During the time between Christmas Eve and New Years Day, we close the DataScaler office. This gives employees the chance to recharge, travel, be with family, etc. For me, it's been a very productive time. Without the distractions of meetings, conference calls, etc., I have gotten a lot done. I enjoyed some great family time as well.
Working at home is both better and worse for me than working at the office. At the office, I can focus solely on work, without my daughters' occasional interruptions. However, at the office I have nearly-constant interruptions from work-related things. Thus, when I have reading to do or some large project that takes solo time, I prefer to work from home.
The office is great for interaction, collaboration, and generally staying on top of the buzz of the company. We value having a physical office where everyone comes in every day and we work together. Although working from home may be slightly more productive, in a startup, things change rapidly, so communication is more important than raw productivity. Making great progress against the wrong goal isn't productive. Thus, we value being together, sharing ideas, interrupting each other, overhearing each other, etc. When I have a great customer call or new concept to bat around, my team is right there with me. We would communicate much less if we were not physically together.
We also have chosen an open office layout. We have no offices or cubicles. This is inline with our core value of open communication. When we have personal phone calls, etc., we make use of the conference room or take a walk outside. This arrangement works very well for keeping everyone on the same page as to what is going on. Again, it is not optimized for raw, uninterrupted productivity, but that is not our main focus. The communication and collaboration benefits far outweigh the cost of interruptions, etc.
With all that said, it is nice to get away from the office and get some heads down time. I've enjoyed the break so far and look forward to the next few days. Come Jan 2, when we all get back together at the office, I am sure we'll all have lots to talk about.
