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The dehumanizing aspects of remote cuts both ways. For instance, it's more difficult for people who rely on exploiting human nature and politics to find cover

The dehumanizing aspects of remote cuts both ways. For instance, it's more difficult for people who rely on exploiting human nature and politics to find cover while working remotely. Do you know someone who is attractive and very easy to get along with but doesn't really contribute valuable work? This person is having a really hard time right now and will not ever advocate remote work. Although it will take effort for managers to maintain a human connection with subordinates, managers aren't necessarily empathizing less with remote. They may never have empathized to begin with. Tech outsourcing has existed in various forms for many decades. It is demoralizing. People will always compete with you for a job, and if the market for talent is unrestricted by geography, there is valid cause for concern.

LordFast 6y ago
Yep, there are always trade-offs. The current remote work paradigm is benefitting folks who are more senior, more capable of getting more done with more focused time at the expense of younger, single folks who have a lot more to gain from having close-knit relationships in person with other coworkers. The other side of the coin is as you mentioned: people who mainly rely on relationships and politics to get ahead without contributing concrete value are starting to feel the squeeze under this paradigm. As is the case with everything though, I expect that the pendulum will swing back at some point. Nothing lasts forever.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Yeah, if I'm being honest, I'm quite senior as an IC, I've been at my current company for a long time, I've been skewing increasingly remote for an even longer time, and a lot of what I do is individual with relatively limited syncs and collaborations. Some aspects (mostly I miss travel to events) are lousy right now but otherwise everyone individually on video conferences is pretty good--though most of the teams I work with are pretty distributed anyway. I think as a junior person more or less just out of school I'd find it pretty awful.

LordFast 6y ago

Yep, there are always trade-offs. The current remote work paradigm is benefitting folks who are more senior, more capable of getting more done with more focused time at the expense of younger, single folks who have a lot more to gain from having close-knit relationships in person with other coworkers. The other side of the coin is as you mentioned: people who mainly rely on relationships and politics to get ahead without contributing concrete value are starting to feel the squeeze under this paradigm. As is the case with everything though, I expect that the pendulum will swing back at some point. Nothing lasts forever.

ghaff 6y ago
Yeah, if I'm being honest, I'm quite senior as an IC, I've been at my current company for a long time, I've been skewing increasingly remote for an even longer time, and a lot of what I do is individual with relatively limited syncs and collaborations. Some aspects (mostly I miss travel to events) are lousy right now but otherwise everyone individually on video conferences is pretty good--though most of the teams I work with are pretty distributed anyway. I think as a junior person more or less just out of school I'd find it pretty awful.