During the screening interview, the recruiter told me this position would be hybrid, requiring my “physical attendance in the corporate office for significant meetings, but otherwise it was pretty flexible where the position could work from.” With four different creative titles reporting to this position, this was a bit of a flag for me. However, I understood this was the existing company culture and I figured as long as I had a workspace and was welcomed, my personal preference was to work from the office as often as I could.

The panel interview was moving along, and I was feeling pretty good about my responses to the questions. That is, until close to the end, when I was asked what my thoughts were on remote creative teams. Having worked in a remote environment during COVID in which our creative agency was forced to work from home under state mandate for six weeks, I explained that I was not a fan – that I felt the creative process and collaboration suffered. Adding that reviews, edits and the approval process for creative was slowed. We were clearly more interactive and efficient when we could physically sit side-by-side with your team and collaborate on adjustments. By the way, this was also why we had an open-room format at Red Apples Media (dubbed, “The Orchard”).

I could sense right away this was not the answer they were looking for. Perhaps it was concern that a new hire would push for in-office, once hired. I was certainly not dug in on my preference and did explain that I understood, if this was the culture of the company, that it would be my responsibility to adapt to the culture.

I was not invited to the fourth round of interviews and I am convinced the topic of remote creatives is likely what knocked me out of contention. 

I didn’t think to share this until I saw a recent infographic from a JLL study indicating that in an effort to increase the frequency of people in-office, “Three quarters of firms say collaboration is the main reason for calling staff back, with 41% believing it will improve productivity.”

I feel a little vindicated, but at the same time, while my preference would be for creative teams to have some degree of in-person collaboration, particularly if it is geographically feasible, I also continue to believe that embracing and adjusting to the culture of the company is my responsibility, and not the other way around.