Inside the Workplace Revolution at Controversial Dating App Ashley Madison

Remote work is old news at ruby Life, the technology company behind the controversial married dating platform Ashley Madison.

Like many organizations, it’s in the process of closing its offices. First to go will be its HQ in Toronto, where more than 110 employees work. But at the same time it’s writing new policies — policies typically associated with larger organizations like Netflix and LinkedIn.

Remote work proved to be a stepping stone to bigger things for ruby Life, whose app is used by millions of people across 50 countries. For example, it began offering an unlimited vacation period from January this year, and moved to a four-day week one year ago.

“I’d love to say we had this amazing plan, and this is how it was going to work, but it kind of evolved,” said Tara Bedford, vice president of human resources.

“We gave everyone a couple of days off last summer, as Covid was draining everybody. We did that a couple of times, and didn’t notice any impact. People were still getting the work done and driving the business forward. So we decided to pilot it — it’s coming up on a year.”

‘The Possibilities Are Amazing’

The byproduct of having an unlimited vacation policy means staff now have even more scope to roam.

“You can go somewhere for six weeks, and work for three. The possibilities are amazing,” Bedford said, adding she’s aware of “four other substantial companies” in Toronto looking at adopting this too.

She keeps her ear to the ground with peers, and part of the reason is the talent shortage, especially for developers. In Toronto there’s an influx of technology companies moving in, including Netflix, IBM, Amazon and Stripe, which is driving up demand. Companies need to make their offering as attractive as possible, and find different ways to attract people.

One hotelier predicts a rise in company-sponsored satellite retreat sites in idyllic locations. Picture: Unsplash

“Remote work is a start. Working from anywhere is the next step,” said Lola Casamitjana, co-founder of Floasis, a booking platform for remote-work friendly accommodation. “It’s amazing to see some companies take steps towards giving more freedom to their employees. Particularly the younger generations are looking for ways to be fulfilled at work, to find their place and the right balance between work and private life.”

The Friday Flex

As well as unlimited vacation, ruby Life has opted for a four-day week — something the government of Iceland trialled for several years and declared a success.

Bedford said ruby Life has opted for a “condensed” four-day work week, where the usual 40 hours are squeezed in, so if staff don’t have “deliverables” they can take the day off. But it’s also seen as a day where employees know they can have a quiet day for some deep work.

“A lot of developers use Fridays as quiet days to get stuff done; there’s no meetings, no expectations to respond,” said Bedford. “I don’t think anybody really gets work/life balance, but it’s much more of a work/life integration.”

However, managers needed to adapt, and first found it hard to remember to not set any meetings or send emails. They also gain some say in corporate travel going forward. There may be additional travel as the company hires from around the world, and once borders reopen, ruby Life overall might bring the entire company together once or twice a year. Some departments, such as product development, could also prefer to meet quarterly.

According to one travel agency, this type of internal business travel is already ramping back up. TripActions has said its new Team Travel tool is averaging 15 percent weekly booking growth, with 19 percent of all Team Travel bookings including a hotel room block, indicating an increase of offsites.

“Hybrid work is driving new travel patterns, and we have seen an uptick in smaller meetings as companies bring together their teams for collaboration and team building to fill the void from not working in an office environment full time,” said Simone Buckley, vice president, marketing EMEA, at TripActions.

Time Up for Vacations?

Bedford notes that companies will now start exploring their policies in many new directions, while there are also more ad-hoc breaks being offered.

“Some companies are closing down their entire organizations, offering additional holidays days or extended the weekends to make them long weekends during slower periods, all to give employees the opportunity to recharge, following a relentless 18 months,” said Suzanne Neufang, CEO at the Global Business Travel Association.

However, Casamitjana argues that, conversely, vacations are only needed when the way you work isn’t all that fulfilling.

“If we’re working from a beautiful space, making our own schedule, really unplugging from work with activities we love, sharing with a community of like-minded people… then, why would we need vacations?” she said. “We’re moving to an entirely new way to work that will benefit greatly both companies and employees. Giving freedom to each employee to explore what is right for them is definitely the best first step.”

One hotelier operating in Bali and Cambodia — hotspots for digital nomads — also believes we’ll start to see longer-term retreats and groups of individuals within a company deciding to travel in groups on their own.

“Both employees of corporates and corporates themselves are reaching out,” said David Abraham, founder of Outpost. “They are not only looking for places to work from, but also destinations that understand what remote work actually entails.”

He also predicts a rise in company-sponsored satellite retreat sites in idyllic locations. “A lot of companies are trying all sorts of new human resources policies to navigate the return to travel. It’s a great opportunity for companies to reset the balance and establish new ways of working,” Neufang added.

Sidenotes

Despite a rocky start to the resumption of life here in the UK — yes, we did name it “Freedom Day” — co-working space providers have seen a fairly robust return to business.

One bank that’s been synonymous with a strict return to offices seems to have backtracked slightly. Goldman Sachs is considering more flexibility following its new partnership with WeWork, as it establishes a new office in Birmingham.

Banking, payments and shopping service Klarna is another recent win, and has moved its London headquarters to one of its buildings to “support its rapid growth and in recognition of the benefit of flexible spaces to be creative and productive,” according to WeWork. Software analytics company Contentsquare also signed a contract for a new HQ in Paris.

Contentsquare is setting up a new HQ in a WeWork in Paris, France. Picture: WeWork

Office space provider Workspace Group is also seeing demand return to pre-pandemic levels, according to Reuters, with London businesses in particular returning to offices. Enquiries rose to 947 a month during the quarter ended 30 June, up from 506 a year ago.

“With occupancy increasing and pricing beginning to stabilise, this is a solid start to what we expect to be a positive year for Workspace,” said CEO Graham Clemett.

WeWork rival IWG meanwhile is forging ahead with conversations with large corporations, which are looking at membership deals for a new hub-and-spoke model of working.

The company, which operates brands including Regus and Spaces, earlier this year signed a deal with technology company NTT to give 300,000 employees worldwide access to its co-working spaces.

“There are some quite big discussions with a lot of corporates, but the speed of some of the decisions is slower than we expected at the moment,” said Simon Loh, chief operating officer for the UK. “It feels like they are still interviewing their teams, getting feedback, but the consensus from everything we’ve seen is it’s two days maybe at home, and maybe a few other days in the office. But there are still quite a few sitting back.”

However, although social restrictions are being lifted and vaccination rates rising, the UK’s recovery is being slowed down by rising infections and an over zealous track-and-trace system that’s ordering millions of people to self-isolate at home.

“It’s potentially hindering businesses, having to send staff home. That’s the concern at the moment,” Loh added.

Still, all three workplace providers will be encouraged by the words of the chairman of one of the UK’s biggest banks this week.

“We are looking at having a minimum expectation of a few days a month where people will definitely have to be in the office, and then it will vary by teams, but I suspect there won’t be many people doing five long days in the office,” NatWest Group’s Howard Davies told Bloomberg.

IWG posts its next set of results in three weeks, where we’ll get a clearer picture of workplace trends, remote or otherwise.

10-Second Corporate Travel Catch-Up

Who and what Skift has covered over the past week: 3D virtual event booths, Amadeus, Cvent, Hilton, Kayak for Business, Oyo, Priceline, Revolut, Sabre, United Airlines, U.S. Travel Association, Zoom.

In Brief

GetYourGuide Takes Hybrid Pathway to Reopening

Tours and activities booking platform GetYourGuide has said it will now “empower employees globally to define their optimal hybrid working model.” It employs 550 people across 15 countries, and will allow individual teams to decide how much time they want to spend in the office. The decision follows in the footsteps of another travel company, TUI,  which this month said staff needed to attend the office just one day per week.

“We’ve learned one size won’t fit all, which is why we’ve decided to implement a policy that enables our teams to have the flexibility to collaborate in-person in our offices, while still having the option to work remotely for times they need focus,” said CEO Johannes Reck. “We trust our employees to use this flexibility in the best interest of GetYourGuide and their teams, which ultimately drives growth through the travel recovery.”

The hybrid working policy will come into effect in the fourth quarter of this year.