Spotify Announces 'Work From Anywhere': How Does It Work?

Pim de Morree
Written by Pim de Morree March 03, 2021

Spotify does it again! Once again, the music streaming service challenges conventional wisdom by allowing employees to work from anywhere. They are pro-actively turning the lessons of the pandemic into new ways of working. Here's how.

3606 1140x0

Spotify recently announced big changes in their policies on working mode and location. They heeded lessons learned during the pandemic.

Now employees have even more freedom in deciding where to work.

How does it work?

Spotify's 6,500+ employees will be able to work from anywhere they want.. They can work from home, the office, a café, or anywhere they wish—or any combination of these.

There's just one guardrail: "The exact mix of home and office mode is a decision made jointly by each employee and their manager."

Spotify's 6,500+ employees will be able to work from wherever they want. They can work from home, the office, a café, or anywhere they wish—or any combination of these.
Click to tweet

If employees want to move to another city or country, they can do that too. If there is no Spotify office in the vicinity, the company supplies membership of a co-working space.

And there's more.

They will continue to pay New York and San Francisco-level salaries (based on the job) to employees working remotely. That's significantly different to other tech giants who have talked about allowing remote work, but reduce salaries when employees move to locations with a lower cost of living.

“Most of our offices are in large cities like New York, London and Stockholm, but we know that moving to or staying in these cities isn’t always realistic for—or attractive to—potential employees,” said Travis Robinson, Spotify's head of diversity, inclusion and belonging.

“This is an opportunity to scrap the idea that big cities are the only places where meaningful work can happen, because we know first-hand that isn’t true. We want employees to come as they are, wherever they are and whatever their circumstances are” he said.

Cheers to that!

Beliefs

While this approach to increased employee flexibility is something to celebrate, what's even more beautiful than the practice itself are the beliefs and principles behind it. As Spotify states on its blog:

"Our beliefs are:

  • Work isn’t something you come to the office for, it’s something you do
  • Effectiveness can’t be measured by the number of hours people spend in an office – instead, giving people the freedom to choose where they work will boost effectiveness
  • Giving our people more flexibility will support better work-life balance and help tap into new talent pools while keeping our existing band members
  • Operating as a distributed organisation will produce better and more efficient ways of working through more intentional use of communication and collaboration practices, processes and tools."

A lesson in doing business in 2021.

Controlled chaos

Spotify has for years set itself apart by how they run their organization. In our visits some years ago, we got an exciting peak into their way of working, then.

It's great, now, to see how things are evolving, based on listening to employee needs.

"We also realise it’s likely to have an impact on our in-office culture, of which we’re proud. But listening to employees, embracing the need for change, and finding our way of making adaptations is definitely the way to continue to evolve our culture for the long-term."

Work isn’t something you come to the office for, it’s something you do
Click to tweet

"Part of our DNA has always been controlled chaos. So, in the spirit of this, we’re trying this out knowing that there are likely to be some adjustments to make along the way."

This experimentation based on the needs of employees is what Spotify does—and what sets them apart.

Written by Pim de Morree
Pim de Morree
As co-founder of Corporate Rebels I focus on: researching, writing, speaking, and building our company.
Read more
Sep 17, 2023
Intelligent Failures vs. Costly Mistakes: Navigating the Innovation Paradox
Amy Edmondson Written by Amy Edmondson
Do the words “failure" and "intelligent” even belong in the same sentence? Sure, “fail fast, fail often” is practically the motto of…
Read more
Aug 20, 2023
Scaling the Right Way: Clarasys' Path Forward with Progressive Principles
Klara Nenadlova Written by Klara Nenadlova
At Clarasys, our core purpose is to make a lasting difference to the way how people work, live, and grow. As an independent consultancy…
Read more
Aug 06, 2023
TiER1: A Customer-Centric and Empowered Organization with Dynamically Distributed Authority (DDA)
Joost Minnaar Written by Joost Minnaar
In July, we had the opportunity to interview Greg Harmeyer for an Academy live event. Greg, the co-founder and CEO of TiER1, a US-based…
Read more
Apr 12, 2023
Three New Management Books to Read in the Next Quarter
Joost Minnaar Written by Joost Minnaar
The first quarter of this year was certainly a feast for those who tend to devour management books, as a broad range of hotshot management…
Read more
Mar 18, 2023
F*ck It, I Need a Break! Why Rest and Recovery are Key to Success
Luke Kyte Written by Luke Kyte
The average person in the EU works for 36 years. That’s a helluva long time. And for many people, they have to navigate the trials and…
Read more
Mar 11, 2023
When Traditional Management Creeps Back In: What is Happening at Zappos?
Joost Minnaar Written by Joost Minnaar
Last month, I wrote a short piece about how Southwest Airlines was failing its once world-famous status as a progressive firm.…
Read more
Read all articles