Getty Images; JennyChang-Rodriguez/Business Insider
Janine Pelosi directs her company out of her home in California, but its headquarters are across the Atlantic, in Oslo, Norway, nine hours ahead of her.
It's emblematic of our flexible post-pandemic world, which has allowed remote working arrangements to thrive.
Pelosi is the CEO of Neat, a tech company that sells videoconferencing devices. Prior to that, she spent eight years at Zoom, including the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when she was the company's CMO.
During a video call with BI, one of many virtual meetings slotted into her day, the CEO recalled her "unique perspective" of the pandemic, which saw Zoom become a household name.
She said the pandemic destigmatized working from home instead of in an office, but that, in turn, crowded many people's days with formal online meetings.
Moving forward, the former Zoom CMO believes that developing in-person relationships and a strong company culture can support the effectiveness of remote work.
Virtual meetings can be time-consuming, but they don't always lead to increased productivity.
Pelosi said online meetings are more structured than a coffee chat or desk-side discussions in the office.
Because the video meetings are transactional and set up for a specific purpose, they're dealt with swiftly. "People are meeting for a reason, and getting to that purpose as quickly as possible is typically the reality of their days so they can get to the next thing on their plate," she added.
Pelosi told BI that a calendar packed with meetings — a fallout of remote work — isn't necessarily productive, "For me personally, it does not equate to productivity because it doesn't give me room to actually think or strategize," she told BI.
She said employees should feel empowered to ask for a meeting agenda and check whether they need to be present in meetings to ensure they're using their time wisely.
Excessive meetings aside, Pelosi said remote work will continue to be crucially important to our future, despite the ongoing RTO debate, because it allows people to be productive wherever they are.
"I think it would be a big mistake if we lost out on some of those gains. I think about the commute that I had five days a week before the pandemic, and it feels silly to me that I did that."
Improving technology so people meeting from different locations are all fully present should be a priority, according to Pelosi.
"If you have a lag, if your audio is not crisp, if your video is not working to the best of its ability, then it will affect your ability to come to the same understandings when you are in a meeting. So that quality is going to be the thing that bridges the gap between being fully dispersed and being able to be in that same room."
Although she's spent roughly 20 years working in the videoconferencing industry, Pelosi said nothing can compare to an in-person connection: "There's no replacement for being in the same room."
But it's become increasingly difficult to get teams together, Pelosi said, adding that building relationships and trust with employees will be key in a more digitalized future.
"I think it's incredibly important that the culture is strong within a company because what you're seeing too often is that folks have a relationship with their Zoom screen versus their employer," she said.
Pelosi herself travels monthly to see colleagues in person, visiting Neat's HQ in Oslo as well as its London office. She said companies need to encourage connection in and outside meetings to increase productivity.
She suggests hosting regular all-hands meetings, doing online cooking classes with teams, and encouraging employees who live in the same city to get together in person. This could help drive company culture and strengthen relationships in a world overcrowded with online meetings.
"Making room for that time to build relationships is going to allow for meeting remotely to be more effective in the future," she said.
