Why we built Rock from the ground up for a distributed workforce
By Kenzo Fong
We are now in more meetings and work longer hours than ever before. With 62% of people working from home because of the pandemic — the number of meetings has gone up 12.9%, the volume of emails has increased and workdays have grown 48 ½ minutes longer. All of these distractions take up 40% of someone’s productive time.
There are different reasons why this has happened, but one of the main reasons is that the way we work hasn’t really changed. When companies started shifting their workforce to a remote model, they took the tools they were already using (e.g. Slack, Zoom) and sent their employees home. These tools are now being used in the same way they were used in the office, where most of the interaction happened in real-time.
We’re moving towards a more distributed way of working.
A quick chat is now another Zoom meeting in a long succession of meetings and a tap on the shoulder is yet another Slack message that pulls you away from what you were doing. This firehose of messages and meetings is not sustainable as it leads to anxiety, burnout and pressure to always be connected.
With a majority of companies stating that remote work is here to stay, office footprints being reduced dramatically and tech companies like Twitter telling their staff that they can work from home forever some of these changes will become the new normal. Most people agree that whatever happens, companies will be way more distributed than they were before the pandemic. One thing is for sure — the communication & collaboration tools that exist today just don’t cut it.
We need tools for a distributed workforce.
This is where Rock comes in. Ming and I started building Rock about a year ago to make it easier to shift towards a more asynchronous way of working. This way of working gives you more control over your workday, makes you more productive while reserving face-to-face meetings for the most important things. It’s also ideally suited to a workforce that is more distributed.
Rock combines real-time messaging and video calls with more asynchronous ways of communicating like tasks, notes, and files and makes this available in one space. Because we combine these different types of communication, we make it easy for you to pick and choose the best way to interact with your team. We also work with Google Drive (and will work with Zoom and others soon) so it’s easier to tap into your existing workflows.
With the right tools and mindset, working with your teams becomes more like a relay race. Everybody knows what’s going on, you can pick things up when you’re ready, and work happens in a state of flow.
Rock empowers anyone to work from anywhere
It’s our mission to build tools to empower anyone to work from anywhere. When this happens — companies are more diverse, job opportunities are not limited by location and we all meet less, while doing more.
Today, we’re taking the first step by allowing anyone to sign up and to start using Rock. We have a lot more to say and lots more to build. If you want to join us on this journey to bring some much-needed balance to the way we work, follow us on LinkedIn and try out Rock today.
Kenzo is CEO & Co-Founder of Rock. Kenzo has helped build and grow products like Google Maps, Android and Uber Eats that have ended up delighting billions of people.
Rock is on a mission to empower anyone to work from anywhere. Rock makes it easier to switch to a more asynchronous way of communicating by combining real-time messaging and video calls with tasks, notes, and files.
