Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson is still all-in on remote work at a time when many of his tech peers are pushing for back-to-office mandates.
While companies adopted a remote or hybrid workflow during the pandemic, and some expressed long-term commitment to it, many are pushing for a return to the office. Even stalwart remote work supporters are beginning to backpedal.
According to Bloomberg, however, Lawson is as committed as ever to remote work, opting to trust his employees to be “responsible adults.”
“We’re going to embrace being a distributed company,” Lawson said in an interview. While periodic in-person events are important, “we can treat folks as responsible adults, focus on the work outcome and output,” he said.
Lawson’s stand is in stark contrast to much of the rest of Silicon Valley. Even Salesforce, once a vocal champion of remote work, is now “just short” of a return-to-office mandate, according to the outlet.
Lawson, however, believes a company must continue to stand by its values, even when things get tough.
“A lot of companies talk about” diversity, equity and inclusion “when they are growing,” Lawson said. “Not very much — if anything — was said about how do you think about DEI when companies have to unfortunately do layoffs.”
