored by Hannah Armistead

When people ask where I work and I say, “DuBose Web - it’s a digital marketing and web design agency”, they often follow up and ask where our office is, and are shocked when I tell them we actually don’t have one.

We are truly a remote agency.

We all work from home almost 100% of the time, with the exception of those times when our Columbia, South Carolina-based team members get together, often at SOCO - a local coworking space in Downtown Columbia. While most of our team is based in Columbia, SC, we have team members spread out all across the country, as far as California!

Well, we took that leap back in 2019, and haven’t looked back since.

What began as a decision primarily rooted in cost savings, ended up being one that had a profound impact on each and every one of our team members.

For me personally, I’ve never had more workplace satisfaction than I do right now. With no commute, we save on gas and are able to be a one car household. I gain valuable time back into my day before and after work with my daughter. We can let her sleep in, have a good breakfast as a family, and drop her off at daycare knowing we got some great quality time together before the work day even begins. I can leave and pick her up from daycare at a reasonable time, and I don’t have to worry about getting stuck in traffic and risking a late pickup fee. And as any parent with a child knows, kids get sick, what feels like, all the time. It has been so relieving to know I can leave at any moment to go pick her up if she’s sick, can take her to the doctor, and keep her home with me, without feeling like I have to take time off. Even things as small as being able to take a walk around the block, move the clothes over to the dryer, and listen to music without headphones on during the work day feel like a big deal if you’re used to working in an office. And working in comfy clothes? Count me in.

When you make the decision to go remote as a company, you are choosing to trust your team somewhat blindly. You don’t have eyes on them every second of every day. This can be scary and risky, but with the right team members, expectations, and tools, it can also be incredibly successful.

Whether you are already remote, or toying with the idea of it, consider some of these suggestions that have worked well for us:

1. Have intentional recurring rhythms and touch points throughout the week. Our schedule consists of a Monday morning team meeting, Wednesday morning standup meeting, and Friday morning team debrief. Leadership also has intentional, prepared quarterly meetings with each team member to get a big-picture pulse on their wellness, goals, and provide feedback

2. Decide on a video platform such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet. Zoom has been good for us, but there are other solid alternatives.

3. Determine which communication-chat platform works well to improve communication. For many years now, we’ve leveraged Slack, which allows us to have individual, group, and project based discussions. Careful though, this can be distracting, so some boundaries/rules may be helpful. But for the most part, it’s a great tool that can help with those feelings of isolation that can creep in when working remotely.

4. Put everything on your calendar! We use the Google Suite, and share our Google Calendars with each other. We block out times for focusing, task work, appointments, lunches, just like we would for a scheduled meeting. Calendar blocking helps with transparency and boundaries. We all know when one another is available, and when we need to wait to reach out.

5. Have a project management tool in place. We recently transitioned to Wrike and are loving how customizable it is. Having all tasks in one centralized place makes it easy to see what each team member is working on, where the blockers are, and how efficient we are being.

Is working from home for everyone? No! For a lot of companies, it just wouldn’t work. But for some, like us, it makes perfect sense. Remote work has been an absolute culture gamechanger for DuBose Web.

I am so thankful to work for a company that is flexible and family-first. Life doesn’t just pause between the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and DuBose recognizes that. We are humans first, employees second.

Working from home allows me to be productive, comfortable, and most importantly, happy.

Micromanagement is out, and trusting your team is in!