My experience so far (small team, one company, partly on-site and partly remote, n=1 and all that) has been that minor communication problems and misunderstandi

My experience so far (small team, one company, partly on-site and partly remote, n=1 and all that) has been that minor communication problems and misunderstandings have a greater tendency to fester and develop into friction between individuals. We all hate being interrupted by someone "dropping by" when we're cranking, but the ability to do that seems to help people get along more easily. There may also be more of a tendency to sort of... drift off, or lose interest, allowing personal life to creep into work hours. This seems to be exacerbated if management doesn't really know how to handle fully remote teams. The past chatter on HN seems to suggest that managing remote teams is a distinct skill from more traditional management. So far my preference is a nice office environment with a part-time remote option > full-time remote > crappy (unproductive or uncomfortable) office environment.