Or say some error or urgent request comes up, it's been my experience at our office that the point person can look around, grab people into a quick meeting and resolve something in 10 minutes that would otherwise kick around in email for days.
It also helps on the social side to be "plugged into" the company. When you run across some weird error or feature request it's really valuable to know who you can even ask about a related part of the codebase or functionality. And you build that mental database by socializing.
Just a few of points the other way :-) I've done both remote and office work and just happen to prefer the higher bandwidth/iteration speed of in-person work.
I wish I could take back all my prior invocations of the complaint that someone interrupting me for 15 seconds eats 15 minutes of my productivity. Not only have I come to recognize just how transparently self-centered that meme is (and I'm embarrassed that I couldn't see it before, but given all the other great things about working from home I suppose a little confirmation bias is understandable), I've also realized that there are really quite a few domains where premature optimization is the root of all evil.
I think that the interruptions thing is definitely true, but the things that interrupt us are our devices, not our people. You can tell a colleague that you've got to get more uninterrupted time, but your device continually beckons.
Another thing that interrupts me is slow system access. I'm trying to develop on a test database that's abhorrently slow. Each time I'm forced to wait, I quickly pick up my phone, or load up a Hacker News tab.
- strong work ethic: no one needs to tell you that it's time to start working for the day/after lunch etc.
- strong communication: not the same as being an extrovert. might even help if you are an introvert. Just comfortable with text being the dominant means of articulation.
- strong 9-5 boundaries: might not be 9-5, might not be exactly 8 hours, but they have work hours and non-work hours and adhere to them.
- not junior: I've met a few junior devs who are good remote workers, but overwhelmingly most are seasoned. Maybe it just takes time to figure out the work-life balance/discipline integral to being an effective remote worker?
- trustworthy: the kind of person you can hand off something to and know it will be done.
- not great at ping pong: maybe those relate to the strong work ethic? That is, they never took/had time for honing ping pong skills at work ? Maybe that's just me :)
I work remotely too so maybe the traits are biased towards the positive.
[0] Team lead with one on ones + reviews for ~20 people.
I agree with all but the 9-5 premise. The thing that makes it easy for me is Git! Having all of our work stored in version control gives our team 100% accountability in a totally painless way. And if there's ever a project I'm working on outside of git, I do daily dump archives so each day is snapshotted.
No need to track hours, no need to wonder what somebody did all day. If you want to know what I did last tuesday go check my commit!
Version control = accountability and trust
I don't really look at commit logs because, to me, they reflect how one prefers to work, rather than how productive they are being. 2 people can easily have 2 or 20 commits for the same feature set. I'm not going to be calling one a 10x engineer based on that :)
To that end I don't believe in looking at commit log, or time tracking (!) because both can be falsified pretty easily: they are just another form of counting lines of code IMO. I prefer to look at how much customer value someone is delivering and how much other team members listen to them.
I'm not advocating numbers of lines of code or numbers of commits either, value is what's important, but having a daily, timestamped record of everything everybody did just takes all the question out of 'What did you do last Tuesday?', any of us could just go and check. Working with version control has been a _huge_ benefit to remote working because it provides a way that people who don't see each other can trust each other.
It also ensures that nothing of value what was ever produced by anybody (and paid for) is ever lost, even if deleted. That's just smart business!
It's so team members can get in touch if they need to. It's also about signaling when team members can't get in touch. Both are important since they are implicit to an office but something you need to be careful to correctly define/signal when you are working remotely. Note that it doesn't have to be 9-5 office time, just needs to be hours people expect to be able(and not able) to get in touch: 12-8 your local time? Go for it! Whatever works so you can maximize you and your team's work/life balance :)
From a personal sanity perspective it's as firebones says in reply.
FWIW, I -- and most engineers -- fall victim to the the personal sanity perspective rather more frequently.
But in my mind there is a difference between being available for questions/advice vs. actually working, e.g. designing a system or writing code. If someone messages me on a Saturday asking, "hey, which server do I log into to do X?" then taking the two minutes to reply means I'm available, but I don't think of it as "work".
However, I can see that if you work for someone else, there could be a lot of pressure if things aren't going well or if you have a demanding boss, and you might feel trapped being at home and not having anywhere else to escape to.
(It sounds like you are happy! I just wanted to point out to you and others that these two particular perks do not necessarily require working from home)
Edit: same general idea goes for the folks down thread appreciating access to a full kitchen. In fact, if one were designing an office, would this thread not be a great place to get ideas to distinguish your new office in awesome ways?
Relatedly, freezing is the healthiest way to preserve and transport fruits and vegetables. It also allows them to be harvested when naturally ripe, rather than artificially ripened.
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Since the microwave is often used for reheating food that was cooked with these other methods, there's often no advantage.
There ought to be more awareness of recipes for the microwave. Many restaurants are using them to good effect.
Yeah who would want that? I've done both and both have their pros and cons, socializing is definitely a perk and introvert or extrovert should not be underestimated in keeping you healthy and happy and a skilled professional.
Also, socializing in the workplace tends to be very superficial, because you're extremely limited in the range of topics you can discuss. God forbid that you say something unprofessional.
And yes, doesn't matter the company size. Ofc there are different situations but I always feel like people have a too broad definition of harassment.
Going a bit off topic, I know that's not the popular view in the western world, but I think you should fend for yourself in society and we are over reliant on rules and regulations, and then people complain about lacking freedom.
Bouncing ideas off co-workers is what I miss most about working in an office.
No, it's not. It is a hindrance to the reason you are there, which is to get a job done.
I do not wish to socialize at work, I do not wish to work when I socialize.
I started my career working in an office, then spent about 10 years working from home, and am now in an office again. The flexibility of telecommuting is a benefit that can't be overstated, but I personally find that being in an office I solve problems faster and enjoy my working hours more, as a result of the people around me.
Not being interrupted and everybody defaulting to using e-mail for communications has to be the best benefit of it besides not having to commute.
Also, I totally don't get the complaints about loneliness and isolation. I have the company of family and friends. And I distinguish firmly among clients, coworkers and friends.
Having some social interaction is nice. The problem is that there are too many people who'll stop by and initiate social interaction while you're in the middle of something more important. What's worse, in an open plan office like mine, your flow isn't just disrupted by people stopping by at your desk. Your flow is interrupted by people stopping by at any of your neighbors desks. God forbid you sit next to a PM who has foot traffic coming and going at all hours of the workday.
For me the best working situation would be an office (doesn't have to be big) with a door that closes. After that comes working at home. Finally, at the bottom, is working in an open plan office (which is unfortunately my current situation).
Only break protocol for your boss's boss, even then only accept one sentence from him, give one sentence back, and unless the office is on fire say you're deep into Y and you'll stop by later to discuss. When you do stop by, make sure to mention that interrupting you like he did is not pleasant and request he use Slack or whatever instant messager your company uses.
Your boss can just learn to use email. It may take a few discussions before he'll respect it but it'll be worth it. Send anyone who complains a link to Paul Graham's Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule.
The most difficult part was having to deal with a dead-weight VP of Engineering (my boss) who had no process, knowledge, who could not think on his feet in person or over the phone. I had to talk to the CEO and product management to understand the next evolution they wanted, and to actively thwart fruitless conversations and diversions from the boss. I asked for wikis, better bug-trackers, or other tools to better coordinate documentation and work. Finally, after a new CEO and after the VP Engineering was fired about four months ago, things have improved. We immediately followed through on Confluence (great wiki for organizing and documenting engineering and other efforts), JIRA (OK bug tracker), transitioned to git with Bitbucket. Communication and recording of designs, etc., has improved a lot. The new VP Engineering hired a month ago has improved things more -- he's rational, understands the technology, is good at organizing effort, and doesn't asked stoopid questions. I no longer venture into inappropriate and unprofessional phone behavior, which I resorted to many times previously out of frustration.
I regretted so many times joining the company, and knew from my initial interview discussions with the VP Engineering that I shouldn't have joined in the first place. The salary and options were too good to pass up, though, and the problem addressed was interesting enough. I also knew others in the company and thought it might be fun working there. I spent many late nights working on stuff for a boss who could not appreciate the magnitude of what was being requested and delivered.
I also spent many late nights repeatedly diagnosing scalability and performance problems that were not my own but rather in a few modules I had to invoke. Even after being presented with clear evidence in myriad in-house and customer cases this prior boss could not clearly grasp the urgency of fixing the issues. The issue was live at customer sites for over eight months before they were finally fixed.
So ...:
- I miss SV friends after my move to the Southeast and haven't quite found "my people" here yet ... so I feel somewhat isolated
- I work very effectively and don't take liberties with schedule, but I don't overwork either unless there's an urgent issue
- I get to work from home or from a local coffeeshop, restaurant, or other venue -- I like this freedom
- I get to do a lot of my daughter's events in daytime, nobody's looking over my shoulder
- ... all these pros/cons were heavily dominated, though, by one big negative -- make sure you can get along with your boss, which wasn't my case
- why didn't I jump ship? it's hard to find another remote gig, and my terms were, I believe, pretty decent; the company has a chance of doing something decent and being worth something -- largely due to product area, C-level reputation, good sales -- the product has some shortcomings that will eventually be overcome