Airbnb announced a Live and Work Anywhere remote work policy in April 2022, which allows the company’s global employees to work from home from any location — as long as they meet up in person regularly for team gatherings.
Now Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky is clarifying for the first time what he means by “regular” meetups.
“I have a simple rule: we basically ask people to come to San Francisco one week a month,” Chesky told host Bob Safian on a recent episode of the Masters of Scale Rapid Response podcast. “Some people come for just two or three days. Some people come for the full week.”
Brian Chesky. Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for WIRED
Chesky calls the return-to-office week a “gathering week” when Airbnb coordinates everyone being together in San Francisco. The focus is on collaboration, not on getting people to work harder by having them show up to the office, he says.
“I have not found a huge value in people being in the office all the time,” Chesky said, adding, “What I want is, for the most part, people coming to the San Francisco office, but I can’t get everyone to move here to San Francisco, and I can’t get them to fly here every week.”
Most Airbnb employees are based in San Francisco, Chesky says. Airbnb flies out-of-state or out-of-country employees to the San Francisco office once a month for in-person meetups. Chesky says that the cost is worth it and more affordable than thousands of people coming to work in person five days per week. Even if it was more expensive, he says it would still be worth it.
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“I think the output for us is superior,” Chesky said.
Since Airbnb introduced its Live and Work Anywhere, about 20% of employees have relocated to states within the U.S. or abroad. According to Forbes, Airbnb has 6,907 employees.
Chesky also stated in the interview that the way to make a team work harder wasn’t by forcing them to work in person from the office but by setting rigorous milestones.
“If you want a team to work harder, don’t make them come to the office, give them a crazy deadline and check on their progress every week,” Chesky said. “That’s how you get them to work harder, not by being in the office.”
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Several large companies have issued return-to-office mandates recently. JPMorgan, for example, announced a mandate last month directing its 300,000-person workforce to work from the office every weekday beginning in March. Gap stated a goal earlier this month of having its corporate employees back in the office five days a week by the fall.