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Working Offsite: What is Your Church’s Culture?

At Gateway, we’ve been spending some time discussing work culture and debating the pros and cons. We really value flexibility as long as there is accountability. We outgrew our offices years ago. There are only a few lucky people who have an office to themselves, but even those days are numbered.

I don’t think anyone is really advocating we build bigger offices, but how can we be more creative with the space we do have and how our staff works both in and out of the office. For us, many of our staff work offsite multiple days of the week. This kind of arrangement can always be a mixed bag. I thought I’d throw this conversation out to the community and see what your church culture looks like. What are the pros and cons you have experienced?

For me, I’m far more productive if I can get some hours away from the office. This usually means sitting in a coffee shop, restaurant or even a library. No one can bother me, and I have multiple hour stretched where I can tackle big projects or work on creative elements that require a lot of concentration.

I usually work offsite on Monday mornings, Wednesday mornings and whenever I can on Thursdays, depending on meetings I need to have. I probably average 10-15 hours a week offsite, and this really amps my productivity, but I know this isn’t always the case for everyone.

Even more interesting, both Yahoo and Best Buy have been very public about changes to their offsite work policies. Yahoo is bringing everyone back into the office, and Best Buy is saying that it must be reviewed by managers on a case by case basis.

What about you? Is working offsite productive or distracting? Is it allowed by your church or restricted?