With the launch of Distributed.blog Matt Mullenweg makes the case for fully distributed companies

Not to be confused with remote working which implies the existence of central offices and / or teams that remote workers would serve.

Matt argues that talent and intelligence are equally distributed around the world, but opportunity is not. If you’re working in Silicon Valley, for example, why limit your searches for staff to the local area, or force people to relocate close to your office? Matt grew his business, Automattic, following this model from day one and now counts 900 distributed staff working from every corner of the world.

Why working from home is good for business

Let’s hear about it directly from the horse’s mouth…

Automattic wants to make sure that their distributed staff set themselves up comfortably wherever they decide to work from. They are each given co-working and home office stipends that can go towards creating their ideal working environment or… topping up a coffee tab at the local cafe.

Working apart but coming together too

Evert year Automatticians meet up for a week that is ‘half-work half-play’ helping them create deeper connections and alignment on the projects they are working on.

You can do the same at events too, which is why WordCamps are so important for people in the WordPress community. The next one — WordCamp Brisbane Australia – is coming up in August, by the way. We’ll be there.

Collaboration tools make it easy to work remotely, as Matt says. In fact, Automattic has recently launched its own product called Happy Tools. There are tons more — we are fans of Trello and Teamwork, as well as more specialist ones such as Content Snare and WP FeedBack.

Subscribe to the podcast

Distrubuted.blog launched back in May and with it the Distributed podcast, where you can listen to Matt talk about the future of with experts and industry leaders.

Has your organisation embraced a distributed way of working?

Are you a business owner who, like Matt, has made the conscious decision to hire a distributed workforce?

Or do you work remotely for an organisation? How does it work for you?