100% remote companies - Pitfalls of remote work?

Question

Hi, Everyone! What are the biggest pitfalls of remote work for the team?  How to eliminate isolation and disintegration?

Abderisak · Accepted Answer

Even when being fully remote, I think it's important to have some physical meetings scheduled a few times per year. It does make a difference in terms of building a cohesive team.

Solomon Bush · Answer

My full time job is as a remote engineer, and I live 5 min from my office... smh. 
Here is my take on remote work as an employee
- Some people like it; Some people hate it; Most want a mix;
- Regardless of the positive effects remote work has on morale, it will decrease efficiency. Not because people are less effective when working remote, but because communication is.
- Conways Law says that the System reflects the communication of the ones who built it. 
- 100% Remote is going to give you a bad product in a late fashion
- Go for something in between remote and in person, maybe 2 days remote and 3 days in office
- If you can't do this, then you should encourage in-person meetups as frequently as you can afford
- Lastly, if you can't do in-person / hybrid or regular meetups, than your product team will have to be very disciplined. Meetings will take longer, and this is okay. Developers will slack off - this means more hands on management (trust me, I am a dev). And most importantly, adjust timelines for features. Things will take longer to make, most of the time.

I hope I don't seem cynical, I just don't think that in person interaction will ever be replaced by video chat or IM

Evgeny Medvednikov · Answer

You can sit in a cafe on the next table and do not know that you are working on the same project right now. LOL ;)

Louise Turriff · Answer

Hey,

I definitely think communication can be a huge pitfall of 100% remote companies.  Video call fatigue is REAL and can be such a drain on energy, creativity and concentration.

We use Orbital - an audio first virtual space for remote teams.  I'd love to invite all of you down to our co-working sessions on a Thursday morning.  You can sign up for free here

https://launch.orbital.chat?launcher=lt&launch_code=phblog&redirect_to=https://orbital.chat/events-calendar/?ref=phblog

I hope to see some of you there :)

Chris · Answer

First, I am a true believer of remote working. It provides a lot of flexibility (time, localization), avoid a ton of stress (heavy traffic, train schedule etc.) without losing the team productivity.

However, remote companies will face two major issues in my opinion:

1) Time difference: This can be managed by using async communication and common sense. There are a ton of great article. Check out Gitlab manifesto for instance (https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/guide/)

2) People engagement: This can be managed via Team events. By spending a few days with your teammates in a memorable place, sharing some time together, will make your team get stronger. For this, I would vote for "Teamout" which allows remote companies to organize their team retreats. Check them out, they are on PH (https://www.producthunt.com/posts/teamout)

Hope this will help!
Cheers

Jonathan Yan · Answer

Isolation and disintegration have definitely played a big part in my remote work experience. I love human interaction and not being able to talk with my co-workers and engage in "cooler talk" has been challenging. I also find myself getting more and more easily distracted so I think it's key to find an environment that you feel comfortable in, but not too comfortable so you can really focus and thrive at your work.

At oVice, we aim to eliminate these hurdles by meshing the pros of office work with remote work. We design customizable virtual spaces for our users to make unique and their own, while being able to interact with their peers in the space, in real time!

You can check us out at tour-en.ovice.in to take a look around and see how it works! :)

100% remote companies - Pitfalls of remote work?

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