I agree putting out fires are more intense at the office but maybe shouldn't be. But remote and on site office workers can both do the same things in tech to fi

I agree putting out fires are more intense at the office but maybe shouldn't be. But remote and on site office workers can both do the same things in tech to fix those situations except unplugging a machine. Many times the fire to put out is actually on a remote server or only accessible virtually in most cases today with VMs. Unless people pair work all day (doesn't happen) then you still go back to your desks individually and fix it. Remote controlled desktops and skype are actually better for integrations/pair in some cases when working on the same screen even in the same office. Nothing worse than two heads knocking into each other to see one screen. Your anecdote actually seems to reinforce that for quality of life, remote working can be better. Same type of emergencies but communication has to happen during them, documentation, teamwork not throwing all out the window to fix a fire every two seconds. Yes they happen and rules can be broken to get sites running but overall places with constant fires need internal people. Places run like that aren't going to be successful anyways so blaming remote workers on that seems unfair. If the emergency happened after hours is your company setup to handle this remotely or are people driving in an hour to fix issues? (i.e. remote repos, access etc). Workplaces and teamwork are great but can suck in bad situations, at the office even more sometimes such as during emergencies but it has to be done. I like documented discussions and tasks/plans written out rather than just spoken. These tasks that are just spoken tend to change and are hard to track how long things actually take especially in emergency driven situations. The modern office even with all the near proximity to others, people still IM, email, etc over face to face quite a bit to prevent interrupting flow states and barging in to fix some issue not related to your tasks that are due at the end of the day. And what about the people in the next building, are you walking over there or are you just IMing like you'd do to a remote worker. Location is almost irrelevant for well run teams.