I would love to work remote, unfortunately my country is just beginning to have people work from home 1 to 2 days a week if their "title" allows for it. As an architect I could do all my work remote, even meetings. But it's, as was already mentioned, a big cultural change, many companies also don't "trust" their employees. They come up with the excuse that people will be doing non-work related chores at home (washing dishes, laundry, etc...) while they should be focusing on work. They expect you to sit 8h at your desk at home. If mentalities don't change at the top it's not going to trickle down.
Ask HN: Why is remote work not mainstream in 2018?
11–18 of 18 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is remote work not mainstream in 2018?
#12I think you are underestimating how much has to change in company culture, communication and structure to make a remote office work efficiently and effectively. I am remote and we work hard to try to minimize the issues but there are always extra delays and miscommunications because of time zones or multiple communication channels etc. And there is something to still getting together to bond as a team, work through p…
All the problems that you mentioned are actually easy to fix.
Team bonding doesn’t exist anymore, it’s very old school. I spent many years working in tech for various companies, I see more angry colleagues than ever before. Majority of them, not all of them of course. Team bonding is usually an awkward social event with people you don’t really appreciate. Management usually set that up (not always). It’s great because it helps people getting away from their desks for a little while but a remote employee would rather spend that time away from a screen with family and friends.
Working remotely or from home doesn’t necessarily mean that employees are located throughout the world. A company can still be located in only one city and its employees can work remotely within the same state (in the US for example). No commute time, flexible hours and less frictions.
I agree though, some people really need a structured enviroment to function “properly”. But again, it’s a cultural thing someone came with one day and everyone followed. Cultures evolve with time.
Re: Ask HN: Why is remote work not mainstream in 2018?
#13Just to follow up on my sarcastic comment about Elon Musk. I believe this would actually compromise his own companies. If all his employees were to work remotely, he could not put the them pressure on people to work unlimited hours with no interruptions.
If he would have adopted a remote work culture, tesla and space X would be a bit behind in terms of progress today. But does it mean the results would be different at the end? Are we looking at a 2-3 year delay? Is this a big deal?
Re: Ask HN: Why is remote work not mainstream in 2018?
#14I would love to work remote, unfortunately my country is just beginning to have people work from home 1 to 2 days a week if their "title" allows for it. As an architect I could do all my work remote, even meetings. But it's, as was already mentioned, a big cultural change, many companies also don't "trust" their employees. They come up with the excuse that people will be doing non-work related chores at home (washing…
Just curious: where are you from?
Re: Ask HN: Why is remote work not mainstream in 2018?
#15I think you are underestimating how much has to change in company culture, communication and structure to make a remote office work efficiently and effectively. I am remote and we work hard to try to minimize the issues but there are always extra delays and miscommunications because of time zones or multiple communication channels etc. And there is something to still getting together to bond as a team, work through p…
All the problems that you mentioned are actually easy to fix. Team bonding doesn’t exist anymore, it’s very old school. I spent many years working in tech for various companies, I see more angry colleagues than ever before. Majority of them, not all of them of course. Team bonding is usually an awkward social event with people you don’t really appreciate. Management usually set that up (not always). It’s great becaus…
I agree the issues can be addressed, I disagree with your assertion they are easy to fix, not to mention the cost to address some of them is not free. And yea, I totally agree there are some people that just won't due well in a remote environment while many people can thrive given the right circumstances.
It is interesting to me why more startups aren't remote friendly early on today as if you build that culture early it actually has a key benefit of forcing good process and communication skills on the entire company, versus relying on the office chatter which is common in startups. This is my primary reason for preferring remote from the start of any company I am apart of, it just forces good habits and lets you find awesome people anywhere.
Re: Ask HN: Why is remote work not mainstream in 2018?
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
All the problems that you mentioned are actually easy to fix. Team bonding doesn’t exist anymore, it’s very old school. I spent many years working in tech for various companies, I see more angry colleagues than ever before. Majority of them, not all of them of course. Team bonding is usually an awkward social event with people you don’t really appreciate. Management usually set that up (not always). It’s great becaus…
I agree the issues can be addressed, I disagree with your assertion they are easy to fix, not to mention the cost to address some of them is not free. And yea, I totally agree there are some people that just won't due well in a remote environment while many people can thrive given the right circumstances. It is interesting to me why more startups aren't remote friendly early on today as if you build that culture earl…
I agree. I can only think of Automattic (wordpress), Github and InVision in terms of mid-size fully remote companies. They are more early stage startups that do that... It really sucks because the companies I mentioned are pretty successful and they have a very solid and strong culture.
Re: Ask HN: Why is remote work not mainstream in 2018?
#17I would love to work remote, unfortunately my country is just beginning to have people work from home 1 to 2 days a week if their "title" allows for it. As an architect I could do all my work remote, even meetings. But it's, as was already mentioned, a big cultural change, many companies also don't "trust" their employees. They come up with the excuse that people will be doing non-work related chores at home (washing…
The argument of more productivity is just too ambiguous and weak.
You have to realize what allowing remote work means for a manager : losing control.
I see only a few reasons for management to change their attitude towards remote work
* it saves money
* its harder to get good folks to work for you without this perk
Re: Ask HN: Why is remote work not mainstream in 2018?
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't help - you get better business meetings, but you don't get the non-business conversations that might lead to something more. Real collaboration happens at the coffeepot - when people who didn't know they should talk accidentally run into each other and happen to talk about something they can help each other with.
I work as a developer on a fully remote team. I agree with what you wrote, but a nice thing about being remote is you can conduct these “non-business” conversations on your own terms. When you’re at an office all day you probably only interact with your coworkers. When you work remote, you meet people outside your specific industry at cafes/coworking spaces.
That is useful for you, but it isn't useful for your company. When it is co-workers you talk to the talk [sometimes] turns to solving work problems.
Remote work isn't all bad, but there are serious downsides that cannot be ignored. Companies that choose to do/allow remote work need to figure out how to deal with them. Of course working in the same office has its own set of downsides to deal with.