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Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

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Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#91

Post by _tk_ »

xkbarkar wrote: post #73
sidewndr46 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't really agree with the idea that a vaccine made return to office "possible". I was only sent home (mandatory WFH in my case) because the local government told my employer there was the possibility of liability if they had me keep coming in the office. At this point, plenty of people were already getting sick and some were dying. That didn't motivate my employer to close their offices. The government and legal…

We still had country wide lockdown just a few months after a +90% population wide vaccine uptake in my home country. Omicron opened up society, not a single other pandemic measure and that includes masks. On another note. With EU countries being so loud about green transitions I would have thought encouraging WFH would have enormous environmental benefits. There is a plethora of green fees on every single transportat…

I wondered the same thing, and I assume the key detail is "can be done from home", because implementation, monitoring and enforcement of something like this could be pretty harmful for businesses and employees. Imagine having to document why you need your employees in the office for certain types of meetings, but not others.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#92

Post by commandlinefan »

pragma_x wrote: post #60

Every time this comes up I'm struck by the same thought: do these cats measure _anything_ their people do? And what in the world happens when someone takes off for two weeks to go on vacation? The solution to all this is very simple. Management needs to hold everyone, including other managers, accountable for measurable output. These are usually based on key performance indicators (KPIs) and are semi-standard in many…

That _sounds_ good, and they've been trying to do that since long before Covid forced them to try the grand WFH experiment, but it's based on very specious reasoning. KPIs are not only easy to game, they _force_ you to game them even if you're trying to actually get something done. Not to mention that if a business could be reduced to a set of quantifiable KPI's, the entire management chain could be replaced with a spreadsheet.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#93

Post by commandlinefan »

cajunboi34213 wrote: post #20

The hard part about remote is collaboration outside of meetings is hard. Chat is soul-less and leads to a lot of misunderstandings with tone. Video is too formal. Phone is interrupt. For the past 6 months we've been using a walkie-talkie app that transcribes and it's pretty magical. It feels like it's solved some of the issues with unstructured collaboration. Plus the bonus is you can add anyone to a discussion and t…

Back in the days of face-to-face conversations, I don't ever recall a _spontaneous_ conversation that wasn't just a random complain-fest that nothing useful ever came out of.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#94

Post by fendy3002 »

robertlagrant wrote: post #79
fendy3002 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then what's the problem? There'll be work record somewhere, either emails, commits (if they're software engineers) or system audit trails. Moreover if you ask those 20 people during performance review, it'll clear as day.

This seems pretty unlikely to surface. Saying "oh you do that by doing these 3 things" in Slack, or going off and fixing a broken thing in a test environment, might save someone else hours or days, but they won't report somewhere "this person saved me hours", particularly if it happened 3-12 months ago (whatever the review cycle is). Combing through emails and commits is also just pretty unlikely to happen.

There's some possibilities:

* The impact is actually much smaller than you initially think

* You're not vocal enough about that, or that's just one-off thing (high performers usually pretty consistent)

* You're in a bad environment where good work isn't getting recognized

I've did exactly that and my coworkers keep know how that benefits them, so it's not impossible. Anyway, being vocal on what you're doing or achieve in remote work is also crucial, if the environment cannot discover your achievement easily.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#95

Post by prmoustache »

RHSeeger wrote: post #48
prmoustache wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The key is it being optional and up to employees to decide what's best for them. Agree. My issue is not about remote, hybrid or onsite, but more about some management mandating one way of working for everyone.

The problem is that that doesn't really work. The people working in the office don't get the benefit of in person social connection if others aren't coming in, too. Either you have people coming (win for the office people, loss for the remote) or you have people working from home (the reverse). Leaving it up to everyone to work it out on their own doesn't really solve the problem. That being said, working it out "per…

There is always a fraction of people who will chose to go to the office. That's enough to have social connection. These persons do not have to be on your own team.

The last 10 years or so I have been working on teams splitted in 3 to 5 different countries, and now in 3 different continents. In that case you are effectively working remotely even when your are working in a company's office.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#96

Post by cess11 »

cajunboi34213 wrote: post #20

The hard part about remote is collaboration outside of meetings is hard. Chat is soul-less and leads to a lot of misunderstandings with tone. Video is too formal. Phone is interrupt. For the past 6 months we've been using a walkie-talkie app that transcribes and it's pretty magical. It feels like it's solved some of the issues with unstructured collaboration. Plus the bonus is you can add anyone to a discussion and t…

I find screen sharing easy rather than hard. Someone wants input, they share their screen and we work it through together. When it's done or on track again we have a social chat before shutting down the meeting software and get back to lone work.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#97

Post by cajunboi34213 »

commandlinefan wrote: post #93
cajunboi34213 wrote: post #20

The hard part about remote is collaboration outside of meetings is hard. Chat is soul-less and leads to a lot of misunderstandings with tone. Video is too formal. Phone is interrupt. For the past 6 months we've been using a walkie-talkie app that transcribes and it's pretty magical. It feels like it's solved some of the issues with unstructured collaboration. Plus the bonus is you can add anyone to a discussion and t…

Back in the days of face-to-face conversations, I don't ever recall a _spontaneous_ conversation that wasn't just a random complain-fest that nothing useful ever came out of.

Yeah. There is a lot of that. My faves were someone coming by with a random thought that they needed to think through with someone. Almost nothing ever came of it, but the rabbit hole of exploration was fun

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#98

Post by robertlagrant »

fendy3002 wrote: post #94
robertlagrant wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems pretty unlikely to surface. Saying "oh you do that by doing these 3 things" in Slack, or going off and fixing a broken thing in a test environment, might save someone else hours or days, but they won't report somewhere "this person saved me hours", particularly if it happened 3-12 months ago (whatever the review cycle is). Combing through emails and commits is also just pretty unlikely to happen.

There's some possibilities: * The impact is actually much smaller than you initially think * You're not vocal enough about that, or that's just one-off thing (high performers usually pretty consistent) * You're in a bad environment where good work isn't getting recognized I've did exactly that and my coworkers keep know how that benefits them, so it's not impossible. Anyway, being vocal on what you're doing or achiev…

I think the point is that saying "there's only one parameter to measure" elides all the difficulties of measuring the different ways people can be effective in the workplace.

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#99

Post by vitehozonage »

cajunboi34213 wrote: post #89
_tk_ wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on the difference between DM'ing someone with "Hey can I call you about problem X/Y/Z?" I'm not sure I understand the benefit of the walkie talkie solution. To me this sounds as or more annoying as a landline.

Sure. So if you say can I call you about X/Y/Z, you're asking them to stop what they are doing and listen to your monologue in real time. With the walkie talkie, you hit talk and send them your monologue. They can listen in real time (one-way) if they are available or can listen to your audio + read the transcription (later). This puts them in control of when and how they consume and respond. The added benefit is the…

I still dont get it. That's just precisely the same as sending a instant message but it has an audio option?

I've tried doing audio messages before but i find it unbearable - both to listen to them and record them. I just love async text; i want nothing more than email/github

Re: Why Bad CEOs Fear Remote Work (2021)

#100

Post by cajunboi34213 »

cajunboi34213 wrote: post #89
_tk_ wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on the difference between DM'ing someone with "Hey can I call you about problem X/Y/Z?" I'm not sure I understand the benefit of the walkie talkie solution. To me this sounds as or more annoying as a landline.

Sure. So if you say can I call you about X/Y/Z, you're asking them to stop what they are doing and listen to your monologue in real time. With the walkie talkie, you hit talk and send them your monologue. They can listen in real time (one-way) if they are available or can listen to your audio + read the transcription (later). This puts them in control of when and how they consume and respond. The added benefit is the…

Two things differentiate it from regular chat for us. One is it's mobile. They have a web product, but we don't use it, we just use the mobile, so we talk into it as opposed to type. I personally get up and walk around to talk into it. The second is the audio. Listening is just different than reading. Re-listening is awesome.
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