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Remote startups will win the war for top talent

future.com

41–50 of 492 posts

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#41

Remote startups with what cheap money? That era is coming to an end. They won't win anything, with cheap or expensive labor.

I'm always surprised that more people can't see the writing on the wall.

The startup boom exists because money was so cheap you had to spend it. Then consumer spending started to ramp up again and money was flowing both ways. Worrying about profits was viewed as silly since that would get in the way of maximizing growth under the assumption that you could one day flip a switch and generate profit.

With inflation rising consumers have much less to spend (and are already starting to rapidly take on more debt), this alone would hurt tech companies (you see this in cancelation rates rising with streaming services and a drop in e-commerce spending), but the end of cheap money will have disastrous consequences for the startup ecosytem.

The number of IPOs is declining rapidly. Investors saw this coming when the pandemic hit and started to get everything together so the could cash out their chips before the casino closed.

Massive layoffs are coming in tech as unprofitable companies will be forced to demonstrate that they can in fact make money (if they really can) and even profitable companies start to see their income drop (since their income is primarily other tech companies or consumers who will be increasingly tightening their wallets).

What's coming is going to make the dotcom bust seem mild.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#42
post #7

When workers say 'hybrid' they really mean 100% remote? what aspect of this definition is a hybrid of working from the office? The problem? When workers say hybrid, they typically mean they want the flexibility to choose where they work from and when, all the time. (In a sign of how jarring this concept is to ingrained expectations, Gartner refers to this as “radical flexibility.”) On average, that will be three days…

A fair number of people use it to mean that they could go into an office or that some co-workers go into an office even if they rarely do so themselves. It can mean come in for 3 days/week but it doesn't necessarily.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#43

I never really understood why people say productivity and socializing is difficult remote. It's difficult because people aren't putting thought into it. At my last big-co job the leadership just kept waiting for 'covid to be over' and not improving our remote work culture. Hybrid models will always struggle and 1/3/1 is going to be probably the best you can do. My company is fully remote, we embraced the GitLab model…

On my team, we've had to be intentional about creating time specifically for social events (fully optional). It can be challenging since it doesn't feel "productive" and it takes a long time to see the benefits.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#44
post #12
post #2

Remote startups may win the war for top talent (in the short term) but who will win on productivity and by extension revenue? I guess we will all see that in the next 24 months.

I'm not sure productivity maps that directly to revenue. People are wildly productive when they work remotely. What's harder is sharing context and tackling large problems with other people.

I think remote has the biggest issue with onboarding people that can't hit the ground running. I'd hate to be a new grad right now.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#45
post #36

I never really understood why people say productivity and socializing is difficult remote. It's difficult because people aren't putting thought into it. At my last big-co job the leadership just kept waiting for 'covid to be over' and not improving our remote work culture. Hybrid models will always struggle and 1/3/1 is going to be probably the best you can do. My company is fully remote, we embraced the GitLab model…

How do you replicate water cooler talk in a fully remote environment? Do people do work while tuned in to a meeting where anyone can drop in and talk to them?

Lots of public slack channels works pretty well in my experience. People end up talking about a lot in plain view and people hop in etc

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#46
post #22

Okay, how about a tad more nuance though. The better headline would be "Remote Startups will win the war for top talent among employees who prefer to work remotely" Not quite so sexy. Sure some; probably even most software devs prefer remote/hybrid work, but there are still plenty of incredibly talented people out there who prefer being in the office every day.

Polio, Monkey Pox, Covid variant x, environmental concerns, inflation. The office isn't coming back unless we fall into some dystopia where they force people back in.

People had a taste of life WFH during the pandemic. Overwhelmingly they loved working from home even though there were a minority who wanted a return to the office.

The hybrid model or remote work will be the only real possibilities going forward. Top talent does matter and is the edge that companies like Apple and Google use to stay competitive. They need that talent more that talent needs them. Plain and simple.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#48
post #2

Remote startups may win the war for top talent (in the short term) but who will win on productivity and by extension revenue? I guess we will all see that in the next 24 months.

I'm not more productive when monitored and have to waste 2-4 hours a day getting to and from the workplace.

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#49
Automattic (Wordpress etc) is a great example, and have been doing it for years. However, they are very purposeful about it, including:

+ Hire for the culture

+ Commit to awesome, persistent written communication

+ Meritocracy in which trust can be earned by the work itself

+ Periodic in-person get togethers (not always to 'do work')

Re: Remote startups will win the war for top talent

#50
post #36

I never really understood why people say productivity and socializing is difficult remote. It's difficult because people aren't putting thought into it. At my last big-co job the leadership just kept waiting for 'covid to be over' and not improving our remote work culture. Hybrid models will always struggle and 1/3/1 is going to be probably the best you can do. My company is fully remote, we embraced the GitLab model…

How do you replicate water cooler talk in a fully remote environment? Do people do work while tuned in to a meeting where anyone can drop in and talk to them?

When I started working for Basho, which was fully remote, many of the engineers were logged to a Mumble channel for chatting, while simultaneously on Slack.

I couldn't handle that level of distraction, but some of them clearly enjoyed it.

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