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Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

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Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#101

Post by RHSeeger »

prmoustache wrote: post #95
RHSeeger wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that that doesn't really work. The people working in the office don't get the benefit of in person social connection if others aren't coming in, too. Either you have people coming (win for the office people, loss for the remote) or you have people working from home (the reverse). Leaving it up to everyone to work it out on their own doesn't really solve the problem. That being said, working it out "per…

There is always a fraction of people who will chose to go to the office. That's enough to have social connection. These persons do not have to be on your own team. The last 10 years or so I have been working on teams splitted in 3 to 5 different countries, and now in 3 different continents. In that case you are effectively working remotely even when your are working in a company's office.

Can't say I agree with that. Seeing "anyone" is not the same as seeing the people you're close to (work closely with, know well). It certainly doesn't bring me the same mental benefit.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#102

Post by jawns »

jimmydoe wrote: post #67
jawns wrote: post #9

I am at a point in my career where I can be selective and only consider 100% remote roles. I am also a manager, so I understand some of the management challenges that lead people to dismiss or be skeptical of the claim that remote work can be just as effective as office work. One thing I will admit: It is harder, as a remote manager, to manage low performers or people who show signs of disengagement. You can get more…

> You just have to have the right people on the team you put it nicely, the flip side is most of companies/teams may not have the luxury to have all 100% right people, they may get disengaged and some of them may come back engaged again. the challenge here is remote work makes it relatively harder to get some of them back on track.

Yes, that's true. If it were as easy as "just hire high performers" then everyone would do it. And even if you do hire high performers, helping them emerge from a period of disengagement is tough.

So perhaps one way to express my position is that when it comes to remote work, you almost have to treat yourself as an independent contractor or consultant, even if you're technically an employee.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#103

Post by cajunboi34213 »

vitehozonage wrote: post #99
cajunboi34213 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. So if you say can I call you about X/Y/Z, you're asking them to stop what they are doing and listen to your monologue in real time. With the walkie talkie, you hit talk and send them your monologue. They can listen in real time (one-way) if they are available or can listen to your audio + read the transcription (later). This puts them in control of when and how they consume and respond. The added benefit is the…

I still dont get it. That's just precisely the same as sending a instant message but it has an audio option? I've tried doing audio messages before but i find it unbearable - both to listen to them and record them. I just love async text; i want nothing more than email/github

No doubt there is a learning/awk hump like any tool. At first it was like why do I have to listen to this 4 minute voicemail. Yikes. But now it's like ok, listening to this 4 min monologue at 1.5X is better than a phone call that I may get stuck on for 20 minutes or worse a 30 minute meeting scheduled in 2 days that's free on my cal right now, but will totally kill my flow state on that day...

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#104

Post by tanjtanjtanj »

knallfrosch wrote: post #5

I don't think a May 2021 article – before widespread vaccination even made return-to-office policies possible, and before the tech layoffs – is the best starting point. Okay, calling CEOs that demand a return "bad" and "fearful" is a provocative take, but the article doesn't back up these assumptions. Much less does it actually explain the reason why bad, and only bad, CEOs "fear" remote work. With, for example, Appl…

My employer and many others started RTO in July 2020 with a playbook from a White House lead "return to work" committee. I wouldn't say it was made possible by vaccination. Many CEOs absolutely are fearful of the new environment created by WFH.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#105

Post by Balgair »

pragma_x wrote: post #60

Every time this comes up I'm struck by the same thought: do these cats measure _anything_ their people do? And what in the world happens when someone takes off for two weeks to go on vacation? The solution to all this is very simple. Management needs to hold everyone, including other managers, accountable for measurable output. These are usually based on key performance indicators (KPIs) and are semi-standard in many…

I remember when I first started working for a BigCorp. We were trying to decide on the timeline for some project, I can't remember what. But it was about 6 months long for about 20 people. So about 21,000 hours total. I remember thinking, that this number of 21,000 hours must include vacation time as a deduction. And that BigCorp knew what the estimated amount of sick time, dentist appointments, etc, must deduct from that estimate, based on past years. That they knew if it was going to be a bad flu season. That they had done studies of their estimates and knew what the actual completions were versus the starting point. They someone, anyone, knew what the actual work output of BigCorp was.

Man alive, no, hard no. Laughably, no.

It was eye opening for me. Not a single living soul at BigCorp was measuring anything and all of them were too jaded to even think that if they did measure anything, that it would make any material difference. Every single person was faking it.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#106

Post by paulcole »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #38
paulcole wrote: post #11

Yeah and bad employees fear office work lol.

I think the position lacks nuance, but I can easily undermine it. If anything, in person work favors people, who rely on relationships rather than skills. Remote is almost the exact opposite of this as it requires a verifiable result.

> Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

This is not a particularly nuanced position either.

If you suck at your job you should be afraid of working remotely and working in an office.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#107

Post by bitcharmer »

jfranche wrote: post #58

Remote work should just be for call center type jobs (where the feed of work is consistent); sales people that constantly visit clients (which doesn't happen much now ); or extremely talented superstars. For everyone else that has a bad commute and wants to be home, they should consider retiring or get one of the jobs above. If people can't don't 5 days in office, they should move to a 4 day work week and get 80% of…

[flagged]

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#108

Post by ryandrake »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #69
imagineerschool wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"None of this work really matters in the end" I look forward to this not being true

I wish you meaningful work if you can find it. Most work is not; self awareness and full context is important in how we operate when interacting with others professionally. If you die tomorrow, are fired, or laid off, you will be replaced. If your company fails, you will move on to the next job. Per the US BLS, approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first fiv…

Realistic and experienced comment. Junior folks with stars in your eyes, please read this.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#109

Post by salomonk_mur »

pragma_x wrote: post #60

Every time this comes up I'm struck by the same thought: do these cats measure _anything_ their people do? And what in the world happens when someone takes off for two weeks to go on vacation? The solution to all this is very simple. Management needs to hold everyone, including other managers, accountable for measurable output. These are usually based on key performance indicators (KPIs) and are semi-standard in many…

While this sounds good on paper, it's very hard to do on practice.

You can "easily" assign KPIs to the company as a whole or to business units (and hopefully you pick the right ones, as other commenters pointed out). But the more granular you get, the harder it is.

How do you assign KPIs to an individual person? Sales sounds easy. But what about finance roles? Software developers? The cleaning staff? Office administrators? Then you need to make it really specific for each person. Should the KPIs for a Junior Frontend Dev be different to those of a Mid or Senior? What about a Data Engineer? And MLOps Engineer? DevOps? How do you measure the exact output of a Creative Designer? And UI UX designer?

Its VERY hard to do what you suggest, and the typical result is that people mend up being measured not on what really matters but only.on what could be quantified easily for a spreadsheet.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#110

Post by sokoloff »

fendy3002 wrote: post #62
robertlagrant wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Someone who's always getting Slacked with requests and keeps unblocking people won't be doing the work you're measuring, but they're helping 20 people do their work in half the time.

Then what's the problem? There'll be work record somewhere, either emails, commits (if they're software engineers) or system audit trails. Moreover if you ask those 20 people during performance review, it'll clear as day.

People who get unblocked by Pat and as a result accomplish their work are very likely to talk about the latter and forget/not mention the former when it comes to performance review time.
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