Remote startups will win the war for top talent • Hacker News Board

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#281

Post by rowanajmarshall » Tue, Aug 23, 2022, 4:28 PM UTC

eropple wrote: post #131

icare_1er wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you made good friends amongst your colleagues in your remote company, during the remote-work era ? All the trustworthy people i know from work were people i socialized with in person, at the office, around coffe-breaks, post-work drinks, etc. I don't see something similar happening over Zoom meetings and my guess is that 95% of people are like me in that regards. Now, this may not be a big deal over the short-te…

> Have you made good friends amongst your colleagues in your remote company, during the remote-work era ? Not the OP, but I certainly have. It takes some effort, but it's not particularly difficult if you know and understand how to communicate effectively over a remote medium. It requires an understanding of how communications attenuate over a screen--you need to project! , in-person-normal levels of reservation tend…

> It takes some effort, but it's not particularly difficult if you know and understand how to communicate effectively over a remote medium

So I've got zero doubt you _can_ do that, I did over lockdown. But if we make socialising systemically harder across the board, we're basically setting ourselves up to be a lonelier, more isolated society.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#282

Post by Ninjinka » Tue, Aug 23, 2022, 4:28 PM UTC

After college I moved back to my hometown that doesn't have much of a tech company presence, something I was only able to do because of my remote job. I have no intention of moving, so I will exclusively look for remote jobs going forward.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#283

Post by bart_spoon » Tue, Aug 23, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

tjr225 wrote: post #197

SQueeeeeL wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> yes, this is a me thing, but it's also always been a me thing I feel like picking jobs off of a desire to live a social life and feel like part of a community is extremely normal and valid. Remote work is essentially accepting that the primary way you'll engage with your colleagues and labor is through a screen, and that is an uncomfortable feeling (to some people at least)

There will be a reckoning when we collectively realize that putting more and more, and eventually all, of our lives on the internet is not good for us.

People spend 95% of the time in the office in front of a screen anyways. Perhaps there is a problem with too much of our lives being spent online, but switching from in office to remote work isn't even enough of a difference in that respect to register.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#284

Post by babypuncher » Tue, Aug 23, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

bearjaws wrote: post #16

I never really understood why people say productivity and socializing is difficult remote. It's difficult because people aren't putting thought into it. At my last big-co job the leadership just kept waiting for 'covid to be over' and not improving our remote work culture. 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…

Different personality types. Some people thrive working remote, they can fulfill all (or most) of their daily social needs through slack and virtual meetings. Others need face to face time, or even just a regular "second place" that is separate from their living space.

What I don't like is how dismissive everyone is of anyone who disagrees with them on WFH. Everybody is different.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#285

Post by mym1990 » Tue, Aug 23, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

dogman144 wrote: post #217

mattgperry wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I" "I" "I" This works great for you but for many it doesn't. Both are valid perspectives.

But one “I” is asking for others to center their life around work for the sake of socialization, the other “I” is happy for the extroverted employee to find that extroversion however suits them, just leave me out of it. Those don’t seem equal asks

No where did I see OP ask for others to center their life around work for socialization. They admitted that many companies are cut off from their job search as a result, BUT ALSO THAT THEY ARE OKAY WITH THAT. You're twisting it completely.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#286

Post by andrewingram » Tue, Aug 23, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

enlyth wrote: post #168

andrewingram wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. During my somewhat passive job search, I've only been considering companies that have an office local to me (i.e. Central London). I've been working remotely since the start of the pandemic, and I simply don't like it. Sure, I don't miss having to commute or offices with bad noise pollution controls, but I miss everything else. Most of all, I miss being in town at the end of the day and being able to pop to th…

But the fact that you don't go out is because you don't put any effort into it. I work remotely from Kent, we also have an office in Central London but I made the effort to make local friends with whom I go out all the time, even week nights. I prefer this to spending £40 for the train to then drink £8 pints in overfilled London pubs while standing outside and shouting over each other. I actually don't want to spend…

Pre-pandemic, I used to go the gym 4 nights a week, salsa parties the same or more. With remote work I am struggling, please try not to reduce my challenges to simply not putting the effort in, this is a difficulty I've battled with my entire life.

Also, note that neither of these activities involve colleagues, who I'd usually only socialise with post-work once a week (typically Fridays).

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#287

Post by throwawaysleep » Tue, Aug 23, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

jofer wrote: post #141

I've been working 100% remotely for about 6.5 years now. Overall I love it. However, there are very real drawbacks that have taken me awhile to fully realize. For me, the primary one is that it's _way_ too easy for everyone to get deeply frustrated with each other. Social interactions and chit-chat lead to a better understanding of people and a more accurate mental model of what people actually mean when they say som…

Follow the Hacker News guidelines at work.

> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#288

Post by throwthisHMaway » Tue, Aug 23, 2022, 4:30 PM UTC

A major swedish fashion retailer is _just now_ manating everyone in the IT department back to the office (about 4000 tech people), as of next week.

There is a big pushback, and no suppprt from the unions for this return to the office. There will be a wave of resignations very soon.

Who's hiring? :)

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#289

Post by turtlebits » Tue, Aug 23, 2022, 4:30 PM UTC

bearjaws wrote: post #16

I never really understood why people say productivity and socializing is difficult remote. It's difficult because people aren't putting thought into it. At my last big-co job the leadership just kept waiting for 'covid to be over' and not improving our remote work culture. 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…

I'm started at a remote optional company 6 mo ago and just had a team on-site a few weeks ago.

Collaboration was through the roof. Maybe it's how our previous virtual meetings were run, but it felt like items like planning, architecture discussions and reviewing strategy documents was 5x more productive in person than virtual.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#290

Post by distrill » Tue, Aug 23, 2022, 4:30 PM UTC

slothtrop wrote: post #211

whateveracct wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of public slack channels works pretty well in my experience. People end up talking about a lot in plain view and people hop in etc

This feels about as intimate and satisfying as talking with randoms on discord. Or posting on HN.

in a huge company sure but in smaller startups it's fine, it's nice even.

i've been at companies with 10 people and 10s of thousands and in between and obviously this stops holding true at a fairly small number of employees. but there are plenty of companies of the size that this works for fine.