4 ms·

I've made a career out of remote work (10+ years working remotely), and I have to say this is a pretty poor article. No, remote work is not for everyone, you n

by doozy 10y ago

I've made a career out of remote work (10+ years working remotely), and I have to say this is a pretty poor article. No, remote work is not for everyone, you need to know what you are doing at both ends or it'll not match your expectations. No, it does not (necessarily) bring the best global talent, specially not if your motivation for remote is bringing down costs. And no, you don't need to use any of the tools listed. Remote work has been done, and well, with nothing more than a VCS and email (both conspicuously absent from her list) for decades. Add to it any kind of real-time communication client and you're in business. It seems to me "remote" or "remote first" have become buzzwords, yet another way for companies to appear fashionable. Witness the numerous companies that advertise non-existent remote positions, or that "will consider remote for the right person" (i.e. for no one). Remote is not the latest fad, it's something we've been doing in this industry for at least two decades. Your company is not young and hip for doing it.

dasil003 10y ago
There's another thing too: being productive remotely takes a different kind of discipline. If you are a seasoned contractor or freelancer, then maybe you've already developed said discipline, but it's far from universal. I agree that companies need to trust their employees, but in turn employees need to also be honest with themselves and acknowledge if they are not wired for remote work. I've done all mixes of full-time in office, full-time in satellite office, part-time remote, full-time remote, full-time remote from up to 8 hours time zone difference for my previous company, and I have to say that even within the same company and the same employee there is a wide difference in the result of remote work. Being in the central office gave me more energy and motivation around the mission and camraderie with the team. Being remote allows more focused time and greater single-contributor output, but close collaboration is not as good (Screenhero is ultimately not the same as sitting next to someone no matter how much we wish it were).
- ben_jones 10y ago
  When I first started working remotely I was not honest with myself in regards to my discipline or motivational capacity. I feel like both I and the company I work for are worse off for it. It's been a long lesson that I'm still learning and I feel that my demographic (early 20s still living in college town with college friends) are particularly susceptible to its pitfalls.
moises_silva 10y ago
Although I agree remote work is nothing new, what is new is the increasing amount of people that can do it, and that's a good thing. It is true that in SV (and elsewhere) lots of companies do not allow remote, and that's what I think the article is trying to address, and I can only agree. Precisely because remote work has been going on in some places for a while, it is sad that SV does not seem all that open to adopting it. We need more articles like this IMO to push for it. > No, remote work is not for everyone, you need to know what you are doing at both ends or it'll not match your expectations The article is clearly indicating what they mean is that it is not just for software engineers. There's no need to take the "for everyone" literally twisting their meaning. > No, it does not (necessarily) bring the best global talent, specially not if your motivation for remote is bringing down costs At least you added "necessarily" this time, but again, you're taking things literally rather than in context. The article clearly indicates this means that by allowing remote workers you open yourself to a much larger pool of talent. In my experience this is quite true and one of the fundamental reasons I've managed to convince my managers of of allowing me to hire remote people in very disparate time zones/regions. We're in Canada, and have hired engineers in Philippines, South America and Africa (even at Canadian market rates, so is not a cost cutting measure). For someone considering allowing remote work, this is an important point to make and the article articulates it well. I think it's implied you can't guarantee just with one measure to get the top talent, all they are saying is that you increase your odds significantly by allowing remote workers. > And no, you don't need to use any of the tools listed. Remote work has been done, and well, with nothing more than a VCS and email (both conspicuously absent from her list) for decades. Add to it any kind of real-time communication client and you're in business. Same thing again. You take a suggestion like if it were a must. Nothing in the article is a must, but sure helps a lot to onboard more people in remote work to have different tools and create a culture where using those tools is part of the work flow so people that is remote is not left out, and that's a good thing IMO.
drvdevd 10y ago
I agree. And I work remotely now. It seems the #1 requirement for remote work to work is ... mutual understanding. Otherwise you end up with communication gaps. The case for VCS is interesting to me because I believe we could replace a number of complex tools in the stack with proper use and style on top of that. Literally, we could do 90% of it all with just a VCS and people paying attention to it. You know: commit early, commit often, read commit messages, understand the code, run the tests. And so on and so forth...
- sitkack 10y ago
  Do either you @doozy know of a shared/multiparty merge tool? One thing I like to do is merge into a new clean branch rather than rebase, then merge that into trunk with zero changes.
- liveoneggs 10y ago
  fossil + gmail (with gchat and hangouts) and you've got a full stack :)
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flinty 10y ago
The author isn't in an engineering role. The tools listed in the article seem more centered around collaboration between a project/product manager and engineers versus between an engineering team. Hence no mention of git/source control
bogomipz 10y ago
She used "everyone" in the context of all titles not just software developers. I believe a DCVS and email are implicit and why they are maybe not on her list. She never claimed it was an exhaustive list. Also Slack is a real time communication client and its on her list. No remote and remote first haven't become buzzwords they have become viable consideration for companies to fill roles that they aren't able fill using a local-only talent pool. This is why you are hearing more about it. Sure there have been people that have telecommuted since dial modems that doesn't mean it was common or widely embraced or that there multiple opportunities. You yourself have bee doing it for 10 years and obviously believe in its viability so why are so upset that another company is embracing it? Why does someone writing a post about their companies culture constitute a fad?

by doozy 10y ago

dasil003 10y ago

There's another thing too: being productive remotely takes a different kind of discipline. If you are a seasoned contractor or freelancer, then maybe you've already developed said discipline, but it's far from universal. I agree that companies need to trust their employees, but in turn employees need to also be honest with themselves and acknowledge if they are not wired for remote work. I've done all mixes of full-time in office, full-time in satellite office, part-time remote, full-time remote, full-time remote from up to 8 hours time zone difference for my previous company, and I have to say that even within the same company and the same employee there is a wide difference in the result of remote work. Being in the central office gave me more energy and motivation around the mission and camraderie with the team. Being remote allows more focused time and greater single-contributor output, but close collaboration is not as good (Screenhero is ultimately not the same as sitting next to someone no matter how much we wish it were).

ben_jones 10y ago
When I first started working remotely I was not honest with myself in regards to my discipline or motivational capacity. I feel like both I and the company I work for are worse off for it. It's been a long lesson that I'm still learning and I feel that my demographic (early 20s still living in college town with college friends) are particularly susceptible to its pitfalls.

moises_silva 10y ago

Although I agree remote work is nothing new, what is new is the increasing amount of people that can do it, and that's a good thing. It is true that in SV (and elsewhere) lots of companies do not allow remote, and that's what I think the article is trying to address, and I can only agree. Precisely because remote work has been going on in some places for a while, it is sad that SV does not seem all that open to adopting it. We need more articles like this IMO to push for it. > No, remote work is not for everyone, you need to know what you are doing at both ends or it'll not match your expectations The article is clearly indicating what they mean is that it is not just for software engineers. There's no need to take the "for everyone" literally twisting their meaning. > No, it does not (necessarily) bring the best global talent, specially not if your motivation for remote is bringing down costs At least you added "necessarily" this time, but again, you're taking things literally rather than in context. The article clearly indicates this means that by allowing remote workers you open yourself to a much larger pool of talent. In my experience this is quite true and one of the fundamental reasons I've managed to convince my managers of of allowing me to hire remote people in very disparate time zones/regions. We're in Canada, and have hired engineers in Philippines, South America and Africa (even at Canadian market rates, so is not a cost cutting measure). For someone considering allowing remote work, this is an important point to make and the article articulates it well. I think it's implied you can't guarantee just with one measure to get the top talent, all they are saying is that you increase your odds significantly by allowing remote workers. > And no, you don't need to use any of the tools listed. Remote work has been done, and well, with nothing more than a VCS and email (both conspicuously absent from her list) for decades. Add to it any kind of real-time communication client and you're in business. Same thing again. You take a suggestion like if it were a must. Nothing in the article is a must, but sure helps a lot to onboard more people in remote work to have different tools and create a culture where using those tools is part of the work flow so people that is remote is not left out, and that's a good thing IMO.

drvdevd 10y ago

I agree. And I work remotely now. It seems the #1 requirement for remote work to work is ... mutual understanding. Otherwise you end up with communication gaps. The case for VCS is interesting to me because I believe we could replace a number of complex tools in the stack with proper use and style on top of that. Literally, we could do 90% of it all with just a VCS and people paying attention to it. You know: commit early, commit often, read commit messages, understand the code, run the tests. And so on and so forth...

sitkack 10y ago
Do either you @doozy know of a shared/multiparty merge tool? One thing I like to do is merge into a new clean branch rather than rebase, then merge that into trunk with zero changes.
liveoneggs 10y ago
fossil + gmail (with gchat and hangouts) and you've got a full stack :)

deleted 10y ago

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deleted 10y ago

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flinty 10y ago

The author isn't in an engineering role. The tools listed in the article seem more centered around collaboration between a project/product manager and engineers versus between an engineering team. Hence no mention of git/source control

bogomipz 10y ago

She used "everyone" in the context of all titles not just software developers. I believe a DCVS and email are implicit and why they are maybe not on her list. She never claimed it was an exhaustive list. Also Slack is a real time communication client and its on her list. No remote and remote first haven't become buzzwords they have become viable consideration for companies to fill roles that they aren't able fill using a local-only talent pool. This is why you are hearing more about it. Sure there have been people that have telecommuted since dial modems that doesn't mean it was common or widely embraced or that there multiple opportunities. You yourself have bee doing it for 10 years and obviously believe in its viability so why are so upset that another company is embracing it? Why does someone writing a post about their companies culture constitute a fad?