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I've worked remotely for a long time. Availability is basically the only thing I've found can't be compromised on. In fact, I've found being more available is t

I've worked remotely for a long time. Availability is basically the only thing I've found can't be compromised on. In fact, I've found being more available is the easiest way to be recognized. It's particularly important with a distributed team across timezones. I think it's a fair trade-off. I get my work done on my schedule, then help people get there's done when they need me - even if that's not "core hours". The benefit is no one cares if I spend sometime during the day running errands, getting lunch, or exercising - as long as I can respond to them in a reasonable amount of time.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago
Well said. Internet discussion tend to glorify an idea of isolated, asynchronous work where each developer is an island. Pull ticket from Jira, work on it in isolation, then toss it to your manager and log off for the day. Maybe this is true in some feature factory somewhere, but every tech company I've worked with has required synchronous collaboration to get things done. > The benefit is no one cares if I spend sometime during the day running errands, getting lunch, or exercising - as long as I can respond to them in a reasonable amount of time. Exactly. I don't care if someone steps out to run an errand or pick the kids up from school or to hit the gym, but they need to be available with some regularity during core working hours for any collaborative work to proceed. When one person starts taking excessive liberties with schedule flexibility, everyone else is forced to adapt their schedules to that one person. It's not good for everyone else on the team.
- balfirevic 5y ago
  > Exactly. I don't care if someone steps out to run an errand or pick the kids up from school or to hit the gym, but they need to be available with some regularity during core working hours for any collaborative work to proceed. But the starting premise was that some people would work 5 hour days, there's plenty of overlap there. It's not much different than separate time zones, as another commenter pointed out.
  - PragmaticPulp 5y ago
    > It's not much different than separate time zones, as another commenter pointed out. Separate timezones are fine as long as there is some overlapping core hours. If that's not possible, the work needs to be more cleanly divided across timezones. I've had to collaborate across different timezones (as an IC). It's rough. We tried to take turns staying up late so everyone suffered equally, but it's still brutal.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

Well said. Internet discussion tend to glorify an idea of isolated, asynchronous work where each developer is an island. Pull ticket from Jira, work on it in isolation, then toss it to your manager and log off for the day. Maybe this is true in some feature factory somewhere, but every tech company I've worked with has required synchronous collaboration to get things done. > The benefit is no one cares if I spend sometime during the day running errands, getting lunch, or exercising - as long as I can respond to them in a reasonable amount of time. Exactly. I don't care if someone steps out to run an errand or pick the kids up from school or to hit the gym, but they need to be available with some regularity during core working hours for any collaborative work to proceed. When one person starts taking excessive liberties with schedule flexibility, everyone else is forced to adapt their schedules to that one person. It's not good for everyone else on the team.

balfirevic 5y ago
> Exactly. I don't care if someone steps out to run an errand or pick the kids up from school or to hit the gym, but they need to be available with some regularity during core working hours for any collaborative work to proceed. But the starting premise was that some people would work 5 hour days, there's plenty of overlap there. It's not much different than separate time zones, as another commenter pointed out.
- PragmaticPulp 5y ago
  > It's not much different than separate time zones, as another commenter pointed out. Separate timezones are fine as long as there is some overlapping core hours. If that's not possible, the work needs to be more cleanly divided across timezones. I've had to collaborate across different timezones (as an IC). It's rough. We tried to take turns staying up late so everyone suffered equally, but it's still brutal.