3 ms·

Anecdotally it seems much more difficult to get an offsite together in the modern remote office than it was in the old offices. With the new remote world, seni

by lumost 5y ago

Anecdotally it seems much more difficult to get an offsite together in the modern remote office than it was in the old offices. With the new remote world, senior leadership struggles to stay in touch with the general feeling of workers. While this surely results in fewer time wasting pep talks, it also means that the worthwhile activities are also getting side lined.

pc86 5y ago
What about it is more difficult? The (admittedly few) off-sites I've been to have been scheduled 6+ months in advance and the general expectation is that everyone is going unless there's a wedding or a kid is sick or something, in the sense that it's not really culturally acceptable to take PTO during that time unless it's for something very important. When the VP or CTO comes around in February and says "we're going to $CITY for a week, all expenses paid, in September" it's pretty easy for all the teams to get around that.
bfung 5y ago
> With the new remote world, senior leadership struggles to stay in touch with the general feeling of workers. I’d say that is more of a sign of poor management chain management, communication, and people management. Senior mgmt can stay in touch by, surprise, staying in touch. Remote makes it harder for those poor at written skills and tech skills, but a good manager should’ve been writing things down to begin with. Opinions from someone doing mgmt for quite some time now.
- noasaservice 5y ago
  And that's a MAJOR contingent of people against remotework. Most middle and upper management can't do it. They fail. They're impediments. They're also the ones who want glass "fishbowls" to show off their employees' toil, AND to "supervise" professionals for the lack of appearance of work. In reality, companies would do themselves a LOT of cost-cutting to getting rid of ineffectual managers who get in the way of process and progress. But then again, its that class of workers is why we're dealing with anti-remotework all the time.
  - hn_version_0023 5y ago
    You can’t get rid of the C-suites’ safety layer. Middle management exists to take the fall when the C-suite makes major mistakes. The sociopaths at the top won’t even consider it.
    - noasaservice 5y ago
      Only a few need to consider and do this. And once they do, the others will be forced to do similar to compete.
  - bfung 5y ago
    > Most middle and upper management can't do it. They fail. Yep, your post is 100% correct :) That’s the reality we live in.

by lumost 5y ago

pc86 5y ago

What about it is more difficult? The (admittedly few) off-sites I've been to have been scheduled 6+ months in advance and the general expectation is that everyone is going unless there's a wedding or a kid is sick or something, in the sense that it's not really culturally acceptable to take PTO during that time unless it's for something very important. When the VP or CTO comes around in February and says "we're going to $CITY for a week, all expenses paid, in September" it's pretty easy for all the teams to get around that.

bfung 5y ago

> With the new remote world, senior leadership struggles to stay in touch with the general feeling of workers. I’d say that is more of a sign of poor management chain management, communication, and people management. Senior mgmt can stay in touch by, surprise, staying in touch. Remote makes it harder for those poor at written skills and tech skills, but a good manager should’ve been writing things down to begin with. Opinions from someone doing mgmt for quite some time now.

noasaservice 5y ago
And that's a MAJOR contingent of people against remotework. Most middle and upper management can't do it. They fail. They're impediments. They're also the ones who want glass "fishbowls" to show off their employees' toil, AND to "supervise" professionals for the lack of appearance of work. In reality, companies would do themselves a LOT of cost-cutting to getting rid of ineffectual managers who get in the way of process and progress. But then again, its that class of workers is why we're dealing with anti-remotework all the time.
- hn_version_0023 5y ago
  You can’t get rid of the C-suites’ safety layer. Middle management exists to take the fall when the C-suite makes major mistakes. The sociopaths at the top won’t even consider it.
  - noasaservice 5y ago
    Only a few need to consider and do this. And once they do, the others will be forced to do similar to compete.
- bfung 5y ago
  > Most middle and upper management can't do it. They fail. Yep, your post is 100% correct :) That’s the reality we live in.