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I've worked remote for several years as both a senior engineer and team leader, these are the problems with remote work I haven't yet found good solutions for:
by Cub3 4y ago
I've worked remote for several years as both a senior engineer and team leader, these are the problems with remote work I haven't yet found good solutions for:
1. I don't know how my employees are doing; many times in my career I've had to tell programmers to "go for a walk" or "time to go home" when they get stuck on a frustrating task or fall in to a flow state far past leaving time. Solutions I've found to this put onus on the employee or create more restrictions that hinder in other areas
2. Brainstorming whiteboard sessions are harder; the issue with remote meetings is that you need each person to finish speaking before the next person can start, which IMO slows down collaboration. Also I still haven't found a great tool to replace the whiteboard, Miro / Figma (Figjam) come close but also are slower at spinning up a flow diagram or sequence diagram or describing a stack.
3. Juniors / Grads need handholding; I've written frameworks to train newer developers in a remote setting but the remote divide creates an invisible barrier between the seniors and juniors for base support. I used to purposefully sit them next to eachother to enable the quick "do I use this or that?" questions or, better, have the senior look over and spontaneously create a learning opportunity related to whatever the junior is doing.
I guess the themes here are speed and spontaneity
(I haven't had my coffee yet so I hope above made sense)
- urthor 4y agoMob programming, aka the juniors sit and watch the senior do the thing, 2x1 hour per week is the solution.
- quickthrower2 4y agoFor 1 why not let them take off extra time the next day? No point interrupting a good flow state!
- Cub3 4y agoHonestly it depends on the person, I have used this method with some people but with others I've seen them get so hyper focused they've gotten in at 0900, haven't eaten all day, I've gone to the gym and come back at 1830 to get things before going home and they haven't moved. Which is just a recipe for a fast burnout. Also sometimes people need a sequence break to realise it's home time
- tyroh 4y agoFor #1, 1:1 will help a lot but it will take time as you need to build the relationship enough for them to open up to you. But I agree with #3. The problem is getting the seniors to RTO just for this express reason. Though having an always-on call for that day would help with adhoc questions from juniors.
- Cub3 4y ago> build the relationship enough for them to open up to you Completely agree, it's also about building that open and honest culture to enable having that kind of conversation with the entire team. But even with this it still doesn't catch many day-to-day frustrations or things you may pick up on that the person wouldn't offer up regardless. > having an always-on call The problem with this is you put the onus on the Junior to ask the question, which is hard for someone who's still learning (especially with imposter syndrome being so rife). Also this doesn't allow for the Senior to spontaneously create learning opportunities relevant to whatever they're currently doing, the barrier cuts down a lot of it.
- giraffe_lady 4y agoFor #2 what you need is just budget $500 to get everyone a podcaster mic and a pair of open-back headphones for calls. It gets rid of the "half duplex" thing, and with the headphones plugged into the mic as a monitor you hear your voice in a different way and don't speak so loudly reducing fatigue a lot. For #3 I just recommend pair programming. Pairing is already a skill that needs to be learned and remote pairing is a more difficult one. But the tools for it are better than they were a few years ago and are good enough, and it's an excellent venue for naturally exchanging a lot of that sideways knowledge and mindset that makes more experienced engineers so effective.