4 ms·

Tragedies of the remote worker

14 points by bootload 12y ago

VLM 12y ago
I know the startup bias here on HN, but the story reads the same way at a fortune 50 sized employer with dozens of worldwide offices when some jerk three states over "just can't be bothered" to conference our team in, or "we couldn't get a hold of you guys before we made the decision" or "its just so complicated to plug a web cam in so our office doesn't use them" or "lync creates so much disruption" Especially at companies that start getting cross functional and next thing you know your boss for the year lives two timezones away, or your main partner in crime contractor lives one time zone the other direction. There is an area of local minima where everyone works in the same floor or same building where the appeal of remote work is at a business minimum, but the larger the company is, the more likely the person you're working with is in another country or state, to the point that it doesn't matter if I'm calling him from "work" or "home".
MichaelCrawford 12y ago
I often here that employers or consulting clients don't want to hire remote workers because of the tremendous value of "water cooler" conversations. How much do those water cooler conversations actually take place? How much value is actually produced from them? Most of my career has been on-site (ie. not remote). In twenty-seven years I can only recall once such conversation that produced anything of value. I was making coffee at 6 Infinite Loop one day, when I was a "Debug Meister" at Apple. Another Debug Meister by the name of Dave Lyons happened to ask what I thought of C++. "It's slow," I replied. "I prefer C." "Why?" "Because of the use of vtables for virtual functions." "But you need a dispatch mechanism in any language." Well that made sense to me, actually using tables of pointers to functions is common in C as well, so I agreed to take C++ seriously after that. However, I did not actually use C++ in my work until I'd moved on to a different company. That's all I can think of, in my 27 year career, that being on-site has resulted in a water cooler conversation that produced something of lasting value.
JoeAltmaier 12y ago
Wow this guy needs to get on board with some collaboration software. I work at Sococo, and it helps with all this. In fact our entire company works 'remotely'. Its not clear who if anybody works 'at the home office' even though we have 3 offices. Its honestly like working in a big office, except better. Everybody is on an even playing field - we can all hear each other, all share docs, all participate in a sprint commitment ceremony etc.
- MichaelCrawford 12y ago
  Joe: http://www.warplife.com/mdc/resume/ http://www.warplife.com/mdc/resume/ mdcrawford@gmail.com
  - JoeAltmaier 12y ago
    Thanks! I'll forward that to my Director.
    - MichaelCrawford 12y ago
      I Am Eternally In Your Debt.
levosmetalo 12y ago
Yeah, I know, remote working is hard. What is even harder is being remote part time worker in a different time zone. That is an order of magnitude harder. The only reason when it can work if when the company doesn't really have main office, and the team is scattered around the globe with no real majority in any country, so everyone understands the issues of remote work.

14 points by bootload 12y ago

VLM 12y ago

I know the startup bias here on HN, but the story reads the same way at a fortune 50 sized employer with dozens of worldwide offices when some jerk three states over "just can't be bothered" to conference our team in, or "we couldn't get a hold of you guys before we made the decision" or "its just so complicated to plug a web cam in so our office doesn't use them" or "lync creates so much disruption" Especially at companies that start getting cross functional and next thing you know your boss for the year lives two timezones away, or your main partner in crime contractor lives one time zone the other direction. There is an area of local minima where everyone works in the same floor or same building where the appeal of remote work is at a business minimum, but the larger the company is, the more likely the person you're working with is in another country or state, to the point that it doesn't matter if I'm calling him from "work" or "home".

MichaelCrawford 12y ago

I often here that employers or consulting clients don't want to hire remote workers because of the tremendous value of "water cooler" conversations. How much do those water cooler conversations actually take place? How much value is actually produced from them? Most of my career has been on-site (ie. not remote). In twenty-seven years I can only recall once such conversation that produced anything of value. I was making coffee at 6 Infinite Loop one day, when I was a "Debug Meister" at Apple. Another Debug Meister by the name of Dave Lyons happened to ask what I thought of C++. "It's slow," I replied. "I prefer C." "Why?" "Because of the use of vtables for virtual functions." "But you need a dispatch mechanism in any language." Well that made sense to me, actually using tables of pointers to functions is common in C as well, so I agreed to take C++ seriously after that. However, I did not actually use C++ in my work until I'd moved on to a different company. That's all I can think of, in my 27 year career, that being on-site has resulted in a water cooler conversation that produced something of lasting value.

JoeAltmaier 12y ago

Wow this guy needs to get on board with some collaboration software. I work at Sococo, and it helps with all this. In fact our entire company works 'remotely'. Its not clear who if anybody works 'at the home office' even though we have 3 offices. Its honestly like working in a big office, except better. Everybody is on an even playing field - we can all hear each other, all share docs, all participate in a sprint commitment ceremony etc.

MichaelCrawford 12y ago
Joe: http://www.warplife.com/mdc/resume/ http://www.warplife.com/mdc/resume/ mdcrawford@gmail.com
- JoeAltmaier 12y ago
  Thanks! I'll forward that to my Director.
  - MichaelCrawford 12y ago
    I Am Eternally In Your Debt.

levosmetalo 12y ago

Yeah, I know, remote working is hard. What is even harder is being remote part time worker in a different time zone. That is an order of magnitude harder. The only reason when it can work if when the company doesn't really have main office, and the team is scattered around the globe with no real majority in any country, so everyone understands the issues of remote work.