Coinbase, a digital currency exchange based in California, has announced that it will be transitioning to a remote company after the lockdown through a memo sent out to all employees by CEO and Co-Founder, Brian Armstrong.
According to Armstrong, the company has been experimenting on the possibilities of its employees working remotely, and the lockdown restrictions have come in at a strategic time. The company used two factors, practicality and strategic, to get into the decision.
Practicality due to the fact that even after the pandemic, social distancing might be a thing to be considered while setting up onsite offices.
“After the restrictions of quarantine are over, Coinbase will embrace being ‘remote-first,’ meaning we will offer the option to work in an office or remotely for the vast majority of roles,” the memo read. “Whether in an office or remote, being ‘remote-first’ means we will all need to shift how we work,” Armstrong added in the memo.
According to the medium blog post, Coinbase believes that the future of work will look very different after the pandemic.
“Over the last two months, I have come to believe that not only is remote work here to stay but that it represents a huge opportunity and strategic advantage for us,” Armstrong noted.
He continued to explain that in the future, anyone who wants to can work from or outside an office. Remote working has almost become a new world order, whereby most industries and companies are allowing employees with flexible functions to work outside the office.
It is a great opportunity for both the company and the employee. First, the company will save a huge amount of capital that would have been used to run an onsite office, and secondly, most employees will be more productive as there is less time to commute to and fro the office and home.
For the employee, it will be an opportunity to bond well with the family and friends as they continue with their remote work. On the brighter side, as more companies strive to be fully remote, there will be less friction in means of transport, hence a cleaner environment as a result.
Coinbase has been in existence since 2012 and has seen its business grow to over 30 million customers. Besides, it has traded over $150 billion, thus making it a big player in the cryptocurrency market.