What I see lacking most in purely remote work environments is the benefit of a social connection with your peers, in a few ways (and you allude to them but I'm calling them out more explicitly here):
1. We're less likely to "connect" casually and quickly, whether it's to build a relationship or to solve a quick problem. When I see a team collaborating in a co-working space, I see a lot more back-and-forth and spontaneous problem solving. (I think this is what you mean by breaking the ice and getting unblocked).
2. Closely related and probably more impactful tho – the spontaneous brainstorming. Just wandering past someone's desk and sharing an idea, casually talking about a potential problem... the mindshare is a huge benefit, and I think it helps to accelerate the team as a whole when we're co-located.
3. Building closer, more intimate connections. It's hard to reach out to people you don't know, whether for help, to share an idea, to ask a question. As a consequence, remote workers get "stuck" for longer. I tell my (remote) teams, "If you can't solve it in 5 minutes on your own, reach out... on slack, or a huddle, or just calls someone." I think it's really hard for people to do that unless they've built the friendships they need while purely remote.
Bottom line for me – all remote is not good, and honestly, I don't like entirely office (co-located) work either. I think both are wasteful, in dramatically different ways. Hybrid (IMHO) is the way to go. We need that social connection aspect of our lives – humans are social animals. It's hard to function in a non-social environment. 😄
When I worked fully remotely I had more time to dive deep on things, but less of this spontaneous connection and growth from people around me. It also helped that most people were remote with the restrictions from the pandemic.
I like the hybrid approach too. We can choose when we need time for ourselves and when we benefit from connecting with others. And the connection with people is not impacted because you stay a few days at home as they see you regularly.
I don't like full-time in the office either. In our work, we have time of collaboration and time of focus. Favoring both by working both at home and in office creates a nice balance
Actually it working was how we where enable to facilitate the physical location distance, it was remote first from day 1, which meant hiring based on proximity was never a consideration, just needed to live in the same country, and that’s mostly cause of the complexity and added hassle of paying someone cross border.
If your company is correctly setup for remote working then all the points for in office also exist.
I’ve been fully remote for 3 years, I’ve been into the office 3 times over that period. Total of maybe 4 days.
It’s no harder to ping someone on slack and start a huddle to have a quick chat than it is to walk up to them and tap them on the shoulder, quite frankly even when I was in office I’d ping them on slack as it’s less distracting, disruptive and intrusive than walking up to their desk, it gives them the opportunity to choose to ignore you while they finish their current mental activity.
A member from each of our different departments joins the morning standups so does the CEO on occasion, so there always regular cross pollination and communication.
Those same interpersonal bonds can just as easily be built via regular virtual chats, physical contact is not required definitely does not burn, but certainly not required.
The only true detriment to fully remote working is a company not embracing fully remote work, it works if you want it to and you let it.
My current company, we absolutely had to make it work, our company is split by an entire country, there is 2000km between the 2 halves of the company, and those that live on my side of the country, we are so dispersed that there isn’t even a central point for us to conveniently meet even if we wanted to, which we don’t. My further coworker is a 4 hours driver from me, closest is 45 minutes.
We rollover all the “benefits” of office work by simply choosing to.
It sounds clear the constraints of physical location forced it to make it work.
I was fully remote myself when I joined Amazon a year after the pandemic started. When people were going at most once a week to the office, we had to get working remotely. In the office, there was even a personal distance so you couldn't go and tap someone on the shoulder.
But then later things moved to in-office work and I was one of the only ones remote. There was a clear shift in the communication and it was easier to grow disconnected. For the people in the office, maintaining remote-first communication was adding friction.
And I understood, it's hard to ask someone to take meeting notes of a conversation you are having during lunchtime.
For me, this kind of hybrid doesn't work. Either we are remote-first or we are onsite-first, but having just a couple of people in a team disconnected from the rest of the group makes it hard
“Leverage well-asked questions: Give context, share your progress and blockers”
Tools I leverage for most clarity, when asking questions via messages: screenshots with precise annotations and even short screen recordings to show a workflow which needs approval (or creates a problem).
The latter I have used only with people with which scheduling a call is really difficult, but I need their approval/help. I haven’t seen people use the screen recording in this way, but I think it’s pretty practical.
I definitely should incorporate recording quickly the screen into my usual workflows. Sometimes that can be much easier than explaining everything by text
I've experienced only full-office and hybrid, and I definitely think hybrid is much better. I wouldn't be willing to work at a 5-days-a-week in the office job anymore - currently I'm doing 3 at the office and 2 at home, and it's a life changer.
And I completely agree about mixed modes in the same team - 2 years ago I managed a developer who was fully remote, and it was very hard, for all of us. He was the only one on Zoom all the time, and the team bonded without him.
Thanks, Jordan for sharing your thoughts! Also thanks for re-sharing the post :)
I truly agree with the tip of turning the camera on. I recommend it also for in-office work.
When we are in a meeting room with people connecting online, they can see someone talking in the room based on the mic icon, but they can't point out who is talking or their name.
Just turning on the camera of my laptop helps to point out who is talking and build that visibility.
In some way, we are all "remote" for the people who work with us from different locations
I'll quote the general saying I have seen through my family (about the quantity of food to serve): "Better that there are leftovers over someone staying hungry".
Same mindset with communication, better to err on the side of overcommunicating!
Sure thing! Those OBVIOUS arguments are probably missed learning opportunities in remote or office work, which I understand because it's not for everyone. That's especially true for remote work, in my opinion.
What I see lacking most in purely remote work environments is the benefit of a social connection with your peers, in a few ways (and you allude to them but I'm calling them out more explicitly here):
1. We're less likely to "connect" casually and quickly, whether it's to build a relationship or to solve a quick problem. When I see a team collaborating in a co-working space, I see a lot more back-and-forth and spontaneous problem solving. (I think this is what you mean by breaking the ice and getting unblocked).
2. Closely related and probably more impactful tho – the spontaneous brainstorming. Just wandering past someone's desk and sharing an idea, casually talking about a potential problem... the mindshare is a huge benefit, and I think it helps to accelerate the team as a whole when we're co-located.
3. Building closer, more intimate connections. It's hard to reach out to people you don't know, whether for help, to share an idea, to ask a question. As a consequence, remote workers get "stuck" for longer. I tell my (remote) teams, "If you can't solve it in 5 minutes on your own, reach out... on slack, or a huddle, or just calls someone." I think it's really hard for people to do that unless they've built the friendships they need while purely remote.
Bottom line for me – all remote is not good, and honestly, I don't like entirely office (co-located) work either. I think both are wasteful, in dramatically different ways. Hybrid (IMHO) is the way to go. We need that social connection aspect of our lives – humans are social animals. It's hard to function in a non-social environment. 😄
Yeah, I agree with you, Zac.
When I worked fully remotely I had more time to dive deep on things, but less of this spontaneous connection and growth from people around me. It also helped that most people were remote with the restrictions from the pandemic.
I like the hybrid approach too. We can choose when we need time for ourselves and when we benefit from connecting with others. And the connection with people is not impacted because you stay a few days at home as they see you regularly.
I don't like full-time in the office either. In our work, we have time of collaboration and time of focus. Favoring both by working both at home and in office creates a nice balance
Thanks a lot for your detailed response!
Man you distilled it here. Those are the biggest pros of office work to me.
Actually it working was how we where enable to facilitate the physical location distance, it was remote first from day 1, which meant hiring based on proximity was never a consideration, just needed to live in the same country, and that’s mostly cause of the complexity and added hassle of paying someone cross border.
If your company is correctly setup for remote working then all the points for in office also exist.
I’ve been fully remote for 3 years, I’ve been into the office 3 times over that period. Total of maybe 4 days.
It’s no harder to ping someone on slack and start a huddle to have a quick chat than it is to walk up to them and tap them on the shoulder, quite frankly even when I was in office I’d ping them on slack as it’s less distracting, disruptive and intrusive than walking up to their desk, it gives them the opportunity to choose to ignore you while they finish their current mental activity.
A member from each of our different departments joins the morning standups so does the CEO on occasion, so there always regular cross pollination and communication.
Those same interpersonal bonds can just as easily be built via regular virtual chats, physical contact is not required definitely does not burn, but certainly not required.
The only true detriment to fully remote working is a company not embracing fully remote work, it works if you want it to and you let it.
My current company, we absolutely had to make it work, our company is split by an entire country, there is 2000km between the 2 halves of the company, and those that live on my side of the country, we are so dispersed that there isn’t even a central point for us to conveniently meet even if we wanted to, which we don’t. My further coworker is a 4 hours driver from me, closest is 45 minutes.
We rollover all the “benefits” of office work by simply choosing to.
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, Reme.
It sounds clear the constraints of physical location forced it to make it work.
I was fully remote myself when I joined Amazon a year after the pandemic started. When people were going at most once a week to the office, we had to get working remotely. In the office, there was even a personal distance so you couldn't go and tap someone on the shoulder.
But then later things moved to in-office work and I was one of the only ones remote. There was a clear shift in the communication and it was easier to grow disconnected. For the people in the office, maintaining remote-first communication was adding friction.
And I understood, it's hard to ask someone to take meeting notes of a conversation you are having during lunchtime.
For me, this kind of hybrid doesn't work. Either we are remote-first or we are onsite-first, but having just a couple of people in a team disconnected from the rest of the group makes it hard
“Leverage well-asked questions: Give context, share your progress and blockers”
Tools I leverage for most clarity, when asking questions via messages: screenshots with precise annotations and even short screen recordings to show a workflow which needs approval (or creates a problem).
The latter I have used only with people with which scheduling a call is really difficult, but I need their approval/help. I haven’t seen people use the screen recording in this way, but I think it’s pretty practical.
That's a great tactic, Stefan!
I definitely should incorporate recording quickly the screen into my usual workflows. Sometimes that can be much easier than explaining everything by text
Great summary :)
I've experienced only full-office and hybrid, and I definitely think hybrid is much better. I wouldn't be willing to work at a 5-days-a-week in the office job anymore - currently I'm doing 3 at the office and 2 at home, and it's a life changer.
And I completely agree about mixed modes in the same team - 2 years ago I managed a developer who was fully remote, and it was very hard, for all of us. He was the only one on Zoom all the time, and the team bonded without him.
Thanks, Anton!
I'm in the same spot, I do 3-4 in the office and 1-2 at home, depending on the week.
The good part of this is having the flexibility to choose. Depending on the work I have for that day I can choose whatever fits best for me.
Love the writeup and comparison on these 2 approaches, Fran.
I'm fully remote and have seen a lot of the benefits you mentioned, but managing the visibility is definitely the hardest part about it.
One tip is to be present in meetings with video on, jumping into the discussion, or celebrating wins in chat.
Thanks, Jordan for sharing your thoughts! Also thanks for re-sharing the post :)
I truly agree with the tip of turning the camera on. I recommend it also for in-office work.
When we are in a meeting room with people connecting online, they can see someone talking in the room based on the mic icon, but they can't point out who is talking or their name.
Just turning on the camera of my laptop helps to point out who is talking and build that visibility.
In some way, we are all "remote" for the people who work with us from different locations
Great write up Fran!
I like the being deliberately over communicating with people. This can mostly happen through writing. And it's super useful .
Absolutely, Basma.
I'll quote the general saying I have seen through my family (about the quantity of food to serve): "Better that there are leftovers over someone staying hungry".
Same mindset with communication, better to err on the side of overcommunicating!
haha love this saying 😂
I'm also a big fan of the Hybrid approach because you can take the pros of both worlds.
Great post, Fran!
Thanks, Petar!
It's a double-edged sword, someone could take the bad of the both worlds too 😅
I worked about the same from offices and remotely over the past 11 years. It leans slightly towards the remote side.
You summarized the pros and cons for both well.
I'm also not a big fan of debating, which is better. Instead, I look at them as environments with different learning opportunities:
Going into the office can create tremendous chances to sharpen your soft skills.
While working from home is an endless playground for perfecting your writing skills.
You nailed it, Akos!
I see a lot of people arguing about how OBVIOUSLY one is better than the other.
I also leaned into the remote as it was what I lived first until I came back to the in-office.
Something I had to focus on was not playing in-office with the rules of remote work. That would have just frustrated me
As you said, both are a training ground and I find it positive to have lived both. This training makes us more robust!
Thanks for reading and engaging :)
Sure thing! Those OBVIOUS arguments are probably missed learning opportunities in remote or office work, which I understand because it's not for everyone. That's especially true for remote work, in my opinion.