The Great Remote Workplace Reset

Can we stop trying to replace our in-office culture with a remote work version?

I was a hardcore 80-hour-a-week office guy for over two decades. I prided myself on being the first one in and the last one out. The office was my badge of honor. It was where I measured my discipline, my loyalty, and my seriousness about work. But if you asked me to go back to an office today, even though this is my dream job, I would quit on the spot.

That does not mean I think remote work is universally better. It is not. It works beautifully for some people and terribly for others. What it does mean is that now that remote work has had time to marinate, we can look at it with more clarity. We can start to see what it is, and more importantly what it is not. This perspective gives us the opportunity to make hard decisions about the kind of culture we truly want, instead of trying to drag outdated office norms into a new world.

Stop Forcing In-Office Culture into Remote Work

Here is the mistake we keep making: trying to recreate an office culture over Zoom. It is like trying to use social media to replace real human conversation. It may look familiar, but it is a facsimile, not the original.

Office culture was built on bonds created through physical presence. Hallway chats, overheard conversations, spontaneous mentorship, late-night pizza sessions, and after-work drinks all gave shape to a shared identity. None of that can be copied into a Slack thread. Online interactions are transactional by definition. Pretending otherwise makes them feel hollow. I do not care how many emojis you add after a company-wide announcement, it is not the same as standing in a room where everyone feels the same energy.

Instead of torturing our remote setups into virtual knockoffs of in-person relationships, we should reset completely. We should ask: If we are going to be a remote culture, what is the best way to optimize for what remote does well and appreciate what it cannot?

Redefining What Culture Means Now

Culture used to be defined by perks and rituals that made the office feel less like a grind. Foosball tables, free lunches, Friday happy hours. These were not culture. They were coping mechanisms. They gave us a reason to tolerate being chained to desks for ten hours.

In remote, that scaffolding disappears. The hallmarks of remote culture are not social. They are transactional. That might sound like a downgrade, but I think it is an upgrade if we treat it correctly.

The transactional nature means we can separate work from life more cleanly. We can focus on clarity of roles, transparency in communication, and alignment on goals. We can stop confusing culture with perks and start building culture around trust and shared purpose. These are things you cannot fake. They do not need four walls to survive, but they do need intentional design.

In an office, culture could just happen. People bumped into each other, and relationships evolved naturally. In remote, culture is engineered. It exists only if the Founder designs it with intention. That means choosing the right rituals, creating the right communication systems, and protecting the boundaries that allow people to do their best work.

Hiring for Autonomy in the Remote Era

Remote work is not for everyone. It amplifies behaviors, both good and bad. Strong performers thrive with autonomy. Weak performers collapse without guardrails.

For years we asked why bad performers struggled in remote environments. The answer was obvious. They were bad performers. Remote work did not break them. It exposed them.

Hiring for autonomy is no longer optional. Very few people can succeed remotely without constant supervision, and constant supervision defeats the point of being remote in the first place. Autonomy has to be treated as both the greatest perk and the hardest filter.

In my last round of interviews, people asked me about our perks. I told them the greatest perk we have is absolute autonomy. For the right people, that is music to their ears. For the wrong people, it also sounds like music, but they have no idea how to dance to it. Autonomy attracts both groups, which means as Founders we have to separate who will thrive from who will fail.

Remote work magnifies this gap. People who were already accountable rise quickly. People who were shaky to begin with spiral into chaos. A healthy remote culture depends on Founders recognizing this pattern and hiring accordingly.

Stop Comparing, Start Choosing

We need to stop treating remote work like it is a variant of office work. It is not. These are two entirely different models with different strengths, different weaknesses, and very different requirements.

The office works for people who need structure, real-time energy, and the social bonds of physical presence. Remote works for people who value autonomy, flexibility, and independence. Neither is inherently better.

The right question is not which model is superior. The right question is which model aligns with the objectives we are trying to achieve. If you need constant discipline and in-person accountability, then build an office culture and hire accordingly. If you want a team that thrives on autonomy and clarity, then lean fully into remote and stop dragging the office along with you.

This is the Great Remote Workplace Reset. The point is not to crown a winner. The point is to be honest about what each choice demands and then commit to building the culture that matches it.

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