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How to achieve sustainable remote work
- neonate 5y agohttps://archive.is/itaJl https://archive.is/itaJl
- Forge36 5y agoPossible Tldr; Define work
- 6f8986c3 5y agoPunching a time clock between lectures about how horrible and disgusting you are for existing from your company's Diversity and Inclusion group.
- ben0x539 5y agoSounds like the tl;dr is to hire that consulting company and commit to having those specific trainings for the indefinite future.
- efields 5y agoYou’re right. I think there’s a surprisingly large number of white collar workers who accept that their work is the whims of the next person up the org chart. A sure fire way to create an organization full of lost souls and suck-ups.
- gonzo41 5y agoThe crazy thing is if more businesses did detail value stream analysis of how they make their money and where the waste is, they probably could or would sack half their staff.
- hattmall 5y agoSure, but business isn't just doing what your doing now to make money. It's making sure you can continue to make money in the future. For that you need to have excess capacity to be able to transfer non-productive people in to productive roles without an extended lead time. People, departments, assets, etc all fluctuate in their levels of usefulness and productivity with ebb and flows of a business.
- pjc50 5y agoUnavoidably it is, though, because the person that defines whether you work there defines what the work you do is.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- twelvechairs 5y agoI don't like this kind of journalism. Lede promises answers but article is the opposite - a very long, unstructured set of stories and reflections and the ultimate conclusion is "Both sides are right, and both are wrong...". Its hard work as a reader to extract any knowledge here.
- tehnub 5y agoWell, he says that, but then he does answer the question in the title. He says the key is a focused, initial training of the principles of results-based work, and then retraining on a regular basis.
- ekianjo 5y ago> He says the key is a focused, initial training of the principles of results-based work, and then retraining on a regular basis. We didn't need Captain Obvious to let us know of such insights through 10 pages of text. It was very clear if you even worked a single month from home.
- labster 5y agoNew Yorker articles should have an abstract section up front so you don’t have to read ten thousand words to find out if the article has a point.
- urthor 5y agoStrongly disagree with this sentiment. If you want to read an abstract, read a scientific paper. The New Yorker is about writing essays. If you are reading something from the New Yorker and want a shorter piece, you're going to be disappointed. The entire philosophy of the essay writing style is: "Some ideas are better communicated in a long-form where you have to read the whole thing for it to make sense. A shortened abstract is not good enough." There are some thoughts and ideas in life that cannot be treated with brevity. This long-form essay is valuable because it is not brief, and it deals with a topic that is not suitable to be thought about with brevity. Understanding the ongoing struggle between ROWE and the status quo in detail is valuable. A short summary is not enough.
- privong 5y agoFor those curious about Ressler and Thompson's book (referenced but without the title), it is "Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It". https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/302027/why-work-sucks-and-how-to-fix-it-by-cali-ressler-and-jody-thompson/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/302027/why-work-suc...
- chronotis 5y agoThe article talks around the issue, as others have commented, but I take from it a preview of what's to come in our own 25-person environment: a commitment to continued hybrid work policy, but not a similar commitment to remote-friendly work policies. The owner is most comfortable in an environment where they can wander by and create an immediate change-of-priority at the individual level; there are many middle managers and executives everywhere who also have grown to their positions of power/influence with the same style. I'd read the various media coverage earlier in the week about Iceland's 4-day-workweek experiment, and can't imagine how you would even start to have that conversation at our US-based company.
- ehnto 5y agoSome might be thinking of a flat-hierarchy being a better fit for remote work, and certainly I think that's a step in the right direction but there are caveats there too. You can end up with a distributed and diminished sense of ownership of the whole project, as people feel ownership of the parts they worked on but not other parts. To the point where really obvious problems, lets say a bug in the software, can linger or regress because no-one feels full ownership over that particular part of the project. That being somewhat inevitable, you need an individual who has that full, holistic ownership who feels responsible for getting those orphaned problems fixed. I think there is a huge value in a project manager who can effectively sit at the same level as developers, and work with them to organize and set priorities, and I've worked with a few like that and a few who prefer to elevate themselves and disconnect from the nuts-and-bolts of the work, and I can say we got more good work done with the former because we could more easily navigate complex problems in the product. One particular PM I worked with marketed himself as a "Technical PM" and I think that's the right way to think about that role. If you wanted to demark the difference between a Technical PM and Lead Developer, I would say the technical PM has more of a stake in the end-user experience, and a lead dev has more of a stake in the technical competence of the build, but they both sit very close to the work itself and there's likely some overlap.
- marsven_422 5y agoYou describe the difference between System Engineer Vs System Architect. They are both important roles that needs good people.
- ekianjo 5y agoLong and boring article with little data and no conclusion.
- maliker 5y agoSeems like the answer to this question is: a remote first company, where no one is at a disadvantage by being remote. How to transition companies that have a physical presence or product into one, that’s a much harder question and maybe not one this article answers.
- legulere 5y agoI found the article misses a discussion of how workplaces are not just about making money but also power structures. I think managers are less worried about the company making less money but about losing control over their subordinates.
- machinehermiter 5y agoI will be back at the office full time next week because I like the office. I know though this is not sustainable after going in a few days last week. This only makes sense when all your competitors are also stuck in commercial leases. I think ultimately, commercial leases will buy us time as a society to figure out how to build teams from scratch remotely better. Training/mentoring/team building is better in person but day to day operations once up to speed is just overly expensive to conduct at the office. Giant tech companies with 30+% profit margin, 30+% revenue growth, ridiculous economy and no real competition can do whatever they want. They couldn't be less representative of the average business.