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Remote working kills team work IMO. I would never want to work fully remotely, and I can't collaborate as well with fully remote teammate. How do you get a whit

by Joky 9y ago

Remote working kills team work IMO. I would never want to work fully remotely, and I can't collaborate as well with fully remote teammate. How do you get a whiteboard brainstorming sessions? 2 days remote / week is a good balance that fits me quite well. Now if you don't work on hard-to-solve problem, or projects that don't require high collaboration, why not. Edit: I should add that I've been working fully remote (500km away of the office) for almost 3 years, and then with a team split on two different continents for one year. I so much enjoy being in the office since then, even just for having lunch and coffee with anyone, and being able to stop by anyone's desk/office to unblock an issue.

8draco8 9y ago
Here is great article why brainstorming is a waste of time https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-group-brainstorming-is-a-waste-of-time https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-group-brainstorming-is-a-waste-o...
- ghaff 9y ago
  I took the parent to use "brainstorming" in the sense of get everyone together in a room to solve some problem, consider design alternatives, etc. The article you linked to is about a very specific style of brainstorming that was once very popular. (Basically throw out a bunch of ideas with no filter/criticism.) It's that type of brainstorming that research has largely discredited. I don't think anyone seriously suggests that people working together on a problem in a room never works.
  - scott_s 9y ago
    Agreed that the HBR article attacks a strawman - or, at least, a style of "brainstorming" I have never participated in. To me, "brainstorming" is a small number of people (often just two!) sitting together and thinking through a problem. Personally, this has helped me much more than if I had just continued spinning on the problem myself.
    - ghaff 9y ago
      >Agreed that the HBR article attacks a strawman - or, at least, a style of "brainstorming" I have never participated in. I have. It has (mercifully) largely fallen out of fashion but it was a very popular "ideating" approach at one time.
andrewvc 9y ago
Well, I work full remotely at a good size company (Elastic) and it works great for us.Our entire company is fully remote. The secret is that you need to be fully committed to remote. If you do this you force yourself to actually find workflows that work remotely. If you just work two days a week remote you wind up isolated for two days and don't collaborate during that time. A lot of companies that fail at remote work also fail because they have a mix of office and remote workers. This only works if you force every conversation to happen online. Otherwise you have the inner circle in the office and the outer circle that is remote. The point is that a lot of remote work failures are simply companies that had remote workers but didn't have a workflow that was amenable to remote work.
andrewvc 9y ago
Well, I work full remotely at a good size company (Elastic) and it works great for us.Our entire company is fully remote. The secret is that you need to be fully committed to remote. If you do this you force yourself to actually find workflows that work remotely. If you just work two days a week remote you wind up isolated for two days and don't collaborate during that time. A lot of companies that fail at remote work also fail because they have a mix of office and remote workers. This only works if you force every conversation to happen online. Otherwise you have the inner circle in the office and the outer circle that is remote. The point is that a lot of remote work failures are simply companies that had remote workers but didn't have a workflow that was amenable to remote work.
nobleach 9y ago
I also find that 2 days is a pretty good balance. I'm a very social person so more than that can start me down the path to depression. What I'm arguing for is the _option_ to work from home when I want/need. As far as how we brain storm, my team's developers are mostly introverts. So all this "synergy" that managers believe will happen, never really does. We do mob code from time to time, and I love the interaction. We're quite adept at communicating via Slack/Email/appear.in. Those tools have been sufficient in fostering our brainstorming.
CrossWired 9y ago
I work remotely as DBA, the company doesn't even have an office in my State, i've met my boss face-to-face one time last year when they flew me out for a meeting. We have folks in a few Asian countries, as well as all over Europe and the US, and it works great. I can have a call at 5am with the guys in London and Asia some days, and adjust my schedule as needed. It just works, but then again, I'm not creative, nor coding, or really collaboratively building anything that needs to brainstorm or deeply integrate with others, I'm architecting and operating.
mstade 9y ago
Clearly mileage varies. I've been more or less fully remote for a top tier financial institution about the last two years. (I show up every few months to meet up for some face time, sure we make time for some meetings and the likes but it's mostly a chance to socialise in real life.) I can't imagine going back to an office. I'm generally much happier, I feel like I'm more focused and I feel a stronger commitment to my work. My brother once told me that most people keep their jobs simply because they show up. I didn't much believe him but having working in this business for more than a decade now I tend to agree. Maybe it's not most people, but a significant number anyway. That's not trying to be mean spirited or anything – I totally understand those who choose to wear the minimum required amount of flair. They care just enough not to get fired, maybe a little bit more but not much, and that's ok. For me, I'm not going to lie, I've had those days where I've felt that I've done enough just by showing up. It's not been most days, but I've sure had them. But now that I'm remote I never have those days. I like showing up, because the balance in my life is so much better – I think it's because now it's mostly on my terms. Sure, I more or less have to, or at least try to make sure there's as much time overlap as possible with my co-workers, but where I work or how I work is up to me. It wasn't always enjoyable though. Initially it was a real struggle because most people were in the office, and I'd get left out because they'd do face-to-face meetings or discuss things offline and I'd get a pretty crappy tl;dr out of it. But this is something I pointed out early on, and coupled with a growing need in the business for people to work remotely we just kind of figured it out. They're getting rid of office space because it's expensive, and rather than making people redundant that they would probably have to re-hire anyway they just have people work from home either fully or most days, and employ a desk sharing solution. I think we're up to something like 3 or 4 people per desk now. Now everything happens in emails, chat, github, etc. It's all online, it has to be or it just doesn't work. Anyway, this is turning into a rant, so I'll stop. I just came to say I can't imagine having to work in an office again. I don't mind it from time to time, it can be nice, but I'd like it to be my choice rather than something I have to do. Again, mileage clearly varies.
scarface74 9y ago
I worked at a satellite office with my whole team working 29@ miles away. I became close to my original team and we worked together well. On the other hand, trying to gain any influence over the larger organization was almost impossible, especially after the manager who hired me left.

by Joky 9y ago

8draco8 9y ago

Here is great article why brainstorming is a waste of time https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-group-brainstorming-is-a-waste-of-time https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-group-brainstorming-is-a-waste-o...

ghaff 9y ago
I took the parent to use "brainstorming" in the sense of get everyone together in a room to solve some problem, consider design alternatives, etc. The article you linked to is about a very specific style of brainstorming that was once very popular. (Basically throw out a bunch of ideas with no filter/criticism.) It's that type of brainstorming that research has largely discredited. I don't think anyone seriously suggests that people working together on a problem in a room never works.
- scott_s 9y ago
  Agreed that the HBR article attacks a strawman - or, at least, a style of "brainstorming" I have never participated in. To me, "brainstorming" is a small number of people (often just two!) sitting together and thinking through a problem. Personally, this has helped me much more than if I had just continued spinning on the problem myself.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    >Agreed that the HBR article attacks a strawman - or, at least, a style of "brainstorming" I have never participated in. I have. It has (mercifully) largely fallen out of fashion but it was a very popular "ideating" approach at one time.

andrewvc 9y ago

Well, I work full remotely at a good size company (Elastic) and it works great for us.Our entire company is fully remote. The secret is that you need to be fully committed to remote. If you do this you force yourself to actually find workflows that work remotely. If you just work two days a week remote you wind up isolated for two days and don't collaborate during that time. A lot of companies that fail at remote work also fail because they have a mix of office and remote workers. This only works if you force every conversation to happen online. Otherwise you have the inner circle in the office and the outer circle that is remote. The point is that a lot of remote work failures are simply companies that had remote workers but didn't have a workflow that was amenable to remote work.

andrewvc 9y ago

nobleach 9y ago

I also find that 2 days is a pretty good balance. I'm a very social person so more than that can start me down the path to depression. What I'm arguing for is the _option_ to work from home when I want/need. As far as how we brain storm, my team's developers are mostly introverts. So all this "synergy" that managers believe will happen, never really does. We do mob code from time to time, and I love the interaction. We're quite adept at communicating via Slack/Email/appear.in. Those tools have been sufficient in fostering our brainstorming.

CrossWired 9y ago

I work remotely as DBA, the company doesn't even have an office in my State, i've met my boss face-to-face one time last year when they flew me out for a meeting. We have folks in a few Asian countries, as well as all over Europe and the US, and it works great. I can have a call at 5am with the guys in London and Asia some days, and adjust my schedule as needed. It just works, but then again, I'm not creative, nor coding, or really collaboratively building anything that needs to brainstorm or deeply integrate with others, I'm architecting and operating.

mstade 9y ago

Clearly mileage varies. I've been more or less fully remote for a top tier financial institution about the last two years. (I show up every few months to meet up for some face time, sure we make time for some meetings and the likes but it's mostly a chance to socialise in real life.) I can't imagine going back to an office. I'm generally much happier, I feel like I'm more focused and I feel a stronger commitment to my work. My brother once told me that most people keep their jobs simply because they show up. I didn't much believe him but having working in this business for more than a decade now I tend to agree. Maybe it's not most people, but a significant number anyway. That's not trying to be mean spirited or anything – I totally understand those who choose to wear the minimum required amount of flair. They care just enough not to get fired, maybe a little bit more but not much, and that's ok. For me, I'm not going to lie, I've had those days where I've felt that I've done enough just by showing up. It's not been most days, but I've sure had them. But now that I'm remote I never have those days. I like showing up, because the balance in my life is so much better – I think it's because now it's mostly on my terms. Sure, I more or less have to, or at least try to make sure there's as much time overlap as possible with my co-workers, but where I work or how I work is up to me. It wasn't always enjoyable though. Initially it was a real struggle because most people were in the office, and I'd get left out because they'd do face-to-face meetings or discuss things offline and I'd get a pretty crappy tl;dr out of it. But this is something I pointed out early on, and coupled with a growing need in the business for people to work remotely we just kind of figured it out. They're getting rid of office space because it's expensive, and rather than making people redundant that they would probably have to re-hire anyway they just have people work from home either fully or most days, and employ a desk sharing solution. I think we're up to something like 3 or 4 people per desk now. Now everything happens in emails, chat, github, etc. It's all online, it has to be or it just doesn't work. Anyway, this is turning into a rant, so I'll stop. I just came to say I can't imagine having to work in an office again. I don't mind it from time to time, it can be nice, but I'd like it to be my choice rather than something I have to do. Again, mileage clearly varies.

scarface74 9y ago

I worked at a satellite office with my whole team working 29@ miles away. I became close to my original team and we worked together well. On the other hand, trying to gain any influence over the larger organization was almost impossible, especially after the manager who hired me left.