Office Working vs Working From Home

Five years after the world went fully remote, it’s easy to forget how much things have changed and what we’ve learned along the way.

At Appcentric, we’ve embraced the flexibility that remote work gives us. But we’ve also found real value in coming together physically, at our great office space at Alpha Works, right in the heart of Birmingham.

What remote work can’t replace

We love our tools: Slack, Zoom, Mural etc - they help us work smarter, asynchronously, and with loads of autonomy but there are things you just can’t replicate over a screen:

• Problem solving (typically goes like: "Hey, XX, can you take a look at this for a sec?")
• Sparking ideas mid-conversation
• Preparing for meetings together
• Solving a tricky UX/development challenges on a whiteboard
• Overhearing a great insight from across the desk
• Eating lunch together and chatting about upcoming plans

Collaboration is key and working in a shared space helps us reconnect with each other as people.

Collaboration is a mood booster

The mental health benefits of social connection at work are huge.
Being around others - even just once or twice a week gives us a change of pace, fresh energy, and a stronger sense of purpose.

For our small team, it’s also a chance to check in with each other outside the day-to-day of tasks and deadlines. And that goes a long way.

Our office at Alpha Works

Let’s be honest not all office spaces inspires creativity. But Alpha Works does (we know we are lucky!)

From panoramic city views to quiet corners for focus time, it’s a space that lets us move between solo and shared work fluidly. We even get compliments on our office position when our clients come to visit us - free coffee, stylishly furnished, great meeting rooms and a cheeky beer on a Friday.

Balance

We’re not going back to the old 9–5, Monday–Friday office life. And we wouldn’t want to.

But we’ve found that a thoughtful mix of remote and in-person collaboration gives us the best of both worlds: flexibility and connection, autonomy and alignment.

At the end of the day, the way we work shapes the things we make and we want to build digital experiences that are clear, human, and helpful. Being in the right space together helps us do just that.