While companies argue over office mandates, the bigger challenge may be overlooked: broken workflows and poor information sharing, writes Avani Prabhakar, Chief People Officer at Atlassian.
Businesses around the world are talking about getting employees back into the office. Fuelled by uncertainty about productivity, many leaders are hoping to fix what feels broken: strained collaboration, missed connections, and slow momentum.
But some of the most challenging problems in the modern workplace aren’t caused by where we work; they’re symptoms of how we work.
You only have to look as far as this year’s election campaign to see the ‘work from home’ debate continue to take centre stage as governments and teams grapple with how to set up workers to achieve their full potential.
“It’s clearer than ever that people feel passionate about the topic, but we’re having the wrong conversation.”
Avani Prabhakar
The most significant challenges and opportunities in today’s workplace don’t come down to where we work, it’s how we work.
Atlassian’s new State of Teams 2025 report shows Australian knowledge workers are losing nearly a quarter of their workweek – or roughly 10 hours – trying to find the information they need to do their jobs. Let that sink in.
When they do find something, there’s no way to tell if it’s current or accurate. So, too often, they react to incorrect or obsolete information and are sent in the wrong direction.
Teams end up drowning in disconnected tools, buried emails, and chat threads that feel like black holes. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. But fixing that isn’t about whether people are in an office or not.
It’s about prioritising visibility and alignment, whether teams are rubbing shoulders or distributed around the world.
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Systems always beat spaces
Over the past few years, I’ve seen teams everywhere – across industries, geographies, and job functions – struggle with fractured communication. We’re overwhelmed by the tools available to us but still under-informed.
According to our report, 54.7 per cent of Australian workers say they’re regularly blocked waiting on information from other teams, while 53.7 per cent say they often feel like they’re reinventing the wheel because they can’t see what others have already done.
With more than 12,000 employees across 14 countries and 3,000 cities, Atlassian shifted to a distributed work model in 2020. That required us to break down all of our ways of working and completely reimagine them.
It started by designing our processes around asynchronous work, meaning work happens in its own time. We used the video messaging tool Loom to replace most meetings – which we positioned as a last resort, rather than a default – with sharable video updates. That shift alone helped us eliminate close to half a million hours of meetings.
It has personally saved me countless hours of meeting time and freed up more time to focus on the work that matters.
My executive team and I now use Loom to share updates and cascade information to our teams, including a weekly recap of key projects, the customers we’ve spoken with, and any learnings from our work. This gives our teams the information they need, when they need it, while maintaining transparency and a human face with the communication.
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AI helps take things to the next level
We know that Artificial Intelligence offers game changing benefits to businesses of all sizes, but the reality is that success is dependent on the data it has access to.
Asynchronous collaboration helps solve this problem because it creates clear, accessible documentation, providing exactly the kind of structured information modern AI tools need to perform effectively.
Many organisations struggle with AI not because the technology is lacking but because their workflows aren’t set up to use it effectively.
Our data shows almost three-quarters of Australians say they could be doing more with AI to manage and discover information. They’re right – but building a truly AI-ready workforce starts by encouraging people to experiment and share, not by throwing tools at problems.
One of my favourite examples at Atlassian is NORA, our “Newlassian Onboarding Rovo Agent.” Created by our people team, NORA is an AI assistant that answers common questions from new hires and directs them to the right resources.
It didn’t even require engineers or developers. Our People team built it almost overnight using existing onboarding documentation, and in its first run, NORA supported around 800 useful conversations with new starters.
But tools like this only work when teams have a foundation of accessible, well-documented information, and when everyone is willing to experiment and contribute. Without that, even the smartest tech will fall flat.
The future of work isn’t a place. It’s a practice
The debate over return-to-office policies is often missing the point. If teams are duplicating efforts, constantly blocked, or unclear on goals, those issues will follow them wherever they work.
Instead, we need to focus on creating work environments—digital, physical, or hybrid—that are truly built for progress. That means fewer live meetings, more flexibility for staff to work in a way that suits them, and ensuring processes are documented, interactive, and highly trackable.
That improves productivity by creating trusted workplaces where people feel engaged and are set up to succeed. At Atlassian, 92 per cent of our employees say they’re doing the best work of their lives.
So, let’s stop asking if the office is vital to productivity. The real question is: How are we helping our people work better together, no matter where they are?
That, to me, is the future of work. A world where work finally works for everyone.
Avani Prabhakar is the Chief People Officer at Atlassian
