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This is how we do it. Most employees work in the office, but we're fine with people who choose to work remotely, either in part or in full. But sometimes we exp
by zecho 15y ago
This is how we do it. Most employees work in the office, but we're fine with people who choose to work remotely, either in part or in full. But sometimes we expect staff to come into the office.
Speaking as a manager, building a team of only remotely people can be more difficult than building a team of employees who see each other face-to-face.
Face time helps us considerably with junior developers, which are much easier to find than senior developers (and, really, the senior programmers and designers are the people who tend to work best remotely, which brings us back to the problem of the difficulty of hiring senior staff). We can pair juniors with seniors at the office and the juniors will come up to speed much more quickly.
It's all about finding a cultural stride in the team. There needs to be a solid core and where they work doesn't matter, so long as that culture permeates. But email and Basecamp and IRC or whatever tools are used aren't necessarily the best place to build that culture--they're merely communication tools. Culture is as much about intangibles like friendship and understanding the company politics beyond the dev team as it is about raw programming ability.
And then there's the fact that when I have a team member standing in front of me talking through a problem or just shooting the shit, they've got my full attention, because they're standing in front of me. When a team member sends me an email, I only have their email to look at. That's probably my personal failing as a manager, but there's something to be said about human interaction, beyond cranking out product.
- tibbon 15y agoI've been working with a company now remotely for about 3 years. We've only all met in person with 100% of the team maybe 3 times since I started. Partial team meeting with more than 2 people perhaps 6 times. I do agree that culturally it can make for a weaker culture. I'm not really "friends" with any of my co-workers like I have been at all my prior companies. I've never worked on side projects with my coworkers after-hours like I have prior. It isn't the same. Yet, I think its really the culture that we set because of the people we have and/or the tone set by management, not because remote working is a bad idea. We probably could be all a lot closer if management set that as a cultural goal. I agree, there is certainly a difference between having someone come in your office and sending you an email. It would seem the solution, as you've identified, is to have some scheduled and semi-frequent in-person interaction in a non-rushed manner.
- ams6110 15y agoInteresting aside about coworker friendships. Is that common? In over 20 years of professional employment, I've had a friendship like that develop only once. Not that things weren't friendly and cordial at work, but very rarely did that extend to a personal friendship outside the office.
- tibbon 15y agoHard to say. I'm a very friendly person and I really like getting to know my coworkers. Some environments are better than others I guess. While I wasn't a "coworker" with them, I made a ton of good friends at the betahouse coworking loft in Cambridge.