11–20 of 492 posts
I always think this is a funny argument because most companies don't need top talent. For nearly every business, good enough is definitely good enough. So the question to me is for average to slightly above average employees, will remote companies "win"?
Remote startups may win the war for top talent (in the short term) but who will win on productivity and by extension revenue? I guess we will all see that in the next 24 months.
- No commute
- No 1 hour lunch (walking, buying, eating, cleaning up)
- Not in an open-desk office where I'm constantly interrupted
- Meetings are much more focused and I can hop between meetings quickly
- Easy to do chores if necessary during the day and then work extra hours at night to make up
- Office politics much reduced, output is easier to measure by necessity and people's output is much more clear
Additionally I was forced to double-down on socialization outside of the office, reinforcing relationships that exist no matter what company I work for, further reducing my aversion to jumping ship.
In summation, WFH forever, I'm never going back
It is pretty easy to start your own project, with some consulting on a side.
Hybrid models will always struggle and 1/3/1 is going to be probably the best you can do.
My company is fully remote, we embraced the GitLab model and are EXTREMELY collaborative. Every meeting has a note taker, we use Figma and Figjam for white boarding with incredible efficacy. We essentially have near the same level of documentation as a major enterprise with only 30 staff.
Socializing is encouraged via huddles in Slack and I can communicate with anyone in the company if I need to. Collaboration and new ideas disseminate differently online, but as a leader I have made it a goal to make sure we are not putting barriers up online, and actively encourage 'water cooler' talk.
Meanwhile we have had no problem sourcing candidates since we can pull from anywhere in the world, we have some incredible people all over the world that we would not have gotten otherwise.
That might be true, but this is probably the beginning of sharply declining developer salaries. If you're going remote, a developer in California is going to be competing with devleopers in Kansas, not to mention overseas. The era of people fresh out of a developer bootcamp getting six figure salaries is all but done.
The other half, arguably more impactful, is the process. Geographic distribution mandates certain work practices to remain productive, and those can be highly rewarding and enjoyable to work with. Especially compared to something like agile/scrum.
They'll catch up eventually, but at least in the meanwhile I'm getting paid to help with this.
Remote startups with what cheap money? That era is coming to an end. They won't win anything, with cheap or expensive labor.
To me, an office sounds like something a tech company should only obtain after a strong and established revenue stream.