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In theory, perhaps. But first consider whether the company gains value from workers sharing a time zone, language, cultural context, etc., all of which push aga

In theory, perhaps. But first consider whether the company gains value from workers sharing a time zone, language, cultural context, etc., all of which push against replacing employees with "cheaper" ones from abroad. In many ways the ideal remote first company manages to address and eliminate these constraints (eg. by adopting async communication channels) to truly enable employees to come from and work from anywhere, but this is definitely not particularly common. For that matter, many of the companies that have embraced remote first principles tend to offer salaries that aren't adjusted to local COL, so an offshore worker isn't necessarily cheaper, unless you're comparing to the very highest COL labor markets. So, if you're a fully remote SWE employee who lives in Manhattan or the SF Bay Area, working for a company that has embraced Remote First and making it work, and drawing a salary appropriate to those places, then you might be replaced with someone "cheaper" from elsewhere in the US or even globally, but I wouldn't lose sleep over it unless you think you're bad at your job.

charcircuit 4y ago
Cross time zone asynchronous communication is not better. Things can get delayed by days since you can fall into the trap of only being able to send a single message to them per day.
- webmaven 4y ago
  Yeah, "ask a question via email, wait for a response" while using a nominally async channel isn't really adopting async processes (neither is your manager emailing you at 7pm your time and expecting a reply in less than 14h). At the minimum, that email should be going to an internal mailing list where some other knowledgeable employee can answer, and in any situation where that one Q is actually blocking and there is no other work that can be done in the interim, there ought to be a root cause analysis done, at least informally, to prevent that from happening in the future (probably resulting in some docs being updated or expanded). Other async tools and channels: bug and issue trackers, kanban boards, wikis, forums, pull/merge requests, version control commit messages, annotation/commenting systems like hypothes.is, even NNTP.
- spaetzleesser 4y ago
  I have had multiple occasions where our India team was stuck for weeks on something despite sending daily messages back and forth. Then I called them late a night my time and could resolve the issue in a few minutes. It's funny that the same management that thinks collaboration needs everybody to sit in the same open office has no problem having workers in a timezone 12 hours off where you can never talk directly.
  - webmaven 4y ago
    I think that example may be more a matter of being separated by a common language (and/or poor written communication skills) than a time zone difference.
    - spaetzleesser 4y ago
      Not at all. You can’t document everything precisely when you do new and complex stuff. Sometimes it’s way more efficient to talk to people directly.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - webmaven 4y ago
        It's interesting that you jumped from "communicating well in writing" (and, as I implied, idiomatically, or at least using shared idioms), to "documenting precisely". When you say "talk to people directly", do you just mean by voice (so you have the extra channels of verbal stress, pauses, and intonation), or do you mean by video or in person (where you get to add gestures too)?
eqNotEq 4y ago
Just went through the interview gauntlet and timezone was a common topic. As software delivery pace is communication driven being within a couple time zones was explicitly called out by most recruiters and mentioned by the rest as being preferred most of the time. There was exception for working on the road even if it took you out of their preferred TZ band for a few weeks. Going too far away or for too long? Call it vacation instead. Just get shit done, was the sentiment. So it’s in employers minds too. They’re still hiring local it’s just local is defined as a TZ now not an area code.
mrleinad 4y ago
> consider whether the company gains value from workers sharing a time zone, language, cultural context, etc Hire people from Argentina ;)
- lsaferite 4y ago
  I love Argentinian devs, but they have the most holidays of any country I've hired from.
  - mrleinad 4y ago
    I work for people from Canada. Basically ignore Argentina's holidays and follow Canada's. Working remote means we can do whatever we want, no need to take a holiday here if we don't want to (paid, of course)

charcircuit 4y ago

Cross time zone asynchronous communication is not better. Things can get delayed by days since you can fall into the trap of only being able to send a single message to them per day.

webmaven 4y ago
Yeah, "ask a question via email, wait for a response" while using a nominally async channel isn't really adopting async processes (neither is your manager emailing you at 7pm your time and expecting a reply in less than 14h). At the minimum, that email should be going to an internal mailing list where some other knowledgeable employee can answer, and in any situation where that one Q is actually blocking and there is no other work that can be done in the interim, there ought to be a root cause analysis done, at least informally, to prevent that from happening in the future (probably resulting in some docs being updated or expanded). Other async tools and channels: bug and issue trackers, kanban boards, wikis, forums, pull/merge requests, version control commit messages, annotation/commenting systems like hypothes.is, even NNTP.
spaetzleesser 4y ago
I have had multiple occasions where our India team was stuck for weeks on something despite sending daily messages back and forth. Then I called them late a night my time and could resolve the issue in a few minutes. It's funny that the same management that thinks collaboration needs everybody to sit in the same open office has no problem having workers in a timezone 12 hours off where you can never talk directly.
- webmaven 4y ago
  I think that example may be more a matter of being separated by a common language (and/or poor written communication skills) than a time zone difference.
  - spaetzleesser 4y ago
    Not at all. You can’t document everything precisely when you do new and complex stuff. Sometimes it’s way more efficient to talk to people directly.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - webmaven 4y ago
      It's interesting that you jumped from "communicating well in writing" (and, as I implied, idiomatically, or at least using shared idioms), to "documenting precisely". When you say "talk to people directly", do you just mean by voice (so you have the extra channels of verbal stress, pauses, and intonation), or do you mean by video or in person (where you get to add gestures too)?

eqNotEq 4y ago

Just went through the interview gauntlet and timezone was a common topic. As software delivery pace is communication driven being within a couple time zones was explicitly called out by most recruiters and mentioned by the rest as being preferred most of the time. There was exception for working on the road even if it took you out of their preferred TZ band for a few weeks. Going too far away or for too long? Call it vacation instead. Just get shit done, was the sentiment. So it’s in employers minds too. They’re still hiring local it’s just local is defined as a TZ now not an area code.

mrleinad 4y ago

> consider whether the company gains value from workers sharing a time zone, language, cultural context, etc Hire people from Argentina ;)

lsaferite 4y ago
I love Argentinian devs, but they have the most holidays of any country I've hired from.
- mrleinad 4y ago
  I work for people from Canada. Basically ignore Argentina's holidays and follow Canada's. Working remote means we can do whatever we want, no need to take a holiday here if we don't want to (paid, of course)