All Hands Meetings

Posted on by Brendan

We had an all company meeting yesterday, so I thought I’d share some thoughts on them.

First, we have a few different All Hands Meetings at Wayfair:

  • SEO Team All Hands – Monthly
  • Marketing Department – Bi-Monthly
  • All Company – Quarterly

At the highest level, I enjoy all three of these routine meetings. I find it energizing to take a step back from the strategy and tactical execution to digest some larger business content or marketing specific information.

For example, I was reminded repeat customers placed 75% of orders in Q1. This is a huge sign of the value we’re delivering to customers and is exciting to be part of.

I also enjoy listening to leadership share their perspective. I used to sit quietly and listen to hockey coaches share their perspective on the sport so maybe that is where it comes from. When the game starts, is when listening mostly stops and execution picks up.

Return to Work Models

Posted on by Brendan

This is a hot topic across business right now. Individuals are weighing in with their thoughts, media is spinning up stories, and businesses are giving more concrete timelines.

My employer is targeting 8/1 and recently requested we schedule time to come back and pick up belongings to organize the return.

I’m gonna weigh in on my thoughts around return to work.

I support a hybrid work model. That is something like work from home two days a week (say Monday or Friday) and be in office the others or vice versa.

After 15 or so months of working from home, I am stoked to get back to the office. Each September as a student growing up, I was always excited for school to start. My grandmother would buy my sister and I one back to school outfit which I was excited to wear. I was also excited to see my friends more often and meet my teacher (s). Return to office brings back these back to school feelings.

More specially I am excited about in person meetings and in person serendipitous brainstorm sessions that ensue. Tons of high impact projects I have been a part of are born from free form thinking when teams are in the right headspace.

Also commuting some days will give me much needed time to myself as a new dad.

While I am excited for return to work, I also feel strongly about not going back to the pre-covid 5 days a week in office expectation.

I support deep work and thinking for everyone no matter the level you are at in an organization. I don’t believe open floor plans and five days in office support deep thinking enough. Calendar blocks alone don’t solve this in my opinion either.

The funny piece about WFH that I struggled with pre-covid was FOMO. I didn’t want to miss anything if I was at home and co-workers were in the office. I hope I can let these feelings go when working in hybrid work models.

The second piece I like about remote is of course no commute. My commute is ~45 minutes one way so eliminating it a few days a week is huge.

What are you hoping will be working norms as restrictions loosen?