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We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

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Re: We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

#161

Post by bogomipz »

vertex-four wrote: post #119
bad_user wrote: post #94

I work remotely. I'm from Romania and we have a team that's distributed across the country, with some members from other European countries as well. We do have a small office where I live, but it is provided just as a place to come to in case you don't like working from home and I do go to our office almost daily, but most of the team is on the other end of a Gmail/Skype/Slack connection. Today I got tired at 1 PM, g…

That is generally not compatible with the American way of working - especially in the startup scene - where ever second you're not working is considered a second that your competitor companies have over you.

I don't agree at all. The American startup has lots of time for ping pong, foosball or hanging out in a chill out/game room, or a social with beers after an all hands weekly meeting. Also flex work hours are pretty common in my experience and lots of startup tout those as a perk.

Re: We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

#162

Post by wott »

wslh wrote: post #68
flukus wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't tell how many countless times many emails were exchanged before simply speaking face to face solved the problem. I can't tell you how many times being able to look something up to respond in a more concrete way has solved countless meetings.

> I can't tell you how many times being able to look something up to respond in a more concrete way has solved countless meetings. reply But when the questions and comments are not well expressed keeping the loop in text (email or Slack) makes the things worse. Obviously if you can just fire a voice conference everything can be sorted out but in my, just personal, experience remote workers are working more asynchrono…

Having to take the time to write them down in a clear manner is a major benefit of text media (e-mail).

Half of the time, you end up not sending the e-mail because you found the answer while organising your question.

Re: We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

#163

Post by bogomipz »

legitster wrote: post #127
vertex-four wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is generally not compatible with the American way of working - especially in the startup scene - where ever second you're not working is considered a second that your competitor companies have over you.

I would not say this is an accurate view of most US jobs. I have yet to have a job that was not flexible with working hours or working location.

The reference was to start up jobs(which I and others have disagreed with the OPs statement) as opposed to "most" jobs.

Re: We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

#164

Post by bogomipz »

dorfsmay wrote: post #53
FuNe wrote: post #14

I'm partially remote working (RW) at an organization that is slowly rolling back its RW culture(1). The motto for this goes like 'teams work better if they are collocated, yada, yada'. The real reason is that managers want to feel in control (plus they want to drive away a lot of people by taking RW away). "Culture" is used as a smoke screen for more sinister incentives. (I can say that with confidence because I can…

One huge mistake some companies do is treat remote vs on-site workers differently, making on-site people feel bad when they "work from home". If remote is available it should be available to everybody who doesn't need to be physically in the office, otherwise resentment starts to build up.

But certainly its available to everyone to negotiate during the interview process no? I have also seen people "become remote" after some time on the job, so its also possible to negotiate after that fact I would think.

Re: We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

#165

Post by wott »

aardvark179 wrote: post #46
jimmywanger wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you not read most of my comment? The technology is there, it wasn't ten years ago. Now, it comes down to management setting strict guidelines and enforcing them. What good is it to pay for Jira accounts when nobody uses them? Or what good is it to have Github and everybody ends up hosting their own private repos? That is definitely a management mandate, and logistically, it's a lot easier to manage a group if the…

I'd say the tech has been there a lot longer than you think, I've known people who've worked in distributed teams 20 years ago. Yes, the tech was a little different, but it was still good enough. I absolutely agree with you though that the culture of making sure everything is done using those tools is the important part. You essentially have to give up most of the benefits you might get from some members being coloca…

> I'd say the tech has been there a lot longer than you think, I've known people who've worked in distributed teams 20 years ago. Yes, the tech was a little different, but it was still good enough.

E-mail, chat system, telephone, version control system, remote access were indeed there and are still enough for most use cases.

What was missing or not very good or reliable? Video chat and screen sharing, perhaps? I dislike the first, I find it almost doesn't bring anything positive compared to the phone but has drawbacks. And the latter makes me seasick.

Re: We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

#166

Post by sparrish »

alex-yo wrote: post #3

There is no shortage of remote job boards and job aggregators That's true, there is just a shortage of the job offers. I'm looking for a remote job now. All the job boards have between 2 to 5 job offers per day. To each of them answer thousands of people. The aggregators are even worse. They are automated. That's why they contain an ad even when it has no remote allowed .

This was not our experience. We posted for a full-time remote frontend position in our 100% remote company and only received a few inquiries. Thankfully one of them was the right fit but I'm dubious to your "thousands of people".

Re: We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

#167

Post by mhurron »

bogomipz wrote: post #164
dorfsmay wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One huge mistake some companies do is treat remote vs on-site workers differently, making on-site people feel bad when they "work from home". If remote is available it should be available to everybody who doesn't need to be physically in the office, otherwise resentment starts to build up.

But certainly its available to everyone to negotiate during the interview process no? I have also seen people "become remote" after some time on the job, so its also possible to negotiate after that fact I would think.

> certainly its available to everyone to negotiate during the interview process no

Probably not. It would be available to those that are considered living too far away from the office. Those that work within a range that is considered close enough are expected to be in the office and attempting to negotiate that would take you out of consideration.

Re: We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

#168

Post by mhurron »

gotrecruit wrote: post #77
StavrosK wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that, if Queen Izabella could have daily standups with Chris Columbus, she would.

lol thank you! what a ridiculous notion that just because people in the past COULD NOT communicate efficiently, that it was a preferred or better way to do things. any good manager/boss/supervisor/leader/etc will want to be updated regularly, or at least maintain access to information.

> any good manager/boss/supervisor/leader/etc will want to be updated regularly

Of course they want to, that's how they justify their existence. The question is do they need to have that constant ability to look over your shoulder for work to be done.

Re: We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

#169

Post by r00fus »

legitster wrote: post #127
vertex-four wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is generally not compatible with the American way of working - especially in the startup scene - where ever second you're not working is considered a second that your competitor companies have over you.

I would not say this is an accurate view of most US jobs. I have yet to have a job that was not flexible with working hours or working location.

I want to second this. At my current job, many people WFH or WFHotel or WFCar (voice only). Most of my silicon valley customers do this too.

In a previous life, I was chained to the desk 8-5 with lunch breaks - but that's one of the reasons I left.

Re: We Don’t Simply Get Remote Jobs, We Join Remote Teams

#170

Post by lj3 »

justindocanto wrote: post #151
vertex-four wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is generally not compatible with the American way of working - especially in the startup scene - where ever second you're not working is considered a second that your competitor companies have over you.

As an american who works just as he does, and have for roughly 10 years, this is simply not true. Working down to the bone, "every second", will lead to serious burn out. Your mental health suffers, as do your relationships. I won't make any assumptions about who you are or how you work, but I tend to see this mindset from new blood who wants to get the edge over others. I understand this mindset, as it's very produc…

> As an american who works just as he does, and have for roughly 10 years, this is simply not true.

For you. I worked remotely for an American consulting company a while back and you were expected to be reachable during the business hours and respond in less than 30 minutes. If you missed that window more than once, that number shrank to 10 minutes. The turnover rate was high.

I agree with everything you're saying, but not all remote employers agree with us.

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