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Focusing on remote-only, remote-first, remote-from-scratch companies is how I ended up at my current, and literally best company I've ever worked for, gig. Obv

Focusing on remote-only, remote-first, remote-from-scratch companies is how I ended up at my current, and literally best company I've ever worked for, gig. Obviously the pool of such companies is smaller than in-person and they tend to have more competition for roles, but my unscientific guess is that pool is growing larger. Bonus points for those companies because they didn't have to "figure it out" or change upper management corporate culture to go remote.

throwaway787544 5y ago
I am still flabbergasted that more companies have not gotten it through their skulls yet. Even if you keep an office, all-remote is simply a better model. Not only do you have access to a global labor pool (including the best candidates), the communication is better and work is more flexible (which literally everyone appreciates), you can lower overhead or even hire people for less based on location. The only major downside to going all-remote is the initial pain of the culture shift. You can keep an office for those that need in-person coworkers. It's all been figured out already so it's not a mystery.
- softwarebeware 5y ago
  Here is why: extraverts who need constant hyperactive human interaction are the only people psychopathic enough to ascend into the leadership tiers that make decisions about remote vs. in-person. So they just can't, and I mean CAN'T, handle the idea of all-remote. At all.
  - warlog 5y ago
    Agreed. Except it's the quiet intro-psychos that are the most dangerous.
  - sveme 5y ago
    That‘s very drastic. I‘m a rather extroverted head of engineering and would fight tooth and nails to keep remote for my teams.
  - smus 5y ago
    I'd think introversion correlates more with psychopathy than extroversion
    - ipaddr 5y ago
      That story is told by an extrovert.
- bachmeier 5y ago
  A funny thing in this regard is that companies using an open office to save money are often not willing to go remote because they are worried it will hurt productivity.
- mcv 5y ago
  I find it bizarre that so many (American?) companies make such an issue out of this. I have no idea if my experience is typical for my country (NL), but both companies I've worked for since the start of the pandemic were eager to let everybody work remotely. Both are very big and traditional: a major bank and an international accountancy firm, and one is selling off their HQ office. Both let the teams decide, and generally aim for one day at the office per week, with the rest remote. But that day is pretty optional, and we've never had the entire team present.
bluefirebrand 5y ago
I would love to go to a remote first company. How do you even find such a thing without just being super lucky? I'm actually onboarding at a remote position right now where the people I work with are clearly used to everything happening in an office. It's Thursday, I started Monday, and I have spent a grand total of maybe 3 hours speaking to my teammates or direct manager. I've been dumped with a ton of documentation and stuff to read, but I feel extremely isolated. No one on my team has reached out to welcome me or make themselves available for questions or anything. If this is what some people are experiencing in the remote world I don't blame them for wanting to go back to the office. It certainly is not how I've experienced remote work in the past so far.
- voakbasda 5y ago
  If there isn’t an IRC, Slack, or other instant messaging system in place, that should be the first step. Without that, I cannot imagine how remote work would actually… work. From there, start being proactive about asking questions or starting conversations. Do not wait for others to reach out. You must initiate. That is a huge part of remote culture. If you are initiating on instant messaging and not generating feedback or conversation, then you have a much bigger problem.
  - bluefirebrand 5y ago
    There is a Slack, of course. I've found people quite slow to reply so far. Expecting a new hire to initiate is pretty unrealistic imo. Even in an office, leaders should be encouraging employees to reach out to the new hire and make that connection. In person new hires would be getting a team lunch of some kind at most companies I've ever worked at, some kind of scheduled time to meet and interact with people. I don't see why remote should be different really. Onboarding should be a hands on process for the whole team to participate in, remote or not. So, yes. I am kind of wondering if this is a bigger problem or if once I have stuff to work on things will improve.
    - voakbasda 5y ago
      Remote and office work are not the same in my experience. Your expectations need adjustment, if only because they conflict with the reality that you have observed. Moreover, senior roles absolutely require you to initiate. If you are in a junior role, proactive behavior will help you advance past those who wait for things to come to them. In general terms, initiating is an active behavior, while expecting others to initiate is passive. If you want “hands on” from others, tell those hands that you need their engagement. In general, I strongly advise against passive behavior, unless you want your career driven by the good graces of others.
bsenftner 5y ago
I've been in all remote companies since '12, and will never go back unless forced. For what we do, it's pointless to travel to an office. Same goes for a huge majority of corporate work. It's gonna simultaneously trigger and require the economic destruction of a huge amount of office real estate investments to enable the change to remote work to become the majority.
- iamstupidsimple 5y ago
  > It's gonna simultaneously trigger and require the economic destruction of a huge amount of office real estate investments to enable the change to remote work to become the majority. Baring in mind this could be worse than 2008. It's not going to be pretty and workers will ultimately feel the brunt.
  - bsenftner 5y ago
    Yet, if that cooperate real estate were converted into mixed use residential, the corporations might save themselves at the expense of every single family homeowner and investor. This is a likelihood because the single family real estate market would normalize to 1970 home prices with the amount of corporate real estate that could be converted. Don't underestimate corporations willingness to save themselves at the expense of everything else, including our planet.

throwaway787544 5y ago

I am still flabbergasted that more companies have not gotten it through their skulls yet. Even if you keep an office, all-remote is simply a better model. Not only do you have access to a global labor pool (including the best candidates), the communication is better and work is more flexible (which literally everyone appreciates), you can lower overhead or even hire people for less based on location. The only major downside to going all-remote is the initial pain of the culture shift. You can keep an office for those that need in-person coworkers. It's all been figured out already so it's not a mystery.

softwarebeware 5y ago
Here is why: extraverts who need constant hyperactive human interaction are the only people psychopathic enough to ascend into the leadership tiers that make decisions about remote vs. in-person. So they just can't, and I mean CAN'T, handle the idea of all-remote. At all.
- warlog 5y ago
  Agreed. Except it's the quiet intro-psychos that are the most dangerous.
- sveme 5y ago
  That‘s very drastic. I‘m a rather extroverted head of engineering and would fight tooth and nails to keep remote for my teams.
- smus 5y ago
  I'd think introversion correlates more with psychopathy than extroversion
  - ipaddr 5y ago
    That story is told by an extrovert.
bachmeier 5y ago
A funny thing in this regard is that companies using an open office to save money are often not willing to go remote because they are worried it will hurt productivity.
mcv 5y ago
I find it bizarre that so many (American?) companies make such an issue out of this. I have no idea if my experience is typical for my country (NL), but both companies I've worked for since the start of the pandemic were eager to let everybody work remotely. Both are very big and traditional: a major bank and an international accountancy firm, and one is selling off their HQ office. Both let the teams decide, and generally aim for one day at the office per week, with the rest remote. But that day is pretty optional, and we've never had the entire team present.

bluefirebrand 5y ago

I would love to go to a remote first company. How do you even find such a thing without just being super lucky? I'm actually onboarding at a remote position right now where the people I work with are clearly used to everything happening in an office. It's Thursday, I started Monday, and I have spent a grand total of maybe 3 hours speaking to my teammates or direct manager. I've been dumped with a ton of documentation and stuff to read, but I feel extremely isolated. No one on my team has reached out to welcome me or make themselves available for questions or anything. If this is what some people are experiencing in the remote world I don't blame them for wanting to go back to the office. It certainly is not how I've experienced remote work in the past so far.

voakbasda 5y ago
If there isn’t an IRC, Slack, or other instant messaging system in place, that should be the first step. Without that, I cannot imagine how remote work would actually… work. From there, start being proactive about asking questions or starting conversations. Do not wait for others to reach out. You must initiate. That is a huge part of remote culture. If you are initiating on instant messaging and not generating feedback or conversation, then you have a much bigger problem.
- bluefirebrand 5y ago
  There is a Slack, of course. I've found people quite slow to reply so far. Expecting a new hire to initiate is pretty unrealistic imo. Even in an office, leaders should be encouraging employees to reach out to the new hire and make that connection. In person new hires would be getting a team lunch of some kind at most companies I've ever worked at, some kind of scheduled time to meet and interact with people. I don't see why remote should be different really. Onboarding should be a hands on process for the whole team to participate in, remote or not. So, yes. I am kind of wondering if this is a bigger problem or if once I have stuff to work on things will improve.
  - voakbasda 5y ago
    Remote and office work are not the same in my experience. Your expectations need adjustment, if only because they conflict with the reality that you have observed. Moreover, senior roles absolutely require you to initiate. If you are in a junior role, proactive behavior will help you advance past those who wait for things to come to them. In general terms, initiating is an active behavior, while expecting others to initiate is passive. If you want “hands on” from others, tell those hands that you need their engagement. In general, I strongly advise against passive behavior, unless you want your career driven by the good graces of others.

bsenftner 5y ago

I've been in all remote companies since '12, and will never go back unless forced. For what we do, it's pointless to travel to an office. Same goes for a huge majority of corporate work. It's gonna simultaneously trigger and require the economic destruction of a huge amount of office real estate investments to enable the change to remote work to become the majority.

iamstupidsimple 5y ago
> It's gonna simultaneously trigger and require the economic destruction of a huge amount of office real estate investments to enable the change to remote work to become the majority. Baring in mind this could be worse than 2008. It's not going to be pretty and workers will ultimately feel the brunt.
- bsenftner 5y ago
  Yet, if that cooperate real estate were converted into mixed use residential, the corporations might save themselves at the expense of every single family homeowner and investor. This is a likelihood because the single family real estate market would normalize to 1970 home prices with the amount of corporate real estate that could be converted. Don't underestimate corporations willingness to save themselves at the expense of everything else, including our planet.