3 ms·

Can you name any drawbacks to working remotely?

kls 15y ago
I am going to go out on a limb here and say no, other may disagree and may have valid concerns but the benefits on both sides far outweigh the drawbacks. Especially for a start-up, while in product development, a start-up can significantly reduce capital expenditures by not having payable for facilities. This is a huge burden on a new company and the elimination of it, is by far one of the greatest advantages. Even in established companies it can help them to significantly reduce their footprint. The developer does not incur anymore expenses because they are already paying, housing, electricity, internet, phone, etc. As well one of the other great benefits of having a distributed team is that you already have the process in place to on-board anyone in the world into your company with little expense. No relocation, no facilities set up, no cube build out. The biggest concern with remote developer that managers have is "how do I know their working"? That's a red flag from micromanagement, but that is besides the point. The answer to that question should already exist in their in-house solution, all work should be done through a ticket system, and source control, if it is not then they have a lax process already and they probably have people who are not working right under their nose. The fact that a manager of development would not know how to answer the question of how to know if people are working, should be concerning to a subordinate of that manager, it may reflect that they are incompetent at their job. To me their are no draw backs, I was actually opposed to distributed development a few years ago, I though it would isolate developers and not allow them to form a cohesive bond. It was ignorance on my part because Open Source projects have been proving the opposite for a long time now. I just finished a contract with IBM that was over 20 individuals on the team, all of which where remote. With Skype and other tools it was no different than all of us being in the same office. Those kind of successes changed my mind on the subject.
droithomme 15y ago
Yes, there are many disadvantages to remote work. * Can't have lunch with coworkers. Lunch has always been a good time for socializing about non-work events and developing camaraderie. * Can't go out drinking after work with coworkers, same benefits. * It takes much more time to personally prepare one's own lunch than taking advantage of free healthy food now offered as standard benefit at campus by most reputable tech companies like Google. * No employer provided on-campus child care. * No employer provided Friday massages. * When you don't feel like working, can't chit chat discretely about TV and sports with workers for several hours. * Less mentorship capabilities for senior experienced engineers to be paired to train and guide freshmen. However, I haven't seen this in many companies so it's not going to be missed most places. It's always been an advantage to work remotely if you are doing stuff where you are a sole worker who is able to work on black box projects where you get a spec or desire in and return a finished product. This works best for people that are recognized experts and is a subset of work possibilities. The real sticking issue has always been retaining the advantages of highly collaborative group and team work. Being able to talk face to face, have all hands meetings, have access to the company source control server, be able to work on something in the same room with someone working collaboratively at the whiteboard and in a text editor. Ten years ago this was completely impractical as the infrastructure was just not in place. All of that has changed rapidly in the last decade as tech and services have ramped up and delivered in spades. Not only is work able to be done electronically, but it is regularly being done electronically, and it works every bit as well as face to face, often even better since you have more control over distractions. It's not only super advanced high tech companies taking advantage of technologies like video conferencing either. It's not leading edge at all anymore. Video conferencing comes built in to the ordinary inexpensive cell phones regular people have, and people with absolutely no technical ability are using it every day. It's an ordinary part of contemporary life. It is so common to do now, the idea that companies aren't doing it already or are fearful of it is quixotic and surprising that there are hold outs who are so backwards. It's like hearing about someone from the 1950s who came out of a stasis pod or emerged from a bomb shelter who isn't aware that cell phones and laptops exist. The suggestion that some of these companies are claiming to be startup high tech companies is almost completely absurd and unbelievable. You have to wonder what sort of investors are so clueless they would invest in management of a tech company of all things that simply doesn't know what it is doing and seems oblivious or hostile to the realities of the modern world.
- ulisesrmzroche 15y ago
  I think you're both right. I couldn't come up with any real deal-breakers, either. I've been thinking of working from home a couple of days a week, but I thought maybe I wasn't thinking it through. I'm going to raise you 2020 though.

kls 15y ago

I am going to go out on a limb here and say no, other may disagree and may have valid concerns but the benefits on both sides far outweigh the drawbacks. Especially for a start-up, while in product development, a start-up can significantly reduce capital expenditures by not having payable for facilities. This is a huge burden on a new company and the elimination of it, is by far one of the greatest advantages. Even in established companies it can help them to significantly reduce their footprint. The developer does not incur anymore expenses because they are already paying, housing, electricity, internet, phone, etc. As well one of the other great benefits of having a distributed team is that you already have the process in place to on-board anyone in the world into your company with little expense. No relocation, no facilities set up, no cube build out. The biggest concern with remote developer that managers have is "how do I know their working"? That's a red flag from micromanagement, but that is besides the point. The answer to that question should already exist in their in-house solution, all work should be done through a ticket system, and source control, if it is not then they have a lax process already and they probably have people who are not working right under their nose. The fact that a manager of development would not know how to answer the question of how to know if people are working, should be concerning to a subordinate of that manager, it may reflect that they are incompetent at their job. To me their are no draw backs, I was actually opposed to distributed development a few years ago, I though it would isolate developers and not allow them to form a cohesive bond. It was ignorance on my part because Open Source projects have been proving the opposite for a long time now. I just finished a contract with IBM that was over 20 individuals on the team, all of which where remote. With Skype and other tools it was no different than all of us being in the same office. Those kind of successes changed my mind on the subject.

droithomme 15y ago

Yes, there are many disadvantages to remote work. * Can't have lunch with coworkers. Lunch has always been a good time for socializing about non-work events and developing camaraderie. * Can't go out drinking after work with coworkers, same benefits. * It takes much more time to personally prepare one's own lunch than taking advantage of free healthy food now offered as standard benefit at campus by most reputable tech companies like Google. * No employer provided on-campus child care. * No employer provided Friday massages. * When you don't feel like working, can't chit chat discretely about TV and sports with workers for several hours. * Less mentorship capabilities for senior experienced engineers to be paired to train and guide freshmen. However, I haven't seen this in many companies so it's not going to be missed most places. It's always been an advantage to work remotely if you are doing stuff where you are a sole worker who is able to work on black box projects where you get a spec or desire in and return a finished product. This works best for people that are recognized experts and is a subset of work possibilities. The real sticking issue has always been retaining the advantages of highly collaborative group and team work. Being able to talk face to face, have all hands meetings, have access to the company source control server, be able to work on something in the same room with someone working collaboratively at the whiteboard and in a text editor. Ten years ago this was completely impractical as the infrastructure was just not in place. All of that has changed rapidly in the last decade as tech and services have ramped up and delivered in spades. Not only is work able to be done electronically, but it is regularly being done electronically, and it works every bit as well as face to face, often even better since you have more control over distractions. It's not only super advanced high tech companies taking advantage of technologies like video conferencing either. It's not leading edge at all anymore. Video conferencing comes built in to the ordinary inexpensive cell phones regular people have, and people with absolutely no technical ability are using it every day. It's an ordinary part of contemporary life. It is so common to do now, the idea that companies aren't doing it already or are fearful of it is quixotic and surprising that there are hold outs who are so backwards. It's like hearing about someone from the 1950s who came out of a stasis pod or emerged from a bomb shelter who isn't aware that cell phones and laptops exist. The suggestion that some of these companies are claiming to be startup high tech companies is almost completely absurd and unbelievable. You have to wonder what sort of investors are so clueless they would invest in management of a tech company of all things that simply doesn't know what it is doing and seems oblivious or hostile to the realities of the modern world.

ulisesrmzroche 15y ago
I think you're both right. I couldn't come up with any real deal-breakers, either. I've been thinking of working from home a couple of days a week, but I thought maybe I wasn't thinking it through. I'm going to raise you 2020 though.