Remote work is plan B. I don't do it unless I really have to. The reason is pretty simple, it sucks most of the times and is sub-optimal for most of the other case.
Why Remote Work Should Change Startup Culture
101–110 of 130 posts
Re: Why Remote Work Should Change Startup Culture
#102Several months ago I interviewed for a remote position with a startup based in NYC. The technical screening consisted of a project and of course a couple of phone interviews. After I did well on all of that, I was flown up to NYC for a 'culture-fit' interview. Which I failed, apparently. As a mid-30s guy who was raised in the mid-west, I felt like I had very little in common with the 20-something urbanites with whom…
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Re: Why Remote Work Should Change Startup Culture
#103and everyone set your timezone on your computer and phone to UTC 24. You now have a standard 0-23 based incrementing integer to know what hour of the day it is globally. Force everyone to do this and get rid of the notion of my time or your time and when an integer means daylight or nighttime. It's abritrary that 23 means 11pm and nighttime. It doesn't. It just means 23.
before you speak on this subject, try 2 weeks in UTC 24. You'll have a whole blog article waiting to write. Everyone should try this vs. just think about it.
Re: Why Remote Work Should Change Startup Culture
#104I currently work remote for IBM Watson and I love it - I'm more productive, have more time to spend with my family, etc. My team and my direct manager are fantastic. I've worked remote before, and led remote teams with good results, but this has been my best experience yet. However, my position is in peril due to management changes a few rungs up the ladder. While the previous guy in charge of Watson wanted the best…
If you don't mind me asking, what is it like (going back to?) working for a large company after working for yourself.
There was a little bit of culture-shock, but honestly, it wasn't too bad. I had a few years at a startup in-between being self-employed, so it wasn't an instant switch, and my role at IBM provides a fair level of autonomy.
This is my first time at a big company (e.g. > 50 employees). IBM in particular is huge, almost inconceivably big.
It still surprises me how frequently I'm be asked for help/advice/whatever from people within IBM who I've never met before and who aren't on my team, or even in the Watson division. (This may be in part due to the fact that I have a more visible role than most.)
On the flip side of that, I frequently have no idea who to ask about a given issue. (Although this doesn't happen as often now as it used to.)
Nice points are that I don't have to worry about keeping up a pipeline of clients or having to be mindful of what's billable and what isn't.
It may be partially due to having more experience, but I find it a lot easier now to walk out of my office at the end of the day actually be done working. I might think about work a bit, but I rarely feel compelled to actually go and do work when I'm spending time with my family. When I was self-employed, there was always a nagging feeling that I should be working whenever I was doing anything else.
As an extension of the last point, paid vacation is awesome.
I also get to publish a lot more open source work now then I ever did before, although that obviously depends on your role.
On the down side, I'm supposed to get written permission from my manager for each open source project I want to contribute to. She always replies "yes" and usually quickly, but it still wastes time and feels silly. (I generally send the email, begin working on my change, and then wait for the "yes" before publishing it and sending a PR. That usually works out well.)
Spending company money is also tricky. Placing an order from Adafruit is a convoluted process that can take several weeks. (To be fair, there is an internal shopping site that makes ordering more common things like a monitor less painful.)
Overall, though, I'm glad I did it. My time at IBM has been good and, assuming they'll keep me, I think I'll probably stick around for a while longer.
Re: Why Remote Work Should Change Startup Culture
#105The most important part of an early stage company is figuring out what the product is. This should usually be a deeply collaborative process that (IMO) doesn't lend well to being 100 percent remote.
Re: Why Remote Work Should Change Startup Culture
#106I've made a career out of remote work (10+ years working remotely), and I have to say this is a pretty poor article. No, remote work is not for everyone, you need to know what you are doing at both ends or it'll not match your expectations. No, it does not (necessarily) bring the best global talent, specially not if your motivation for remote is bringing down costs. And no, you don't need to use any of the tools list…
There's another thing too: being productive remotely takes a different kind of discipline. If you are a seasoned contractor or freelancer, then maybe you've already developed said discipline, but it's far from universal. I agree that companies need to trust their employees, but in turn employees need to also be honest with themselves and acknowledge if they are not wired for remote work. I've done all mixes of full-t…
When I first started working remotely I was not honest with myself in regards to my discipline or motivational capacity. I feel like both I and the company I work for are worse off for it. It's been a long lesson that I'm still learning and I feel that my demographic (early 20s still living in college town with college friends) are particularly susceptible to its pitfalls.
Re: Why Remote Work Should Change Startup Culture
#107I currently work remote for IBM Watson and I love it - I'm more productive, have more time to spend with my family, etc. My team and my direct manager are fantastic. I've worked remote before, and led remote teams with good results, but this has been my best experience yet. However, my position is in peril due to management changes a few rungs up the ladder. While the previous guy in charge of Watson wanted the best…
It's too late to edit, but since a couple of people have contacted me, I wanted to add a few details: if I do start my own company, it would probably be self-funded and mostly do work for external clients on things like websites and apps, process automation, AI/deep learning, A/B testing and optimization, and maybe a bit of embedded/IoT work. And, of course, it'd be all remote.
If that sounds like your cup of tea, feel free to send me an email: nathan@nfriedly.com and maybe we can work together.
But, bear in mind that I'm still more likely to stick with IBM than start my own thing at this point. And even if I did leave, it would be at least a few months before I'd be ready to take anyone on full-time.
Re: Why Remote Work Should Change Startup Culture
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Playing devil's advocate, there are definitely entirely legitimate reasons one might fail a "culture-fit" interview, especially for a remote hire: Perhaps you weren't so much "not-like-us" as "you kids don't know shit, just wait until you hire me" (your comment does come off slightly condescending) or just generally as someone who'd struggle being outranked by someone 10 years your junior (I understand mid-western va…
Culture fit is just code for 'let's hire someone who has identical life experiences to mine'
Not necessarily. When we talk about someone being a good culture fit at the place I work, we look for someone who's respectful, approachable, not condescending, and who wants to empower their coworkers.
There are many brilliant technical people who are jerks—we don't want to work with them. (And not to say that there's not a place for super-smart people who are assholes, but we try not to hire them.)
Re: Why Remote Work Should Change Startup Culture
#109I joined my startup 2 years ago on-site. After my wife and I had a baby it became very difficult to live in the bay area. Housing is obviously ridiculous there and I had to live an hour away from the office. I told my manager that we would be moving and I was interviewing for remote jobs. They ended up allowing me to work remotely, and I have been for almost two months now. The whole transition has been much smoother…
Have you tried Slack's Screenhero integration? Being able to type /hero @username and start pair programming in seconds (with audio!) is a huge productivity increase.
Does this work in Linux ?
Re: Why Remote Work Should Change Startup Culture
#110I've made a career out of remote work (10+ years working remotely), and I have to say this is a pretty poor article. No, remote work is not for everyone, you need to know what you are doing at both ends or it'll not match your expectations. No, it does not (necessarily) bring the best global talent, specially not if your motivation for remote is bringing down costs. And no, you don't need to use any of the tools list…
She used "everyone" in the context of all titles not just software developers.
I believe a DCVS and email are implicit and why they are maybe not on her list. She never claimed it was an exhaustive list. Also Slack is a real time communication client and its on her list.
No remote and remote first haven't become buzzwords they have become viable consideration for companies to fill roles that they aren't able fill using a local-only talent pool. This is why you are hearing more about it.
Sure there have been people that have telecommuted since dial modems that doesn't mean it was common or widely embraced or that there multiple opportunities.
You yourself have bee doing it for 10 years and obviously believe in its viability so why are so upset that another company is embracing it? Why does someone writing a post about their companies culture constitute a fad?