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I've been permanent remote since 2015. I will never take a job that forces me into the office. That said, I think I benefited greatly from being in an office

I've been permanent remote since 2015. I will never take a job that forces me into the office. That said, I think I benefited greatly from being in an office with more senior people when I was starting out. The only argument in favor of RTO/Hybrid that's ever carried water with me is that remote work makes it harder for junior staff to succeed and learn, because there are less opportunities for collaboration and guidance/mentorship. That said, my experience in open source projects shows you can still learn as a junior person as long as you're willing to put in extra effort to do so and kind of dig for the information/knowledge you need. It's definitely an additional barrier of entry though that makes it more difficult for people who aren't obsessive about tech (and whether that's good or bad is debatable). Remote isn't new. There have been systems to support remote connectivity since the 90s, and it's been realistic for a tech worker to be permanent remote essentially since Git existed. There were a lot of workers who didn't realize they could do their jobs remotely, and now they do, it's been possible for decades. That cat is never going back into the bag. At least for me, it's been great and made it possible for me to change jobs during the pandemic easily without needing to be as fine-grained in my search as there's many many more remote opportunities now.

vanilla_nut 3y ago
I envision a world where a portion of senior workers -- 40%, I would guess, based on vague approximations of folks who prefer in-person or hybrid work -- work in office, with mentorship representing a huge portion of their responsibilities. Junior workers probably ought to spend at least a year or two in office to acclimate to office job life; high performers can escape once they've proven their abilities. That being said: I wonder how much of remote work preferences are actually a result of affordability and quality of life issues in cities, especially in the USA. I would have no problem working a hybrid or even full-time in-person gig in an office... if I could afford to buy a house, walk or bike to work, and live in a quiet, clean, interesting neighborhood. Being paid a decent salary in tech that should be possible, but it's really hard to manage in the USA at the moment for most definitions of quiet/clean/interesting. And before anyone claims that cities can't be "quiet" or "clean", I've spent enough time in nice European cities that do satisfy all three criteria to know that I'm not just being overly picky. Even if I had a million dollars, I doubt I could satisfy those criteria in the USA. Anyway, as long as we're stuck with an imperfect housing market, remote work is such a blessing. I'm sure it's helpful for some junior workers, too -- if you don't have to move to a $2k+/mo apartment in a major city straight out of college, you'll have a much easier time paying off loans and saving up money early in life. I suspect that's opened a lot of doors for folks who previously couldn't work the most prestigious tech jobs.

vanilla_nut 3y ago

I envision a world where a portion of senior workers -- 40%, I would guess, based on vague approximations of folks who prefer in-person or hybrid work -- work in office, with mentorship representing a huge portion of their responsibilities. Junior workers probably ought to spend at least a year or two in office to acclimate to office job life; high performers can escape once they've proven their abilities. That being said: I wonder how much of remote work preferences are actually a result of affordability and quality of life issues in cities, especially in the USA. I would have no problem working a hybrid or even full-time in-person gig in an office... if I could afford to buy a house, walk or bike to work, and live in a quiet, clean, interesting neighborhood. Being paid a decent salary in tech that should be possible, but it's really hard to manage in the USA at the moment for most definitions of quiet/clean/interesting. And before anyone claims that cities can't be "quiet" or "clean", I've spent enough time in nice European cities that do satisfy all three criteria to know that I'm not just being overly picky. Even if I had a million dollars, I doubt I could satisfy those criteria in the USA. Anyway, as long as we're stuck with an imperfect housing market, remote work is such a blessing. I'm sure it's helpful for some junior workers, too -- if you don't have to move to a $2k+/mo apartment in a major city straight out of college, you'll have a much easier time paying off loans and saving up money early in life. I suspect that's opened a lot of doors for folks who previously couldn't work the most prestigious tech jobs.