Nine-to-five doesn’t work in a digital world, says Scott Farquhar

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Scott Farquhar is the co-founder of NASDAQ-listed Atlassian, which makes technology tools that help people collaborate. He’s also “a legend”, according to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who sought his advice on using data to model the spread of COVID-19.

AFR Magazine editor Matthew Drummond chatted to Farquhar over a Zoom call which was a bit scratchy: Farquhar’s wife was simultaneously on a video call, while his children were doing home-school over Wi-Fi. (Yes, even tech entrepreneurs get slow internet.)

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Scott Farquhar: Making data public can lead to great things. Peter Braig

We’re all getting used to virtual meetings, but what happens when some of us are in the office and the rest of us are dialling from home? It won’t work as smoothly, will it?

We’ve all had a crash course in remote working, via Slack or Zoom or whatever tech we’re using. But people are missing the tools and practices for how to make remote working work best.

About three years ago we bought a company called Trello, which is based in New York but has a remote working practice for the entire company.

Whenever there’s a meeting, even if some people are in the office, they all go back to their desks and hold the meeting via their individual laptops so that everyone, including people working from home, have the same experience and can participate equally.

They’ll meet via a video call with colleagues who are two metres away, just so the person working from home doesn’t feel left out?

That’s the way it works. If you’re in NY but you can get the best programmer who happens to be in Iowa, or the best software tester who happens to be in Florida, then it’s worth not having face-to-face meetings in the office. That said, those who are in the office, they religiously have lunch together in the cafeteria. And once a year, all of Trello get together to make sure they socialise and form bonds for the rest of the year.