Olivia: In 2019, the average American spent 225 hours commuting. That’s nine full 24-hour days stuck in traffic or on a train. Jackson: Ugh, I can feel that number in my bones. That's an entire vacation spent staring at the back of a Toyota. Olivia: Exactly. But here’s the kicker. A study of those open-plan offices we were all commuting to found that employees lose another 86 minutes per day to distractions. We basically traded one prison for another. Jackson: Wow. So you're saying we fought through traffic just to get to a place where we couldn't even focus? That's a terrible deal. It’s like paying a cover charge to get into a library where a death metal band is practicing. Olivia: It’s the perfect setup for the problem Alexandra Samuel tackles in her book, Remote Works: Managing for Freedom, Flexibility, and Engagement in Our New World of Work. She argues that the whole debate about office versus remote misses the point. Jackson: And she’s not just an academic theorizing from an ivory tower, right? I read that she's the co-founder of a company, Acceleration Partners, that has been fully remote for over a decade and has seen absolutely massive growth. This isn't just a thought experiment; it's a playbook from the trenches. Olivia: Precisely. She’s lived it, scaled it, and won awards for it. Her core idea is that remote work isn’t a location, it’s a magnifying glass. It amplifies what’s already there, for better or for worse. Jackson: A magnifying glass. I like that. So, if the office is a productivity trap and working from home can be a lonely island, where does the book suggest we even start to fix this?

Olivia: Well, it starts with the individual. And it completely upends the biggest myth about remote work: that it’s only for quiet, heads-down introverts. The book tells this fantastic story about a woman named Sophie Parry-Billings. Jackson: Okay, I’m listening. Olivia: Sophie is a self-described "people person"—a total extrovert living in London, a city with a very strong office-centric culture. In 2017, she took a fully remote job, and everyone in her life freaked out. Her family, her friends, her boyfriend—they all said, 'You're going to be so isolated! You'll hate it!' Jackson: Yeah, I can definitely relate to their concern. If you get your energy from being around people, a quiet apartment can feel like a punishment. Olivia: That’s what she thought too. But then she described her old office. It was a loud, cliquey, open-plan space where a Sonos speaker was blasting music right next to her desk all day, and she had no control over it. She had a long, soul-crushing commute. She was surrounded by people, but she was miserable and distracted. Jackson: The classic open-office paradox. You’re never alone, but you’re always lonely and can’t get anything done. Olivia: Exactly. So she starts this remote job, and at first, it's a bit weird. She struggles to separate work from home. But her manager encourages her to actually use the flexibility. To go for a run in the middle of the day, to take a real lunch break. And she discovers something shocking. Jackson: What’s that? Olivia: She describes her new life as having a "drastically better quality of life." She could focus. She could prioritize her health. She could build her schedule around her energy, not around the office's demands. She ended up surprising everyone, especially herself. She loved it. Jackson: Hold on, that sounds great for her, but it feels like a best-case scenario. A unicorn story. What about people whose companies just threw them a laptop during the pandemic and said, 'Good luck'? Isn't the loneliness and burnout real for most people, especially extroverts? Olivia: It absolutely is, and the book doesn't shy away from that. Sophie’s story isn’t about personality; it’s about structure. She succeeded for two reasons. First, she was disciplined. As she says, "You have to be able to manage your schedule and you have to be able to focus." Jackson: Right, the personal responsibility piece. Olivia: But the second, and more important reason, is that she joined an organization that was already a well-oiled remote machine. They had established processes, a supportive culture, and managers who trusted their team. Her success wasn't an accident; it was by design. Jackson: Ah, so it's not about being an introvert or an extrovert. It's about whether you're in a system built for success or a system built for chaos. The individual can only do so much if the company's foundation is cracked. Olivia: You've hit on the book's central argument. The individual journey is only half the equation. A person's ability to thrive is almost entirely dependent on the company's culture.

Jackson: That makes so much sense. In an office, you can kind of fake a good culture with superficial perks. You know, free snacks, a ping-pong table, pizza parties on Fridays. But when everyone is distributed, all of that disappears. Olivia: It’s gone. And what’s left is the real culture. Samuel has a brilliant definition for it. She says culture is two things: your organization’s operating system, and how people make decisions when you’re not in the room. Jackson: How people act when the boss isn't watching. That is a perfect litmus test. It’s the difference between what’s written on the motivational poster in the lobby and what actually happens on a stressful Tuesday afternoon. Olivia: The book uses two powerful, contrasting stories to illustrate this. The first is the infamous United Airlines incident from 2017, where a passenger was forcibly dragged off an overbooked flight. Jackson: Oh, I remember that. It was a total PR nightmare. The videos were everywhere. Olivia: United’s stated values were things like "fly friendly" and "fly together." But when faced with a logistical problem, what did the employees on the ground do? They defaulted to a rigid, bureaucratic, and ultimately violent solution. Their actions showed the company's true operating system was about process over people. The culture was broken. Jackson: And when that video went viral, their market cap dropped by hundreds of millions of dollars. The cost of a bad culture, right there in black and white. So what's the counter-example? Olivia: It’s a story from Southwest Airlines. A woman named Peggy Uhle is on a flight that’s about to take off. Suddenly, the plane turns around and goes back to the gate. A flight attendant comes and asks her to get off the plane. Jackson: That sounds terrifying. Your mind immediately goes to the worst possible place. Olivia: It does. But they lead her to a private room, and the gate agent tells her, "Your son has been in a serious accident and is in a coma." But here’s where the culture kicks in. While she’s on the phone with her husband, the Southwest staff has already rebooked her on the next direct flight to Denver, refused to let her pay, packed her a meal, and arranged for her luggage to be delivered directly to the hospital. Jackson: Wow. That's... incredible. That's humanity. There's no training manual for that. Olivia: There isn't. That’s culture in action. The employees were empowered to make decisions based on a core value of compassion, without needing to ask for permission. They acted like humans because they worked for a company that valued humanity. Jackson: And that’s the 'operating system' you were talking about. In the United case, the system defaulted to brutal efficiency. At Southwest, it defaulted to empathy. When you're remote, that underlying code is the only thing guiding your team. You can't manage by walking around. Olivia: Exactly. Which brings us to the most critical function of a remote organization: hiring. How do you find people who are pre-loaded with the right operating system?

Jackson: This is the big question, isn't it? In a virtual interview, you have even fewer signals to rely on. You can't feel the 'vibe' in the same way. It seems like it would be so easy to get it wrong. Olivia: It is. And the book argues that relying on 'gut feel' or 'vibe' is one of the most dangerous mistakes a company can make. It quotes research from the firm ghSMART showing that the average hiring manager has only a 50 percent success rate. It's a coin flip. Jackson: A coin flip! That’s terrifying. You’re building your entire company on a 50/50 chance. Olivia: To drive this point home, the book shares this absolutely wild story from Geoff Smart, the CEO of that firm. He calls it "The $3 Million Slap." Jackson: The what? Okay, you have my full attention. Olivia: Smart is interviewing a candidate for a very senior role. He asks the candidate why he left his last job. The guy gives a polished, generic answer: "Oh, you know, it was just a difference of opinion with the CEO." Jackson: The classic non-answer. We've all heard it. We've all probably said it. Olivia: But Smart is trained not to accept that. He just keeps probing gently. "Tell me more." "And then what happened?" He keeps pulling the thread. The candidate gets a bit flustered and finally admits, "Okay, I... I insulted the CEO during a board meeting." Jackson: Oof. That's a big step up from 'difference of opinion.' Olivia: Smart keeps probing. "What happened after the meeting?" The candidate reveals the CEO called him into his office and fired him on the spot. Smart asks again, "And then what happened?" And after a long, tense silence, the candidate confesses. He slapped the CEO across the face. Jackson: No. Come on. He slapped him? Olivia: Slapped him. And in doing so, he was terminated for cause and forfeited three million dollars in stock options. Hence, "The $3 Million Slap." Jackson: Whoa. That is unbelievable. And that guy was probably charming and looked perfect on paper. If Smart had just gone with his gut, he would have hired a guy who physically assaults his boss under pressure. Olivia: That’s the entire point. The story illustrates that you cannot hire based on how someone presents themselves. You have to become a historian of their past behavior. The book advocates for a rigorous, data-driven system with behavioral questions that force candidates to provide evidence of how they've acted in real situations. Jackson: It makes you wonder how many ticking time bombs are sitting in organizations right now because the hiring process was just a glorified chat. Especially in a remote world, where trust is everything. You need to know, with data, that the person on the other end of the Slack message is reliable, accountable, and, you know, not going to virtually slap you.

Olivia: And that really ties everything together. The book's ultimate message is that remote work isn't a perk or a policy; it's a mirror. It relentlessly reflects the truth. Jackson: A mirror for what, exactly? Olivia: For everything. It reflects the truth of your personal discipline, like with Sophie. You can't hide behind 'face time' anymore; your output is all that matters. But more importantly, it reflects the true health of your company's culture—that operating system we talked about. Jackson: Because there are no office walls or free lunches to hide behind. The culture is either strong enough to guide people when they're alone, or it isn't. The Southwest employees didn't need a manager over their shoulder to do the right thing. Olivia: Precisely. Weaknesses in communication, trust, and accountability that might have been papered over in an office become glaring, system-breaking failures in a remote environment. You can't escape the truth of who you are as an organization. Jackson: So the takeaway for anyone listening isn't just 'get better at Zoom' or 'buy a standing desk.' It’s much deeper than that. It’s about looking at the unwritten rules. Olivia: I love that. What's the challenge then? Jackson: Here’s a challenge for everyone listening, whether you're a leader or an employee. Ask yourself this one question: "How do people really make decisions at my company when the manager isn't in the room?" Olivia: And be honest with your answer. Jackson: Brutally honest. Do they follow the values on the wall, or do they do what's easiest? Do they collaborate, or do they cover their own backs? The answer to that single question tells you everything you need to know about whether your workplace is built to thrive remotely, or just destined to survive. Olivia: That is the perfect place to leave it. We'd love to hear what you discover. Share your stories or your company's 'unwritten rules' with us on our social channels. We learn so much from hearing your experiences. Jackson: And it helps us all feel a little more connected in this virtual world. Olivia: This is Aibrary, signing off.