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We had a colocated team in Cebu, Philippines. Turns out, not too many Go devs in Cebu, so went remote. Now UTC+1 to UTC+8. Bigger challenges: - the utter unfai
by muratk 7y ago
We had a colocated team in Cebu, Philippines. Turns out, not too many Go devs in Cebu, so went remote. Now UTC+1 to UTC+8. Bigger challenges:
- the utter unfairness that some people are really effective (possibly because experienced) remotely and can just do it while others are not. The latter we gradually “released” into remote work, with a lot of feedback.
- Biggest skill to be learnt, of course: communication. so much patching up is possible by just noticing someone is in a bad mood, or switching to a live discussion. Doesn't work with remote.
- hard to support juniors: they need to learn both work skills and communication—and often even don't realize it.
- learning to take responsibility. You're Internet at home doesn't work today? Too bad—I'm not fixing it for you. You're remote, you figure it out.
- currently: the realization that most things are _not_ urgent. Going more and more async.
edit: late-night formatting
- jcagalawan 7y agoHave contact info? Exploring opportunities in Cebu.
- muratk 7y agoWell, we're a remote team. ;) Incidentally, I'm still in Cebu, but it wouldn't matter where you are.
- jcagalawan 7y agoI’m just a Cebuano finding excuses to visit home bai :). How’s the tech scene over there?
- muratk 7y agoNot too sure. You'll likely find stuff for PHP, but a bunch of meetups have gone dormant AFAIK. High paying jobs here are scarce if they exist at all, probably same as when you left.
- celticmusic 7y agoYour last two points contradict each other. If it's not urgent, they can be gone for a few hours or days. If it's a consistent problem, that's a different discussion.
- muratk 7y agoAh, my point with the internet example wasn't the missing internet itself. In an office, someone will fix it if the internet is down. That's why you have an office: to outsource infra to people so you can focus on your own job: writing, coding, whatever it is. If you're remote, your internet being down is _your_ problem and you're expected to figure it out. You have more responsibility—and that was an unexpected part of working remotely for some people.
- celticmusic 7y agoHaving done a lot of remote work myself, when the internet goes down I text the relevant people and then I'm done until it's back up. There is no responsibility there. If the company REALLY wants that to be my responsibility, they can pay for me to run a 2nd ISP line, or any other myriad potential solutions. Even in-office, most places don't run backup ISP connections, the internet goes it, it goes out.