Mat Baxter on why Huge has done away with the ‘boring’ office
A year into his tenure as global CEO of digital experience agency Huge, Mat Baxter is closing all of the agency’s global offices – bar one. He told Mumbrella why this is the way forward.
Speaking on this week’s Mumbrellacast, to be published tomorrow, Baxter said Huge has moved to a “fully flexible model”, meaning employees can work from wherever they choose, full time.
“There is no mandatory return to the office. You can not come back to the office at all if that’s what you want to do,” he said. “We encourage that people do come into the office occasionally to create that connection and to keep that culture alive, but one of the things we’re doing is re-imagining the office altogether.”
If I were a graduate looking for a position in the industry this would remove Huge from my hit list immediately.
There’s a consistent theme amongst those saying kill the office:
> They haven’t shipped or built a product, or run product companies.
> They are in industries with lots of busy work (high activity and low achievement).
> They tend to be in upper management on large salaries.
Whilst I’m not wedded to the Musk view, I must say that the pattern seems to emerge pretty clearly again here…
In this comment section: people over the age of 45.
Old mate isn’t saying that the office is entirely bad – he’s saying that the idea that work can only happen in the office isn’t accurate anymore.
I’m 46, and I agree with closing offices. Communal location for people to come together is cool, but having to go into the office isn’t necessary. Human connection is necessary, but in the next 5 years the generation entering the workforce have a very different definition of human connection than we old people do.
Comfortable house owning, middle aged, established career thinking here – I agree with Craig – starting your career looking to learn from others, meet new people, bounce off talented colleagues and hang out in an office infinitely better than your over priced shit hole flat – this laptop offering will not be appealing and within a few years company culture and the supply of juniors will be dead.
Sure the office has changed but as ever a middle ground is the answer, not just lazily saving costs under the guise of the ‘new work’.
Isn’t killing the office as blunt a measure as demanding everyone work from one?
It feels like a failure of imagination to say that the current office structure doesn’t work, so let’s kill the office. There are some important benefits of the office that can be enhanced by using design to minimise the negatives.
It’ll keep opex down though.