Managing people is something much more easily done face to face. So is interfacing with senior management and execs. On an entirely distributed team where uppe

Managing people is something much more easily done face to face. So is interfacing with senior management and execs. On an entirely distributed team where upper management also works remotely, then yes it makes sense to have managers who are remote. But if there's an office where either management or a large chunk of the team are present most days, a non-remote manager will have a MUCH easier time being effective. I would guess that this decision was 95% about physical presence and 5% about factors like seniority and domain expertise. Physical presence has been a non-negotiable factor in hiring or promoting managers everywhere I've worked that had a part-remote engineering team. And based on my experience managing people both remotely and in person, being face to face makes a huge difference. Even the simple fact that it's impossible to make eye contact over video conference impacts rapport and understanding. And being remote when decisions are being made at the office means you're going to have a much harder time staying in the loop about business priorities - and a big part of a managers job is to communicate those to their team. And all of that is important both to the people who report to you and the people you report to. Decide what track you want to take with your career. If management is a part of it, either look for a job on a 100%-distributed team or plan to start spending your days at the office.