Going remote-first was one decision. Deciding what to do with in-person time was a different, harder one — and most companies made it up as they went. The ones at Running Remote 2026 who are getting it right have learned something important: gathering strategy is not the People team's responsibility to define. It is a leadership capability.
This panel brought together Gabrielle Caron, VP of Talent, Culture and Growth at 1Password, and Lucas Montgomery-Davis, Global Lead of Distributed Workplace Experience at Block, for a practical and honest conversation about what intentional in-person work looks like at scale — and what happens when you get it wrong.
Two companies, two very different journeys
1Password has been fully remote since inception, more than 20 years ago. In 2023, they opened their first physical space in Toronto — deliberately called a collaboration space, not an office — with a second location planned for Austin. The driver was employee engagement and a signal from the board: most of the high-performing companies they observe are in-person. That pressure, combined with genuine employee feedback, led to a careful, incremental approach to physical space.
Block took a different path, consolidating from 30 offices globally to a focused portfolio following a 40% reduction in headcount. Today they run a remote-first culture with highly intentional team onsites, and have redesigned their real estate strategy around that purpose. Last year they hosted over 1,000 team onsites and 1,000 employee experience events.
Measuring whether gatherings actually work
Block observed a consistent 2-3 month productivity spike following team onsites. Acting on that data, they increased onsite cadence from 3-4 times per year to 5-7 times, aiming to maintain more consistent performance levels rather than experiencing sharp peaks and valleys.
1Password measures success through collaboration indicators: cross-department peer nominations in Culture Amp performance reviews, and recognition patterns in Bonusly that show collaboration maps across teams. Neither company tracks badge swipes or square footage utilisation as primary metrics. Measuring the wrong things is one of the clearest signs of hybrid creep.
What hybrid creep actually looks like
Gabrielle Caron's definition of hybrid creep was the most useful framing in the session: doing neither remote nor in-person well. When gatherings have unclear purpose, when people don't know why they are there, when support for the event doesn't match the ambition of the invitation — that is hybrid creep. It is not about how often you gather. It is about whether each gathering has a clear strategic intent that came from a leader, not a workplace team.
Block found hybrid creep emerging organically when a sales team of 12 people started appearing in an office daily without leadership knowledge, developing their own informal in-person culture that contradicted the company's remote-first operating model. Their response: on-site roles that require consistent presence are hired exclusively as contractors, maintaining clean separation.
The failures worth learning from
Both companies spoke openly about things that did not work. Block's Mingle Week programme was scrapped after two years. Despite increased office occupancy, feedback showed employees did not understand the purpose and worried it was a test for a return-to-office mandate. It was replaced with AI Tuesday — a weekly upskilling programme with clear, visible purpose. Attendance and impact are dramatically higher.
1Password's Chicago offsite was described as exhausting by attendees. They had built too much in, left too little space for actual connection, and had not adapted their remote-native operations to support in-person hires when they brought on their first co-located sales team. No one was there to welcome them. Their manager was absent. It was a reminder that in-person is a skill that remote-first companies have to consciously develop.
The 'why' must belong to the leader
The panel kept returning to this point: the purpose of any gathering has to come from the leader who requested it, not from the Finance, People, or Workplace Experience team. Leaders define what change they want to see, and the workplace team structures the event to bring that vision to life throughout the invitation, the welcome, and the activities.
Without that, you get events that feel obligatory, attendance that feels compulsory, and feedback that misses the point entirely.
Equity matters, and it requires work
Both companies have invested in programming for employees who do not live near offices. Block created Local Block Chapters — employee-led monthly meetups — alongside flexible co-working access and a lunch host programme for employees to expense meals with a colleague. They also shifted holiday gatherings from office-centric events to summer Block Parties across 50 markets, with employees outside those markets able to travel to their location of choice.
1Password holds information sessions before offsites to address concerns — border crossing hesitation, whether non-attendance affects performance reviews — and takes the question of inclusion seriously. As they invest more in in-person events, they acknowledge the inherent tension: remote work provides access to talent for people with childcare needs or disabilities, and heavy investment in in-person creates a dual-track experience that requires careful management.
The data over the ego principle
Both companies emphasised one final thing: real estate decisions made by senior leader preference have historically led to expensive mistakes. Block once expanded to 50 offices globally because of executive ego, not employee need. The companies doing this well now use heat maps, booking data, and engagement surveys to inform decisions. The questions worth asking are simpler than most executives realise: Is anyone using this? Does gathering here serve a genuine strategic purpose? Would employees come here even if we didn't ask them to?
