Remote work - sucks. Long live the remote work!

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



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 longer, but not remotely. And, once in five years I was not fired, 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.



Working remotely is fine, sucks.

Introduction

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

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



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

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

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



In the end, it comes down to trust, determined by company policy. You were hired as a professional. Do they trust you as a professional? The company has to trust its remote employee not only not seeing him, but not seeing the interaction between employees.



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

Why remote work sucks

There are several reasons.

Guilt - sucks

Working from home is really hard. I believe that remote workers work at least as intensively as office workers, if not better. Guilt and fear add a lot of fuel to the fire. We really feel guilty 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 an honest 40 hours a week.



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



You may think this is nonsense, but ask around your friends remotes. There is a sense of guilt, we just don’t talk about it.

You are not visible. You don't exist

A couple of months ago we had a scrum meeting, and the boss could not set up a webcam (for five years, it takes 10 minutes before each call). And at this time, as it seemed to me, 20 office guys looked (figuratively) at remotes with reproachful looks. Here it is, wine.



We spoke in a circle (I am also in a circle, I am just invisible), and then the meeting ended. I just turned off the microphone.



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

VPN is neither mine nor native

It does not matter what they say about modern technology or the speed of the Internet, even with a VPN, you are not in the office. Every week you meet with such a thing that only works in the office. You always ask for passwords, and scripts and inters 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 in the office next time?”



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



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

So what to do with the remote

First, it really depends on the work itself. We have guys like Brian Harry (Brian Harry) - he lives on a farm somewhere in the Carolina , and here he has a big team. They're 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 much more difficult than just working remotely in a team. This is one of the reasons why I left this team. I feel better like a lone wolf with one mission.



Before joining the ASP.NET team, I was a leader on the MSDN team. We all worked from home, scattered all over the states. Our tasks were clearly defined, while 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 sure that all employees on their own can easily 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 items: what do we want to do this week. On Friday, we noted what happened and what did not.

You must see

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

Team building

When you are in the office, do so-called team building. Conversations in the office not about work can greatly change your relationship with the guys from the office. When I'm in their city, I try to meet with the team outside 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, McDonalds and even in the park. I like when people are walking 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 cannot work remotely. My boss doesn’t mind working from home, but the feeling is still there.



Be interested in feedback about yourself and what you are doing - you must be on the same wavelength with the team. “Take an interest” here means “ask.” “Do you think I can handle this?” Are you satisfied with this work of mine? ”This is difficult, but important.

Know how to use communication tools.

We use Lync, but I also use Skype, Google Chat, Join.me, direct remote access , remote assistant in Windows, CoPilot and much more. If you do not make friends with one program, do not waste time, try another. If someone starts associating you, as a remote worker, with technical difficulties, the attitude towards you will change.

Be available

Tip-caution. Be available during business hours. But do not overdo it - at 5 o'clock in the morning nobody 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.



And how do you cope 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’m worried about many of the issues discussed in this article. But not all the tips are suitable for me - for example, I can not work from a home workplace.