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The Bay Area has a pretty bad remote work culture. The vast majority of companies prefer if you’re physically here. Sure you can work from home or work remote w
by juandg 9y ago
The Bay Area has a pretty bad remote work culture. The vast majority of companies prefer if you’re physically here. Sure you can work from home or work remote while traveling for a few weeks, but for some insane reason most companies insist on your home base being here in the Bay Area. I’m sure there are notable exceptions and some people will disagree with me, but after 5 years here I’ve experienced first hand the aversion to remote work suffered by most Bay Area companies.
- borski 9y agoOh come on, you must know it's not just "some insane reason." A culture of remote work takes a lot of discipline, as it's so easy to have an in-person conversation, make a seemingly small decision at the time, and immediately the remote workers feel out of the loop. Remote work is actually /hard/ to support, and a company has to make it a priority to do it well and be disciplined about writing down all communication. Otherwise, they're setting up their remote employees for failure, which nobody wants. Also, there are things a remote worker just can't do; stand at a whiteboard and evaluate paths forward, for example. If a company values that sort of collaboration above anything else, it is certainly not "insane" to want people in the office.
- gozur88 9y agoI work on a big company with offices all over the US. My team is spread out over five different offices (which is pretty impressive given there are only seven of us). There's not much difference between being the only one on your team at your location and working from home. While it's true you have to have software and processes in place to communicate, it is doable.
- borski 9y agoI didn't say it was impossible. Plenty of companies do it successfully. All I said was it isn't /insane/ to not want to do it.
- sidlls 9y agoYour last point is one I'd take a step further. The kind of collaboration you describe is necessary for non trivial products. So for them, at least for the people working on the harder problems, 100% remote just isn't feasible.
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoNon-trivial projects aren't very common even in the bay area. Edit: I just got out of a meeting with someone in eastern Europe. An extra $20 for a camera pointed at the whiteboard solves the collaboration problem 90% of the way.
- sidlls 9y agoI certainly agree with that. The Bay Area takes itself too seriously in this respect.
- x220 9y agoYou can do whiteboard collaboration with a web app and voice chat.
- maxxxxx 9y agoNot really. A big whiteboard is still much better. It's surprising to me that this hasn't been solved a long time ago.
- Eugr 9y agoOne can buy a MS Surface or iPad Pro (or Wacom tablet for PC/laptop) and share a virtual whiteboard via webex/gotomeeting/etc. Remote work can be incredibly efficient. It is easier for new companies/teams to start as remote vs. switching existing team to support remote work, but it can be done.
- artursapek 9y ago> Also, there are things a remote worker just can't do; stand at a whiteboard and evaluate paths forward, for example. If a company values that sort of collaboration above anything else, it is certainly not "insane" to want people in the office. In my experience, meetings like this are more often than not a huge waste of time. Since I started working remotely I am less distracted and more productive, and have no trouble collaborating with other devs.
- maxxxxx 9y agoI agree. I contracted with a pure remote company for a while and we had less scheduled meetings but actually collaborated more. The one thing the remote company didn't have was the project management types who call meetings all the time like in my current job.
- borski 9y agoGreat, if all you're given is a set of requirements. If you're trying to figure out what a product should do, look like, or build a larger system, a whiteboard is invaluable. Most of those meetings aren't scheduled, either.
- pcsanwald 9y agoI'll make an observation that no one else has in this thread: Effectively managing an organization that is at least partially remote is more difficult, and my experience in the Bay Area is that management skill is often overlooked and underdeveloped, particularly in startups. I've seen several companies with very very competent technical founders, very capable engineering team, and not one person in the company that can manage their way out of a brown paper bag. The only way for that kind of structure to work is having everyone in the same room.