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The Winners of Remote Work

nytimes.com

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Re: The Winners of Remote Work

#211

Post by mateo411 »

joelbluminator wrote: post #104
Sevii wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The focus on programmers as the vanguard of the remote work trend distracts from what could be the real change the outsourcing of white collar work. Why do we need our lawyers, accountants, human resources and other back office employees to be American when Chilean workers will do those jobs for half or a quarter the pay? What outsourcing did to manufacturing jobs, remote work may do to white collar jobs.

Law and accountancy is much harder to outsource than programming. You usually have to be U.S certified so thats pretty much protected.

For lawyers they can only practice law in the states in which they have passed the bar in. So, it's even more restricted. If you want to practice in another state, then I think you need to take the bar for that state. It's a 3 day test.

You also have to take the CPA exam to become a CPA, but that looks like you can transfer your accreditation to another state.

Re: The Winners of Remote Work

#212

Post by shubb »

nathanvanfleet wrote: post #63
ThePadawan wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you consider Remote Global Work. As a European, it is very disheartening to see how many companies espouse "we are now embracing remote work company-wide", which on closer inspection means "California hours +-2h time difference".

It's not nearly as easy to have people in a timezone 16 hours offset than you might think. So I am not surprised that they would be two very different decisions.

EU working with developer team in India. There are advantages and disadvantage -

* EU team (e.g. presales) are not available half the day to answer queries and this creates delays, but also forces people to write good tickets if they want anything done

* Conversely, even senior developer staff get half the day clear of meetings to do deep work or focus on internal meetings / mentoring

* Thankfully this team are mature adults, but I've seen an us and them thing develop between engineering and the rest of the company elsewhere. It's natural when everyone outside engineering is short term incentivised to downplay technical debt and such. If it can happen when everyone is in the same building, I can definitely see how easily it could happen if only engineering are sat together and all the evil product owners are just angry faces on a screen.

Re: The Winners of Remote Work

#213

Post by co2benzoate »

j8hn wrote: post #195
co2benzoate wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The winners of remote work are all fleeing to New Zealand, leaving the rest to wallow in decaying infrastructure and a healthcare system bursting at the seams.

I wasn't aware that New Zealand are accepting immigrants right now. Which visa does NZ allow you to live there and work remotely?

You'll have to ask the Google execs

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-exec-reportedly-worki...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/08/06/google-...

Re: The Winners of Remote Work

#214

Post by oa335 »

eptcyka wrote: post #208
Arainach wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much easier to see the intangibles. For instance, I'm a fairly senior team member who's a core subject matter expert for a few major things our team owns. A huge chunk of my day involves people asking me questions about them. In person, it's trivial to see everyone coming up to my desk, hear me jumping into team discussions, and so on. Remote, it's on me to let management know that's what my time is being spent…

Its far easier to quantify slack thread responses and emails than it is to transcribe and parse the audio recordings from your desk of said conversations.

Not every communication is best conducted over slack, many things are much easier in person in my experience.

Re: The Winners of Remote Work

#215

Post by tnel77 »

epicide wrote: post #4
eric4smith wrote: post #3

The only winners of remote work will be those who are self disciplined enough to get work done without outside supervision or motivation. That goes for every single field that does remote work - learning, teaching, Knowledge work etc. But let’s be honest - some people need the motivation of a workplace — and that’s ok! We are all different. Im somewhere in the middle… love working from home but it’s easy to get distr…

(For me) while I also get distracted from work while at home, I find it is about the same amount as in an office. The biggest difference is the distractions are far more healthy and productive than the ones I'm left to in an office.

Exactly. In the office, I spent an enormous amount of time on scrolling Reddit and playing games on my phone. At home, I might do the dishes, fold some laundry, take a quick walk, or get some exercise in my small home “gym.” I’m just so much happier working from home. I desperately hope I never have to return to an office.

Re: The Winners of Remote Work

#216

Post by hatmatrix »

roflc0ptic wrote: post #5

This article really isn't about remote work writ large, it's about websites/organizations that provide platforms for individuals to sell services to consumers. The fact that you can make popular workout videos from your home is orthogonal to the behavior of consumers on the Peloton platform. It's an interesting and important observation that good communicators win disproportionately as telecommunications get better -…

The winners of remote work are those whose services are scalable, and those who excel at it. The content and conclusion was also not what I was expecting, but you can see that it's a completely valid title if you allow yourself to see it from a different perspective.

Re: The Winners of Remote Work

#217

Post by rpmisms »

astockwell wrote: post #84
iainctduncan wrote: post #38

I have done remote work for a long time (because ...Canada), and the real issue is that it requires management to have their shit together. I also assess companies for acquisitions now so I talk every month to companies about what's working and what isn't. I've seen some very successful companies with partially remote or even 100% remote teams. And... they have their shit together. Managers have to actually know what…

The #1 question I wish I could get answered for any prospective company (as an interviewee): "Do you have your shit together?" Seriously. This could avoid so much heartache.

I asked this, almost verbatim, in an interview recently. They appreciated the question and ended up hiring me.

Re: The Winners of Remote Work

#218

Post by hatmatrix »

It's interesting that the internet on the one hand broadens the market for niche products and services [0], which means there are also smaller winners who have been able to launch a career by connecting with clients / students to whom they provide specialized services. On the other hand, that does not preclude a pronouncement of the "superstar effect" in the presence of the long tail [1] as described in the article, particularly for fungible content where delivery is most critical.

[0] WIRED Magazine (2004) "The Long Tail" https://archive.ph/OuxGP

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail#The_longer_tail_over...

Re: The Winners of Remote Work

#219

Post by hatmatrix »

Dig1t wrote: post #189

This problem, and distribution of talent, reminds me a little of Sturgeon's Law ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law ) Despite the somewhat unkind analogy, the distributions kind of line up and it makes sense to me why the top 10% of workers on platforms like Outschool or whatever earn significantly more. In many cases in life there is a group of people/things/songs/movies etc. that are significantly bett…

Interesting corollary to Sturgeon's Law is the observation that the top 10% of workers in a company or society generate a disproportionate amount of productivity - as you mention - and it seems that maybe the internet allows clients and employers to find or connect with them more efficiently.

Re: The Winners of Remote Work

#220

Post by cblconfederate »

masterof0 wrote: post #193
cblconfederate wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the wages of US tech workers skyrocketing because they switch jobs often? If so, remote workers can switch even faster. The most capable workers had already emigrated to US, so the question is, has the pool of workers expanded more than the pool of competitive jobs?

> The most capable workers had already emigrated to US This is insanely wrong. What makes you think that?

i dont see evidence of the contrary
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