5 ms·

I think remote working, at least at the team/department level, is kind of like virtual vs in-person meetings: you can have an effective virtual meeting or you c

I think remote working, at least at the team/department level, is kind of like virtual vs in-person meetings: you can have an effective virtual meeting or you can have an effective in-person meeting. You cannot have both at the same time — either the people meeting in-person will just stare at their Zoom/Teams/WebEx/etc. window or the virtual attendees will be left out of some part of the meeting experience. Companies - or at least teams within companies - self-selecting into in-person or remote organizations seems like the best outcome to me. This will probably happen at the whim of management, but maybe also because of the relative preferences of the dominant talent pool they need to attract. I just wonder how much pain and suffering everyone is going to have to endure to figure this out and get there.

oaiey 4y ago
The problem of that thinking is that a single remote-only-possible person pushes the team to remote-only. I however, 100% agree with the statement that conferences are problem (1) for coming back to the office AND (2) is the fact that commute times were given back to the life of people (and their kids, partners, hobbies, communities, ...) and now people ask to invest that time back to the company.
- marcus0x62 4y ago
  That’s my point - some people want[0] to work in-person and some want to work remotely. There are plenty of jobs and places for each, but trying to mix them together on a single team is never going to work. So don’t try. Setup your team to be unapologetically in-person, with all the baggage that entails: loss of commute time, lack of ability to recruit geographically distant workers, possibly more streamlined real-time collaboration, etc. or setup your team to be remote with all the baggage that entails: lower overhead, hire the best talent anywhere in the world, better focus on deep work/asynchronous communication, probably weaker team bonds, inability to just get in a room and figure something out quickly, etc. 0 - alternately, “are more productive working”
  - oaiey 4y ago
    Greefield / New Formed Teams: I agree 100%. Was not that the Stripe Engineering story before Pandemia. Two remote divisions and one in office? But brownfield with an existing organization: That does not work. What if you have a team with two key people. One who only wants to work remote and one who does not. Then you have a multi-month knowledge transformation ahead if you, if possible at all.

oaiey 4y ago

The problem of that thinking is that a single remote-only-possible person pushes the team to remote-only. I however, 100% agree with the statement that conferences are problem (1) for coming back to the office AND (2) is the fact that commute times were given back to the life of people (and their kids, partners, hobbies, communities, ...) and now people ask to invest that time back to the company.

marcus0x62 4y ago
That’s my point - some people want[0] to work in-person and some want to work remotely. There are plenty of jobs and places for each, but trying to mix them together on a single team is never going to work. So don’t try. Setup your team to be unapologetically in-person, with all the baggage that entails: loss of commute time, lack of ability to recruit geographically distant workers, possibly more streamlined real-time collaboration, etc. or setup your team to be remote with all the baggage that entails: lower overhead, hire the best talent anywhere in the world, better focus on deep work/asynchronous communication, probably weaker team bonds, inability to just get in a room and figure something out quickly, etc. 0 - alternately, “are more productive working”
- oaiey 4y ago
  Greefield / New Formed Teams: I agree 100%. Was not that the Stripe Engineering story before Pandemia. Two remote divisions and one in office? But brownfield with an existing organization: That does not work. What if you have a team with two key people. One who only wants to work remote and one who does not. Then you have a multi-month knowledge transformation ahead if you, if possible at all.