AJT is going fully remote in 2021

We decided back in June that we would close our beloved seaside office in Cornwall and transition to a fully virtual office. It’s a decision we took with a heavy heart: after all, we love working together in an office and collaborating on projects in a physical space. But there is a silver lining: we do also love the freedom that remote working affords us, allowing us to explore new places and experience new things.

The biggest factor in our decision to close our Newquay office was Brexit and the changes to the UK immigration law. This would have made it much more difficult for us to employ translators from the EU who are the backbone of our company. COVID was merely the catalyst that forced us to work from home, made us realise that it was okay and, with the right setup, it could even be amazing.

It’s impossible to predict what the mid- to long-term future might look like (global recession, destabilising political events, a third, fourth or tenth COVID wave…?) but taking the proactive step to close the office has helped us take charge of our own destiny and we feel more prepared for whatever the future might hold for us. Working fully remotely makes us more agile as a company and it enables us to continue to attract, and work with, talented people from all over Europe. In fact, we have already welcomed new members to Team AJT this year from England, Scotland, France, Austria and Germany.

Over the next few weeks and months, we will be looking at our tools and processes to make sure that our colleagues can work comfortably and efficiently from their home offices (more than half of them already do). You might see small changes like our office address changing to a PO Box address, and we’ll have to officially drop our seaside office bragging rights, but other than that, it will be business as usual for Team AJT. And speaking of the team, why not check out our team page  and meet the latest newcomers to our team?