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Specifically speaking for tech jobs, why are we still commuting? I honestly don't think why a distributed team can't just work. I have seen teams that are entir

Specifically speaking for tech jobs, why are we still commuting? I honestly don't think why a distributed team can't just work. I have seen teams that are entirely distributed, or with a few members remote that work great. The times I have seen it not work is when there are other things that smell, but remoteness of team members becomes an easy scapegoat to pin the blame. Also, I don't think working from home as a norm is radical. Why do we all have to swarm back and forth to some magical place? Making employees commute is an awfully expensive proposition for quality water-cooler time.

golergka 9y ago
Depends on amount of communication and informal "connectedness" of the team required for the task at hand. There are projects where tasks are clearly separable and all communication required can be done through a task tracker. There are also projects with a lot of active research, tasks constantly shifting, and cultural connection between employees critical (like game dev, with everyone on the team making creative decisions affecting the final product).
yummy 9y ago
Sometimes normal verbal communication is just faster. You will never wait 30min to get a simple answer. Want to debug something together? You just do it right away on your computer. And if the office is like 30 min away from home, there's no commuting problem. Yes, that's an hour a day, which is still potentially significant, but on the other hand you don't work at home. I hate working at home and I'm not alone.
solatic 9y ago
> I honestly don't [know] why a distributed team can't just work. So much of human communication is non-verbal. When you're building not just a product, but the team behind the product, getting people in the same room is often crucial for building empathy and trust. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't normalize remote work - most development tasks require uninterrupted concentration in front of a computer and there's no reason why somebody can't spend time at home or a co-working space or wherever else getting it done. But team members need to meet in-person on a regular basis in a non-formal setting to develop that team "jelling".
- l8again 9y ago
  Thank you for this. I couldn't have said it better. I think "jelling" is necessary, but doesn't have to happen all 5 days of the week.

golergka 9y ago

Depends on amount of communication and informal "connectedness" of the team required for the task at hand. There are projects where tasks are clearly separable and all communication required can be done through a task tracker. There are also projects with a lot of active research, tasks constantly shifting, and cultural connection between employees critical (like game dev, with everyone on the team making creative decisions affecting the final product).

yummy 9y ago

Sometimes normal verbal communication is just faster. You will never wait 30min to get a simple answer. Want to debug something together? You just do it right away on your computer. And if the office is like 30 min away from home, there's no commuting problem. Yes, that's an hour a day, which is still potentially significant, but on the other hand you don't work at home. I hate working at home and I'm not alone.

solatic 9y ago

> I honestly don't [know] why a distributed team can't just work. So much of human communication is non-verbal. When you're building not just a product, but the team behind the product, getting people in the same room is often crucial for building empathy and trust. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't normalize remote work - most development tasks require uninterrupted concentration in front of a computer and there's no reason why somebody can't spend time at home or a co-working space or wherever else getting it done. But team members need to meet in-person on a regular basis in a non-formal setting to develop that team "jelling".

l8again 9y ago
Thank you for this. I couldn't have said it better. I think "jelling" is necessary, but doesn't have to happen all 5 days of the week.