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Thanks! I realize there's a slew of technologies out there for alleviating this problem and there's plenty of virtual teams that do a great job at it. That sai
by bowlich 12y ago
Thanks! I realize there's a slew of technologies out there for alleviating this problem and there's plenty of virtual teams that do a great job at it.
That said, I've come to the conclusion that for a virtual team to really work the company culture really has to be on board with the idea. Particularly I think it works best when the whole team or a majority is working remotely or semi-remotely.
The two firms that I've been with so far had only one or two remote workers on an otherwise in-house team that was managed very much in the 9-5 butt-in-seat tradition. They reluctantly went with remote workers out of necessity and with management that isn't too hot on communicating other than in person and firing up a webcam is considering something worthy of planning out days in advance and reserving a conference room.
Needless to say, I'm looking for a more remote-friendly team these days, but I do think it's a good warning to anyone looking into remote work. Find out what proportion of the team is working remote, really try to access the team culture for supporting those remote workers, and do concern yourself with how much buy-in management has to the idea.
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoRight on all counts. We've had to train our 'home office' folks to have only virtual meetings. Every time they tried to gather and include us, it was a tragedy of seeing the backs of people's heads and hearing only mumbling from the audience. If everybody is on board with the tools, then you hear all the comments, see who said what, and can chat privately too. Definitely BETTER than in-person meetings in many ways.