Remote work sucks. Long live the remote work!

This is a February 27 translation of Scott Henselman's Being a Remote Worker Sucks - Long Live the Remote Worker article.

I have been working at Microsoft for 5 years - and all this time remotely. My previous two works were seven-year events - that is, I worked in one place and longer, but not remotely. And, once in five years they haven’t fired me, I can say that I am a good worker. I also write a lot in my blog about remote work, and this is another post on this topic.

Work remotely - fine, sucks.

Introduction

This week, former Google employee and Yahoo CEO at the moment, Marissa Mayer demanded that the remote employees return to the office before June.

If I worked from home at Yahoo, I would quit immediately after that. This attitude demotivates.

I see three reasons why Yahoo could decide to take this step.

1. A veiled attempt to optimize labor by forcing remote workers to choose from equally bad options. After a policy change, you can easily not call dismissal dismissal.
2. A complete misunderstanding of how remote workers work and what they are valuable.
3. Yahoo really has no idea how to measure employee productivity.

And although Marissa had enough two-week leave after giving birth, in a similar situation I preferred a three-month holiday (only partially paid), and I, by the way, am a man.

In the end, it comes down to trust, determined by company policy. You were hired as a professional. Do you trust as a professional? The company has to trust its remote employee not only without seeing it, but also not seeing the interaction between employees.

Remote work is not perfect. There are wonderful moments, but otherwise it sucks. That's why.

Why remote work sucks

There are several reasons.

Guilt Sludge

Work from home is really difficult. I believe that remote workers work at least as intensively as office workers, if not better. Feelings of guilt and fear add a lot of oil to the fire. We really feel guilty when working from home. It seems to us that you represent us sitting in a meeting in shorts. Or that we send emails from the supermarket. We are afraid that you think that we do not work honest 40 hours a week.

That is why we often work on weekends or late at night, when the children are already sleeping: after playing a little with the children during the day (during working hours), because of guilt, we will return to the computer in the evening to return the lost hours. According to my experience, remote workers often feel that they take too much from the company and therefore work more than others.

It may seem like nonsense to you, but ask your friends for the remote. There is a feeling of guilt, we just don’t talk about it.

You are not visible. You do not exist

We had a scrum meeting a couple of months ago, and the boss couldn’t set up a webcam (for five years now it has been 10 minutes before each call). And at this time, as it seemed to me, 20 office children looked (figuratively) at the distant workers with reproachful glances. There she is, the fault.

We talked in a circle (I am also in a circle, I'm just invisible), and then the meeting ended. They just turned off my microphone.

“Hey guys, it's me, Scott ... would like to talk about work today ... guys?”

VPN is neither mine nor native

It doesn’t matter what they say about modern technology or what your Internet speed is, even with a VPN you are not in the office. Every week you meet with such a thing that it works only in the office. You always ask for passwords, and scripts and installers on your machine do not work.

I have to go to the office every season to solve this kind of problem.

When will you come next time?

This is the worst. “When will you be at the office next time?”

I am online 24/7. I have an HD camera, Lync, Skype, Google Chat, and even Chat Roulette on every device. But it’s absolutely normal for you not to call me for three months, and at the meeting, start with “let's finally tell you about the project”.

You can talk to me at any time. You can write or call at any time. You can arrange a meeting with 1080p video. Believe me, I'm available for conversation, just call.

So what to do with the remote

Firstly, it really depends on the work itself. We have guys like Brian Harry - he lives on a farm somewhere in the Carolina , and here he has a big team. They are not in the office, but there are guys in the office with whom Brian works closely. There is Steve Sanderson (Steve Sanderson), he lives in London and works in the Redmond team. But his job is to write good code. I suspect that managing a whole team of programmers remotely is a lot harder than just working remotely in a team. This is one of the reasons why I left such a team. I feel better like a lone wolf with one task.

Before I joined the ASP.NET team, I was the leader in the team working on MSDN. We all worked from home, scattered throughout the states. Our tasks were clearly defined, and we ourselves were focused on them and worked perfectly remotely.

Here are some helpful tips that worked for my team.

Status, Status, Status

Remote workers should make it so that all employees can easily independently answer the question "what is this guy working on?" There are double standards: often the guys from the office have no idea what the girl is doing across the table, but she comes every day, which means she does something useful, right?

When I was a team leader, every Monday we sent everyone an email with 3 points: what we want to do this week. On Friday, we noted what happened and what did not.

Must see you

I used to appear in the office once a month, but when I started to travel a lot to conferences and clients, I began to drop by Microsoft every 3 months. When this happens, a series of meetings in the style of relationship building begins. In the language of business, this means “chatting” - a reminder of the company about why you were hired. The guys like it when a worker from home appears in the office. Come back often.

Team building

When you are in the office, do the so-called team building. Talking at the office not about work can greatly change your relationship with the guys in the office. When I’m in their city, I try to meet with the team out of work, to be aware of their affairs, family and other things not related to work.

Not only at home

Constantly working from home you can go crazy. I try to get out of the house a couple of times a week. I worked in a mall, in Starbucks, McDonald's, and even in the park. I like when people walk around - their energy makes me focus on work and be more productive.

Try to work not only at home and do not be afraid to mix work with rest.

Be interested in reviews

During one-on-one meetings with my boss, we discuss a lot about what I'm working on and why. It often seemed to me that remote work is a good adventure, but still I can’t work remotely. My boss is not against working from home, but I still have that feeling.

Be interested in reviews about yourself and what you do - you must be on the same wavelength as the team. “Inquire” here means “ask.” “Do you think I can handle this? Are you satisfied with my work here? ” It is difficult but important.

Know how to use communications

We use Lync, but I also use Skype, Google Chat, Join.me, direct remote access , Windows Remote Assistance, CoPilot and much more. If you have not made friends with one program, do not waste time, try another. If someone begins to associate you, as a remote employee, with technical difficulties, your attitude will change.

Be available

A tip of caution. Be available during business hours. But do not overdo it - at 5 a.m. no one needs you, and no one checks the working email on Sunday. But from 9:00 to 17:00 your boss should be able to contact you in some way.

How do you deal with the problems of working from home?

From translator

Once again, the original article: Being a Remote Worker Sucks - Long Live the Remote Worker
I also work from home, and I am concerned about many of the issues discussed in this article. But not all tips are suitable for me - for example, I can’t work not from my home workplace.