Atlassian, the development company behind Jira, Trello, and other software tools for work, has announced that 8% of the company’s workforce — some 300 employees — are now working remotely.
The Australian company dipped its toes into distributed work after its acquisition of Trello, which was already mostly remote. They researched the model, assessed their readiness, and developed a pilot program for their Jira Service Desk product.
The company has also instituted a number of rituals to better include these workers. For De Coninck and her colleagues, this includes the life-size cutouts of each remote worker, as well as a weekly Wednesday morning session where everyone on the team calls in to work together. The team also dials in for Friday evening social time where they can hang out, play video games or simply have a drink over a video call and bond as colleagues.