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I think you are underestimating how much has to change in company culture, communication and structure to make a remote office work efficiently and effectively.

I think you are underestimating how much has to change in company culture, communication and structure to make a remote office work efficiently and effectively. I am remote and we work hard to try to minimize the issues but there are always extra delays and miscommunications because of time zones or multiple communication channels etc. And there is something to still getting together to bond as a team, work through problems together and learn how each other work. I travel enough to make sure I work with the team, bond with them and so we all learn how each other function. This makes remote possible, but it is never a panacea of perfection. Don't misunderstand me, I am very much in favor of remote teams/people/work, but taking a company that is established and adding remote workers just doesn't work without a lot of process changes, additions, the right expectations and time. Starting a company as remote friendly is a lot easier if you follow well known patterns that work but even than there are challenges you wouldn't face otherwise. Even business structure/registrations etc have to be updated/changed, let's say you are small company in the U.S. state of Colorado and now you employ people in 5 other states. Your company will have to register in each of those states as a "foreign" employer and pay workers comp, taxes etc within those states. Yes, 3rd party payroll services help with a lot of the tax side, but there are so many more things that have to be monitored, registered etc. Now, say you do this cross international boundaries, it gets even more complex if you want to do things legally and have employees. Notice I said employees not contractors, that is a different situation.

bsvalley 8y ago
All the problems that you mentioned are actually easy to fix. Team bonding doesn’t exist anymore, it’s very old school. I spent many years working in tech for various companies, I see more angry colleagues than ever before. Majority of them, not all of them of course. Team bonding is usually an awkward social event with people you don’t really appreciate. Management usually set that up (not always). It’s great because it helps people getting away from their desks for a little while but a remote employee would rather spend that time away from a screen with family and friends. Working remotely or from home doesn’t necessarily mean that employees are located throughout the world. A company can still be located in only one city and its employees can work remotely within the same state (in the US for example). No commute time, flexible hours and less frictions. I agree though, some people really need a structured enviroment to function “properly”. But again, it’s a cultural thing someone came with one day and everyone followed. Cultures evolve with time.
- davismwfl 8y ago
  I agree the issues can be addressed, I disagree with your assertion they are easy to fix, not to mention the cost to address some of them is not free. And yea, I totally agree there are some people that just won't due well in a remote environment while many people can thrive given the right circumstances. It is interesting to me why more startups aren't remote friendly early on today as if you build that culture early it actually has a key benefit of forcing good process and communication skills on the entire company, versus relying on the office chatter which is common in startups. This is my primary reason for preferring remote from the start of any company I am apart of, it just forces good habits and lets you find awesome people anywhere.
  - bsvalley 8y ago
    I agree. I can only think of Automattic (wordpress), Github and InVision in terms of mid-size fully remote companies. They are more early stage startups that do that... It really sucks because the companies I mentioned are pretty successful and they have a very solid and strong culture.

bsvalley 8y ago

All the problems that you mentioned are actually easy to fix. Team bonding doesn’t exist anymore, it’s very old school. I spent many years working in tech for various companies, I see more angry colleagues than ever before. Majority of them, not all of them of course. Team bonding is usually an awkward social event with people you don’t really appreciate. Management usually set that up (not always). It’s great because it helps people getting away from their desks for a little while but a remote employee would rather spend that time away from a screen with family and friends. Working remotely or from home doesn’t necessarily mean that employees are located throughout the world. A company can still be located in only one city and its employees can work remotely within the same state (in the US for example). No commute time, flexible hours and less frictions. I agree though, some people really need a structured enviroment to function “properly”. But again, it’s a cultural thing someone came with one day and everyone followed. Cultures evolve with time.

davismwfl 8y ago
I agree the issues can be addressed, I disagree with your assertion they are easy to fix, not to mention the cost to address some of them is not free. And yea, I totally agree there are some people that just won't due well in a remote environment while many people can thrive given the right circumstances. It is interesting to me why more startups aren't remote friendly early on today as if you build that culture early it actually has a key benefit of forcing good process and communication skills on the entire company, versus relying on the office chatter which is common in startups. This is my primary reason for preferring remote from the start of any company I am apart of, it just forces good habits and lets you find awesome people anywhere.
- bsvalley 8y ago
  I agree. I can only think of Automattic (wordpress), Github and InVision in terms of mid-size fully remote companies. They are more early stage startups that do that... It really sucks because the companies I mentioned are pretty successful and they have a very solid and strong culture.