The billionaire Irish co-founders of the online payments company, Stripe, have voiced their support for remote work, saying that it may help address a key productivity barrier in the US.
As the remove vs. in-office debate continues to simmer, with many employees being asked to return to the office full-time, Patrick and John Collison gave their take on the debate.
“Working remotely has had a bunch of benefits where there’s a way larger talent pool available to companies,” John told the All-In podcast. He said that allowing people to work from anywhere may help address the sociological phenomenon of the “two-body problem.”
“You see kind of the two-body problem, where it allows a lot of couples, where maybe one partner is assigned to some hospital in Idaho, and they don’t get to choose what hospital necessarily they got assigned to, and the other person gets to work a high-paying tech job,” Collison said.
Stripe employs around 8,000 people, with a sizable amount of staff – 40% – thought to be remote. This compares to around 20% before Covid. The Irish-American multinational financial services and software as a service company has headquarters in South San Francisco, California, United States, and Dublin. The company, founded in 2010 by the Limerick brothers, is now worth around $65 billion.
His brother Patrick added: “I think one of the theories for declining dynamism in the U.S. and declining TFP [total factor productivity] is that allocative efficiency of people declined as women entered the workforce because now you have…this two-body problem where both people have to make coordinated switches…and remote work solves that.”
During an interview at the Berkeley Haas School of Business, Patrick said he believed that the working from home debate had become overly religious, and was more dependant on the context of each company.
The 35-year-old also said that his personal preference would be to work from home, however Stripe’s business requirements necessitate his physical presence in the office.
“There are some people who are really effective and really enjoy working in their cave. I think I would probably be one of those people, but sadly I’m not in a role where that makes sense,” Collison said.
Backing the case for remote work opportunities, he said: “It’s probably a significant efficiency gain to have more options for the kind of cave dwellers and the people who just want to sit in their room and do the work by themselves, again, like me.”
He also said that part of the reason for so many remote workers was a matter of space, because all Stripe’s employees would not be able to fit in the same room “no matter how draconian our in-office policy.”
The Stripe boss added that he believes the benefits of in-person work are clearer for smaller organisations of up to 50 people, especially when it comes to fostering a company culture.
Collison says that the benefits stem from the immediate feedback and idea sharing that can be achieved through physical meetings, something that digital platforms struggle to replicate.
He also said that parents are often more keen on their children taking up a job fully in office five days a week than a “loosey-goosey” fully remote option.
“No parent that I’ve asked ever hesitated in answering that question,” Collison said.
The Stripe CEO previously advocated for a hybrid model of work, in order to combine the flexibility of remote working with the engagement of an office environment.