I hope work from home continues

That said, I share most of the opinions even though I quite like the office environment of my company.

I abso-fking-love choosing where I work (and to some degree, when). Being able to take my laptop and go sit under a canopy in my back yard when the weather is nice, seeing my rabbits hopping around the yard, my cats avoiding the aggressive she-rabbit, hearing the birds, etc., while working, is just about as happy as I can be while also working on stuff that doesn't really matter much.

As I begin to form my own company, one of my priorities is to allow my employees to have at least some of their time completely at their own discretion. They choose when and where they work as long as they can attend some important anchor meetings (and obviously be productive). And for the social aspect, weekend or week-long dev retreats are ideal. 4 hours of intense serious work, plus a couple of hours of colleague social interaction, and the rest left to the individual to spend however they like, is the kind of situation I would have not even been able to dream of when I was younger.

And from a bean-counter owner perspective, do not underestimate the employee loyalty and overachievement motivation you can get by giving some nice free trips, nice free food, and quality equipment.

Big companies lack this freedom to treat their creative talent not because they cannot afford it but because the people in charge tend to not be creative thinkers. This is why most interesting things happen in smaller companies (and ultimately tend to get bought by the laggard big companies).

We pair new hires, regardless of ability, with a mentor. They have access to a full checklist of on-boarding tasks and an actively maintained Basecamp.

Perhaps the key point is that we do not have "hidden" discussions. Even the voice discussions have notes taken and recorded, and planning sessions are done via a recorded Miro board. Day-to-day project management is entirely in Basecamp and Slack. Anything in Slack that's worth noting is made into a Basecamp task for posterity.

We're a flat hierarchy, and we encourage team members to be vocal about what they want to work on. The entire team plans quarterly targets and goals.

It's, honestly, kinda awesome.

Edit: we're less than 50 people, and that makes it easier not to have a hierarchy since most features are built by one or two people.

Sorry, but ox tails and greens are awesome. And there is a shortage at the moment so I don't eat it as often as I used to. Damn hipsters are even gentrifying Caribbean foods.