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Remote Only

remoteonly.org

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121–130 of 374 posts

Re: Remote Only

#121

Post by BigJono »

jnmandal wrote: post #112
rwbcxrz wrote: post #66

> Fast internet everywhere - 100Mb/s+ cable, 5GHz Wifi, 4G cellular I used to say that. Now I live in a rural area, and the fastest speed that's even available is 5Mbps (and the uptime isn't great). My house also has zero cell service from any provider. It's also a bit presumptive that everyone can afford a 100Mbps connection. The last place I lived, it was like $120/month for 100Mbps. Not everybody can afford that.…

1. A lot of places that are remote will cover or subsidize internet costs for employees 2. I think the the poor access to Internet in rural areas is more of a US thing. In LDCs we have often wider availability for low cost 4g and/or more equal distribution of telecom infrastructure in general.

Yeah and poor access to Internet in metro areas is a thing here in Australia. There's plenty of people here (myself included) in the middle of the city with 5/0.5 connections.

Re: Remote Only

#122

Post by jameslk »

mkl wrote: post #116
jameslk wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess we'll have to throw purchasing power out the window to discuss this one. So pay the developer $20k per year or pay them $100k? If the former, I guess those US developers are just screwed and will probably make more money flipping burgers. If the latter, or anywhere between, then we'll just see developers move to the cheapest, lowest tax countries to arbitrage the artificial market inefficiency. Or are you sug…

I'm not saying I disagree with you, but why exactly would it be bad if people moved to places with cheaper cost of living or less tax?

Nothing wrong with it per se. As a developer, I would love to move somewhere cheap and still be paid a Bay Area salary, so I could come back to the US and buy several houses after saving up a truckload of money. But I don't think that was the OP's goal.

Re: Remote Only

#123

Post by jimejim »

I've worked mostly remote for over 20 years, both as an engineer and a business owner. I wouldn't give it up for the world.

However, simple fact: not all people are cut out for it. Some perfectly fine engineers are better in an office environment with other people. Sometimes an office environment is LESS distracting for those people, not more.

It also depends on where they are in life: A person with toddlers is going to have a better work life if they can get away occasionally. I had my own struggles with this and had to work through the new environment.

So, both are good and can work depending on when and where your life is at, and neither is perfect.

Re: Remote Only

#124

Post by UlisesAC4 »

rob_b wrote: post #96
eanzenberg wrote: post #26

Its hard to have remote junior developers in my experience. Certain things are much easier explained in person than over conferencing software.

I work with junior developers that are fully remote without any issues. We communicate via IM, Slack, email, and Skype as needed. Not sure how to do something, let’s have a quick screen share and we’ll work through it. Finished with your assigned feature, submit a pull request and I’ll leave comments accordingly or we’ll review it via a screen share. It’s not impossible to do but may require some to change their coll…

Exactly, remote working is not about tech expertise but more about effective communication.

Re: Remote Only

#125

Post by Yeroc »

Azeralthefallen wrote: post #80
cgb223 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on the disadvantages then? If you were to write that list, what would it look like?

I worked for a company that was mostly a remote workplace for almost a year, and there were a lot of problems i found while trying to manage a team. Time zones, were a huge issue and pain point when trying to get a large number of people on the same page. I found my self often having to give the same meeting twice, which put more pressure on me. Even worse was when i would have to go over points only for someone who…

The website appears to emphasize communicating via the written word and other asynchronous forms of communication. I'm curious whether you found communicating asynchronously didn't work or wasn't as effective or if it was the team members specifically that were the issue?

Re: Remote Only

#126

Post by jdgiese »

eanzenberg wrote: post #26

Its hard to have remote junior developers in my experience. Certain things are much easier explained in person than over conferencing software.

We are a remote-only company (Innolitics.com), and have hired several junior developers. I think it is harder for them to get up to speed, but definitely still quite possible. Pair programming, video calls, and detailed PR reviews all help.

Re: Remote Only

#127

Post by jaggederest »

aspaceman wrote: post #74
dopamean wrote: post #51

This "manifesto" really clarified for me something that I've often noticed about people who strongly believe in remote working but had trouble putting to words. For a lot of people remote work is less about the actual remote aspect of it and more about the kind of relationship the employee has with their employer. It is a relationship where I think the employee is more empowered and freer to find a work life balance…

Precisely. And I think this is why many employers are also highly hesitant about remote work (at times). They don't necessarily want to give their employees that much power, but they lack the courage to say that directly. And instead you hear the criticism that it's less productive.

I agree. It's much less about productivity.

I analyzed my commits at my last part-time-remote job, before I went full remote, and I was about 2x as productive during times when I was not at the office, even when accounting for the fact that I scheduled meetings during in-office days.

Re: Remote Only

#128

Post by jaggederest »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #106
allday wrote: post #18

> Save on compensation due to hiring in lower cost regions Pay people what they're worth regardless of where they live. If you have a developer in Nigeria or Ukraine or Vietnam that is as equally capable as a developer in the Bay Area, they should be paid the same. Doing otherwise, at best, perpetuates Western hegemony, and at worst is simply racism.

Salary should be scaled in part by cost of living, otherwise it's unfair to people in high COL countries. Gitlab does this when calculating salary [1] for their employees. It seems only fair to me. [1] https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/global-c...

Why is it fair to subsidize people to live in high cost of living locations?

Re: Remote Only

#129

Post by eanzenberg »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #61
Thrymr wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This assumes that the only place a remote worker can work from is their home. There is nothing more detrimental to a person's psyche. That is rather hyperbolic. Many remote workers do fine working from home. Others do not. Not all people are the same. Any of us can think of things that are "more detrimental to a person's psyche" for nearly all individuals.

For example, coworkers who use the bathroom and just rinse their hands. That is worse for my psyche than working from home.

Is there something filthy on your junk? Better get it clean than keep dirtying your hands

Re: Remote Only

#130

Post by neeleshs »

hartator wrote: post #6

> Disadvantages > Scares investors - Scares some partners - Scares some customers - Scares some potential employees, mostly senior non-technical hires - Onboarding is harder, first month feels lonely We do a full remote policy at SerpApi.com, however I found this disadvantages list a bit dishonest, they are more way numerous and important, the most obvious are missing real human contacts (and it doesn't get easier wi…

...and timezone differences
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