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Ask HN: What is your strongest argument against remote work?
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Re: Ask HN: What is your strongest argument against remote work?
#2The strongest argument against remote work (generally speaking, not specific to the current coronavirus) is that a company is not disciplined enough to communicate well, especially across teams. This may be the case if a significant number of business decisions are done in side conversations. You probably need some tooling such as a chat app, video conferencing software etc and a process where important business decisions are written down and communicated.
There's also a case where some jobs need to be done in-person. A good example is a restocker for a grocery store. You can't move boxes remotely. Similarly a surgeon can't do a surgery remotely.
Re: Ask HN: What is your strongest argument against remote work?
#3I work from home and am a big advocate of doing so.
One thing I find difficult in remote teams is the ability to ask a coworker a question quickly. There can be a fair amount of lag time over messenger and this occasionally blocks the completion of work.
Re: Ask HN: What is your strongest argument against remote work?
#4It's impossible to have a company potluck.
Re: Ask HN: What is your strongest argument against remote work?
#5In my experience with very early stage teams, a lot of creativity and innovation occurs as a byproduct of spending a large amount of time together in close quarters discussing a range of topics (work related and not.) I’ve managed remote teams as well and while there are ways to replicate certain aspects of this dynamic, overall it’s much more difficult.
Re: Ask HN: What is your strongest argument against remote work?
#6I work from home and am a big advocate of doing so. One thing I find difficult in remote teams is the ability to ask a coworker a question quickly. There can be a fair amount of lag time over messenger and this occasionally blocks the completion of work.
> There can be a fair amount of lag time over messenger and this occasionally blocks the completion of work.
Agreed. But the reverse is also true: it's harder for people to interrupt you.
Re: Ask HN: What is your strongest argument against remote work?
#7I absolutely think you lose something from lack of face-to-face contact. Some of the most productive leadership and decison-making sessions I've had came from sitting around a table or sharing a meal or a drink with a team, and going back and forth about something.
Additionally, casual contact helps too. I put a couch in my office, and people would come just sit down and talk. The setting set the vibe. I had some great conversations with people just kicking back that I would have never otherwise had.
I absolutely realize people will disagree, but this is my experience.
Re: Ask HN: What is your strongest argument against remote work?
#8I've been working remote for better part of a year. It works well as long as your team has good systems in place. However, you do miss out on deeper relationships with your coworkers if you start remote. People try to counter this with on-sites, but still, it's not quite the same. Water cooler conversations don't happen as often and though you would think that doesn't matter, it does. There's less serendipity. I have less random interactions with people who are not on my precise team.
All that being said, I think remote is here to stay.
Re: Ask HN: What is your strongest argument against remote work?
#9I work from home and am a big advocate of doing so. One thing I find difficult in remote teams is the ability to ask a coworker a question quickly. There can be a fair amount of lag time over messenger and this occasionally blocks the completion of work.
I have been working from home for nearly 8 years now with a very small team (2-3 other people over the years max, mainly just with 1 other).
We have been using VSee to keep a constant video/audio feed going. We both have microphones which are muted, and if we need to ask a question we just press unmute and talk away.
For smaller teams that need to communicate a lot, I think something like this is the best setup because like you said, it's not a lag from a messenger.. having to make a new phone call etc if you just want to ask a simple question.
Re: Ask HN: What is your strongest argument against remote work?
#10It's impossible to have a company potluck.
Typically remote work companies still have occasional (say quarterly) in person, all-hands gatherings.