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Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters

sloanreview.mit.edu

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Re: Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters

#31

Post by seany »

SCdF wrote: post #23
cletus wrote: post #21

Working from home is a popular topic for us engineers. Generally speaking there are two broad camps in this argument: 1. Those who want to work from home and argue largely from that position. They say they'll be just as productive, you can write code from anywhere, having a more flexible schedule will make them happier and more productive and so on; and 2. Those that think there is more to your job than the lines of…

We have a tester who lives in another city from us, and I've managed to build camaraderie with him using nothing but skype IM, including breeze shooting and other non-work based activities. I have done the same in previous jobs, with people on the other side of the world. I don't think you need to be in the same room.

I was just going to say more or less the same thing. I think I have a better working relationship with one of my coworkers that lives 1500mi from me than the guy I sit next to. Now I'm sure that personality plays a part here, but it's clear that distance really isn't `that` much of a detractor.

Re: Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters

#32

Post by marknutter »

cletus wrote: post #21

Working from home is a popular topic for us engineers. Generally speaking there are two broad camps in this argument: 1. Those who want to work from home and argue largely from that position. They say they'll be just as productive, you can write code from anywhere, having a more flexible schedule will make them happier and more productive and so on; and 2. Those that think there is more to your job than the lines of…

"Those that think there is more to your job than the lines of code you write. In even small companies (maybe even especially small companies?) culture is important. Culture transmits largely by physical proximity. Osmosis if you will. There is value in team camaraderie, whiteboard sessions, going to lunch with colleagues, sometimes just sitting around and shooting the breeze about whatever."

You're waiving your hands here; flailing, even. None of this is quantifiable, it's all your based on your gut feeling. There are plenty of ways culture can transmit online, but I'm afraid my examples would involve just as much conjecture as yours do.

I telecommute, but also make a trip to be on location every couple of months. I agree that face to face contact is important to some degree, but not in any way I could accurately measure. I'm FAR more productive when I'm telecommuting because I don't have colleagues interrupting me with questions ever 10 minutes, I don't feel the temptation to "shoot the shit", I can work through lunch, and I waste no time commuting. As a result I'm more productive than the average non-telecommuting worker.

Raises and promotions may be a function of relationships, but perhaps they shouldn't be? Perhaps they should be based on performance.

Re: Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters

#33

Post by umjames »

fleitz wrote: post #2

Working from home reduces visibility, you don't work from home to make more and get promoted, you work from home to avoid the retardation of a commute, busy work, excessive meetings, etc. You work from home so you can put in 2 hours work, accomplish as much as anyone else did and spend the remaining 6 enjoying your life. I'm pretty sure that everyone who decides to work from home did so for quality of life reasons ra…

Thank you, I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees the benefits.

It's true, some jobs are soul-crushing enough that you'd rather not be there. You might have family and/or financial responsibilities that make you have to keep such a job. You may be bootstrapping a business on the side so you can escape from such a job, but in the meantime, you still need your regular paycheck.

Not every job has you working with self-motivated co-workers and great bosses. Some jobs put you in a cube farm in a room where everyone fights over the thermostat. Sometimes you have to head a weekly meeting where you have to explain to other programmers why you get NullPointerExceptions on line 5 when line 4 initializes the variable to null. Some jobs still make you use CVS. The office talk at some jobs is never about learning anything, but it sure is loud and distracting.

If you were offered a chance to work from home and avoid a lot of that, I'm sure you'd also jump at the opportunity. Getting a promotion in such a job isn't worth it.

Re: Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters

#34

Post by reedlaw »

simonsarris wrote: post #6

The article does a good job of going over a few (seemingly obvious) biases, but I also expected an honest discussion of job duties (implicit or explicit) that get missed when one works from home. I'm disappointed that part of the topic was skipped. I know the HN crowd is fairly pro- working from home, and I am too, but I was wondering if some of the more experienced (than myself) people here could chime in with examp…

There's certainly a trade-off between having the convenience to talk to someone next to you and having a distraction-free environment. Working from home I enjoy hours of coding in the zone that makes me much more productive than in the office. On the other hand, in the office I enjoy hearing about the latest trends in technology and being able to rack brains with someone else on a tough problem. But working in an open office where others can similarly interrupt you is not ideal, so I advocate having personal offices along with shared spaces.

Re: Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters

#35

Post by jimmytucson »

So this applies if your manager/team is in another city/timezone? Ironically, I got my first promotion and biggest bonus as the only NY member of a London-based team. However, I certainly wondered whether being the lone wolf in my region was good for my career in the long run.

Re: Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters

#36

Post by SkyMarshal »

cletus wrote: post #21

Working from home is a popular topic for us engineers. Generally speaking there are two broad camps in this argument: 1. Those who want to work from home and argue largely from that position. They say they'll be just as productive, you can write code from anywhere, having a more flexible schedule will make them happier and more productive and so on; and 2. Those that think there is more to your job than the lines of…

>culture is important

I see this asserted a lot, but what exactly is meant by 'culture', and is it really true?

For example, if by 'culture' you mean having an office full of well-educated, capable, motivated engineers and problem-solvers vs not well-educated, capable, or motivated, then sure, I buy that.

Strong leadership that intimately knows the business? Sure, Intel and Apple being exhibits A & B.

But beyond that, what parts of culture should every business strive to replicate, and what parts are more likely overvalued in the zeitgeist due to survivorship bias and other cognitive mistakes?

Re: Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters

#37

Post by r0s »

cletus wrote: post #21

Working from home is a popular topic for us engineers. Generally speaking there are two broad camps in this argument: 1. Those who want to work from home and argue largely from that position. They say they'll be just as productive, you can write code from anywhere, having a more flexible schedule will make them happier and more productive and so on; and 2. Those that think there is more to your job than the lines of…

It's not such a hard dichotomy. I think working from home occasionally makes good sense, if you treat it like what it is, a productive break.

Just the fact that so many request it, should show the benefit of releasing that pressure occasionally. I hate working with tired, overworked people on mental cruise control. The fact is, a big part of the workday is filled with social interaction, whiteboard sessions, etc. But all that is just as draining (if not more so for some) compared to the actual work tasks.

I'd also like to point out the huge time waste that is commuting.

Re: Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters

#38

Post by hack_edu »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #36
cletus wrote: post #21

Working from home is a popular topic for us engineers. Generally speaking there are two broad camps in this argument: 1. Those who want to work from home and argue largely from that position. They say they'll be just as productive, you can write code from anywhere, having a more flexible schedule will make them happier and more productive and so on; and 2. Those that think there is more to your job than the lines of…

>culture is important I see this asserted a lot, but what exactly is meant by 'culture', and is it really true? For example, if by 'culture' you mean having an office full of well-educated, capable, motivated engineers and problem-solvers vs not well-educated, capable, or motivated, then sure, I buy that. Strong leadership that intimately knows the business? Sure, Intel and Apple being exhibits A & B. But beyond that…

Have you ever worked somewhere that was perhaps a decent job, but you dreaded coming in to work because of bosses/coworkers/distractions? That's culture, just bad culture. Everyone seems to be able to relate to bad culture. Company culture is a two way street, good culture seems harder to come by than bad. I can't even say I've even been somewhere with 'good' culture but it definitely exists and is really just the inverse of bad culture.

I'd say one of the things that draws people to telecommute most is too much exposure to bad company culture. Arguments in regards to productivity and environment are more responses to 'bad' culture than anything else.

Re: Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters

#39

Post by mb_72 »

It's not an either / or situation - it can be 'and'. I work from home 2-3 days a week, and I'm in the office the other days (and that includes days I do for 'credibility', i.e. I go in, say hi to everyone, work all day in my office, then say bye again when I leave - might as well be at home those days, but I realise sometimes it's necessary just to turn up for the sake of it). If there is 'pure' technical work to be done, it's more efficient working from home. For one, you save time on the commute. My manager gets check-in updates (via Assembla), and we can talk via the phone or via email. I can provide updated staging builds for him to download and test too, if necessary. If you have a reasonable manager, a reasonable employee, good tools, and can balance in / out of office days, then the situation can be a big 'win' for everybody. More work gets done, there's enough 'face time', and it's far less stressful.

Re: Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters

#40

Post by rushabh »

We have been experimenting in work-from-home recently, switching from a work-in-office only setup.

Work from home has a lot of ambiguity unless you are doing support (which you can do from anywhere). When you are working on long term projects its important for everyone to know what you are up-to, else people might thing you are goofing off.

To fix this, we sync up once a month where everyone demos what they have been doing for the month. So short term activity is evaluated by responses to customer, commits, chatrooms and long term activity is evaluated on "demo day".

We just had our first "demo day": http://erpnext.com/demo-day---june.html

(disclaimer: we are a really small team of 3 devs + 1 support + 1 admin)

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