The Year Without Pants
by Scott Berkun · Scott Berkun
Scott Berkun's account of a year leading a team at Automattic, the fully distributed company behind WordPress.com. A first-hand look at how remote work, minimal hierarchy, and continuous shipping played out in practice.
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More resources on Remote Team Management
Remote: Office Not Required
Fried and Hansson argue the case for distributed work from Basecamp's own practice, addressing objections about trust, collaboration, and culture. Short chapters give managers concrete habits for hiring, communicating, and measuring output rather than hours.
hbr.org
Harvard Business Review (hbr.org) offers research-based articles, case studies, and practical guidance on leadership, strategy, and organizational performance for managers and executives.
Atlassian Team Playbook
Atlassian's free library of Plays, self-guided workshop templates for teams, including remote-specific ones on working agreements, health monitors, and async rituals. Each play gives a step-by-step facilitation script you can run with your own distributed team.
Buffer's Remote Work Resources
Buffer's index of articles and its annual State of Remote Work survey, drawn from running a fully distributed company since 2015. Covers async communication, tooling, routines, and remote loneliness, with data on what distributed workers actually struggle with.
Basecamp Remote Work Guide
Basecamp's page for REMOTE: Office Not Required, the Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson book arguing against the office. Sets out their case for hiring anywhere, managing by output, and the failure modes distributed companies hit.
The Collaboration Superpowers Podcast
Long-running interview podcast hosted by Lisette Sutherland with managers, facilitators and companies that run distributed teams. Episodes cover remote and hybrid team agreements, virtual meetings, communication tools and trust-building, giving listeners practical approaches for leading and working in teams spread across locations.