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Working in the same place, in my anecdotal experience, leads to better communication. A couple orders of magnitude better. Face-to-face communication provides

Working in the same place, in my anecdotal experience, leads to better communication. A couple orders of magnitude better. Face-to-face communication provides much higher "bandwidth" than text-based.

bdamm 8y ago
This is really it. Personally I don't think VC's care, and I don't think most managers really care either. If they could have such a high quality experience remotely, they'd be happy to hire remote talent. This takes dedication, self motivation and creativity on both the manager and the employee. In person is much easier. There are shared experiences we can have. We can randomly bump into each other and have small reminder-type experiences. It's easier to get a sense of what kind of person we're working with, and that becomes an elevated sense of trust. This all matters and it's difficult to do remotely. I've done both. I prefer onsite. Currently I'm remote and honestly it's a struggle, and regular onsite visits are a must to maintain those trust bonds.
JTon 8y ago
Well said. I haven't found a better way to transfer complex ideas than huddling around a whiteboard with a small group. A good slide deck will work too, but it takes time/effort to compile, and doesn't allow seamless Q&A.
diminoten 8y ago
I've been working remotely for 2.5 years now, and it takes a lot of effort, both from me and from my boss, to keep this going, and even with all that effort I've struggled with interpersonal/communication issues. Not everyone is willing to invest in that effort. It would almost certainly be better if I were sitting in a chair at my office, but since I can't, remote work is the next best thing, and as long as both my boss and I are willing to work pretty damn hard to keep it going, it'll keep working. But I can totally see how some teams would not want to go through the extra effort. I like to think I'm worth it, but my team got to figure that out while I worked on-site for some time before leaving (a year). It's hard to roll the dice on someone you don't know (a new hire).

Working in the same place, in my anecdotal experience, leads to better communication. A couple orders of magnitude better. Face-to-face communication provides much higher "bandwidth" than text-based.

bdamm 8y ago

This is really it. Personally I don't think VC's care, and I don't think most managers really care either. If they could have such a high quality experience remotely, they'd be happy to hire remote talent. This takes dedication, self motivation and creativity on both the manager and the employee. In person is much easier. There are shared experiences we can have. We can randomly bump into each other and have small reminder-type experiences. It's easier to get a sense of what kind of person we're working with, and that becomes an elevated sense of trust. This all matters and it's difficult to do remotely. I've done both. I prefer onsite. Currently I'm remote and honestly it's a struggle, and regular onsite visits are a must to maintain those trust bonds.

JTon 8y ago

Well said. I haven't found a better way to transfer complex ideas than huddling around a whiteboard with a small group. A good slide deck will work too, but it takes time/effort to compile, and doesn't allow seamless Q&A.

diminoten 8y ago

I've been working remotely for 2.5 years now, and it takes a lot of effort, both from me and from my boss, to keep this going, and even with all that effort I've struggled with interpersonal/communication issues. Not everyone is willing to invest in that effort. It would almost certainly be better if I were sitting in a chair at my office, but since I can't, remote work is the next best thing, and as long as both my boss and I are willing to work pretty damn hard to keep it going, it'll keep working. But I can totally see how some teams would not want to go through the extra effort. I like to think I'm worth it, but my team got to figure that out while I worked on-site for some time before leaving (a year). It's hard to roll the dice on someone you don't know (a new hire).