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Remote Work Study 2018: The Anywhere Workers(and.co)

over 5 years ago from Leif Abraham, Co-CEO Public.com, Co-Founder AND.CO (acq. $FVRR)

  • John PJohn P, over 5 years ago

    I'm all for flexible hours and the ability to work from home a few times a month but can't stand working with remote workers. Adds 10-40 minutes to every interaction people within the office have with them. Amount of 1 on 1 conference calls I've had to sit in explaining something over the course of 15 minutes that would take seconds in person is insane. Literally inconveniencing the whole team for their benefit.

    Not to mention the constant "oh the power is out here today" "oh the internet is out here today", maybe I've been bit by a bad bunch but it's very unlikely I'll allow any more on my team again when better talent is available locally.

    Probably an unpopular opinion but it's my reality.

    2 points
    • JR HalchakJR Halchak, over 5 years ago

      I'm no longer a designer as I went the engineering route but I've worked between 90-100% remotely for the past couple years and what you describe is a common problem I have on the other end.

      It sounds like your team isn't remote-as-first-class-citizens or results-only. I may be wrong, but it sounds like you're a local team who has added on a few remote guys after the fact.

      Remote's not for everyone, but it helps when the company works like a remote team, even locally. My problems have always been lack of decision tracking (water-cooler decision making), unlogged communication, not understanding how to have remote meetings, not using the tools available to centralize planning/decisions/etc.

      All of those things are beneficial to an onsite-only team but they can kill remote workers. Honestly my main problem is the company starts to treat you (as a remote worker) like your hours are 12AM-11:59PM. But I like the flexibility.

      If it's taking you twice (or fifteen times) as long to explain things and you regulary get "Internet/power's out" happening then maybe you just did get a bad bunch though... or they need to communicate better and move to a better location.

      I'm a remote and results-only apologist and zealot though so take it with a grain of salt.

      1 point