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Why is remote work seen as a gift?

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Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#411

Post by erikerikson »

paulrpotts wrote: post #352
fleddr wrote: post #339

The "return to the office" move is largely management/extrovert bias. Managers collaborate all day long, it's what they do, whilst "workers" tend to be overwhelmed by the many meetings. Further, extroverts get energy out of being around people. Another factor is that some (many) managers frankly have no idea what their employees do. Physical presence management is the coping strategy. That being said, I do agree that…

>"It doesn’t matter where you work, as long as you get the work done." Having worked with a number of overseas teams in China and India, it's actually somewhat difficult for US-based teams to work with teams up to 12 hours "distant" and also who have different sets of official holidays. I've been in so many status meetings that are either late at night for me or late at night for overseas team members so we can sync…

I've worked with some fantastic talent out of Brazil and Ecuador.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#412

Post by simmerup »

tsgagnon wrote: post #403
ARandomerDude wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a senior leader, one of your jobs is to teach the younger folks how to do their jobs efficiently. I'm in the leadership position you describe, and I've found remote work to be amazing for teaching because of screen-sharing. It's so much easier to get the team talking about some code over Teams/Slack/etc. than it is awkwardly huddled around someone's monitor or looking at a TV in the office. Remotely, you're able…

I'm in the leadership position you describe, and I've found remote work to be amazing for teaching because of screen-sharing. I'm in a agreement on this. I find reviewing changes much easier with screen-share than in person. It also makes the process feel less confrontational in some respects.

I got to wonder if it feels less confrontational only because it’s harder to see their reactions to your comments.

Obviously I don’t know how these meetings go, just a passing observation

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#413

Post by dahfizz »

MrGilbert wrote: post #25

I find it kind of amusing (and annoying) that employers like to play the salaray game as it fits their needs. I got interviewed a few times, and some stated that they cannot pay the salary I was asking, because i don't live in a high-density, high-cost-for-living area, while others argued that they have to respect their local salaries, which are below what I would expect in my area. I'm yet to meet the employer that…

Your salary is the cost to replace you with someone else.

In person jobs have a smaller market. Everyone is subject to the same COL, so the min salary the employer must pay has a certain floor to it.

Remote jobs have a larger market. If you're remote, your employer may as well hire someone from Ohio that is willing to work for half your salary. You have to compete on cost with those cheaper employees.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#414

Post by opyate »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #375
fleddr wrote: post #339

The "return to the office" move is largely management/extrovert bias. Managers collaborate all day long, it's what they do, whilst "workers" tend to be overwhelmed by the many meetings. Further, extroverts get energy out of being around people. Another factor is that some (many) managers frankly have no idea what their employees do. Physical presence management is the coping strategy. That being said, I do agree that…

Corporations consistently try to outsource everyone’s position. It’s an ongoing process. Meanwhile I just replaced a software vendor in China with one from the US. 70% more expensive, but also cheaper in terms of rework, code quality, deep understanding of the subject matter and care . Oh, and meetings during sane working hours are understated.

Thanks, With all the layoffs going on, your fellow countrymen will appreciate the job opportunities :)

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#415

Post by nakor »

rcme wrote: post #371
fleddr wrote: post #339

The "return to the office" move is largely management/extrovert bias. Managers collaborate all day long, it's what they do, whilst "workers" tend to be overwhelmed by the many meetings. Further, extroverts get energy out of being around people. Another factor is that some (many) managers frankly have no idea what their employees do. Physical presence management is the coping strategy. That being said, I do agree that…

> "It doesn’t matter where you work, as long as you get the work done." This sentiment is weird to me. When people express this, I think they have a myopic view on work. Like they view work as a series of JIRA tickets that need to be closed out. As a senior leader, one of your jobs is to teach the younger folks how to do their jobs efficiently. Your personal output is not that important. You are there to be a force m…

I don't understand how this sentiment is weird at all and I think you're reading a lot of your own biases into it. The statement talks about where the work gets done and doesn't speak to how efficiently the work gets done.

There's nothing that prevents remote work from not being efficient enough to further the goals of an organization. It also doesn't prevent one from being a leader and teaching younger folk. In fact, I've had to do this a lot and it's much nicer to get people on a video call and share my screen to teach or do team programming than it is to find a meeting/conference room in the office.

Some people don't like interruptions _precisely_ because it prevents from doing an efficient job. And it's more than slightly annoying when you're getting interrupted multiple times per hour.

Yes, _very_ few things are built solely by an individual, but _nothing_ prevents remote work from "Doing work" as you put it or collaboration between teams.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#416

Post by [deleted] »

fleddr wrote: post #406
thinknubpad wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's an open invitation to move your position to the lowest cost country that outputs quality that is acceptable. We tried that before, outsourcing was a huge trend maybe 20-30 years ago? The problem is the second part of your sentence. There's a reason that particular business practice settled into a niche of call centers. It turned out that good workers want to be paid what they are worth, regardless of location.…

You're quite out of touch. If you think outsourcing is a telco niche you should check again.

[deleted]

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#417

Post by ghotli »

> But there seems to be this returning perspective in the tech industry that remote work isn’t a fairly standard work practice, but is instead something that is a gift to employees. A privilege to be earned. A perk to bestow upon the most deserving.

Anecdotal but I've worked remote for over a decade. This we did pandemic remote and now we don't thing is just goofy. Don't worry about places that act like that. They are shitty places to work when you can find a job that's remote, with remote people, doing remote work. Might have to work at it a bit but it's out there.

Don't settle for less and laugh in the faces of folks that think they can get away with treating you like someone that needs to be told where you work best.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#418

Post by kevinskii »

ARandomerDude wrote: post #396
rcme wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "It doesn’t matter where you work, as long as you get the work done." This sentiment is weird to me. When people express this, I think they have a myopic view on work. Like they view work as a series of JIRA tickets that need to be closed out. As a senior leader, one of your jobs is to teach the younger folks how to do their jobs efficiently. Your personal output is not that important. You are there to be a force m…

> As a senior leader, one of your jobs is to teach the younger folks how to do their jobs efficiently. I'm in the leadership position you describe, and I've found remote work to be amazing for teaching because of screen-sharing. It's so much easier to get the team talking about some code over Teams/Slack/etc. than it is awkwardly huddled around someone's monitor or looking at a TV in the office. Remotely, you're able…

I agree that remote screen sharing can be sufficient, but I'm personally a much more effective mentor in person with lots of whiteboard space.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#420

Post by lordnacho »

mettamage wrote: post #201
lordnacho wrote: post #8

It's framed as a gift in order to manipulate the negotiating position. The fact is both employer and employee benefit from it, but if the employer can emphasize the benefits to the employee they can extract a bit of value from the relationship.

IMO in today's culture it is a gift. It's a gift in the sense that most companies aren't willing to do it. My quality of life being a digital nomad because of it (+ 4 days a week instead of 5) has shot up drastically.

It's also a gift to the company. They take less time and money to hire an employee, because there's more people in the hiring pool.
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