Analysis of the article “Chief, I want to work from home”

Recently I came across Habré on the article “Chief, I want to work from home” . In it, the author discusses the advantages of remote work from home, at work in the office, and argues for this practice. Moreover, the arguments in favor of such an approach, in my opinion, are not very convincing. But more on that later.

The article attracted me with 3 interesting aspects in my opinion: 1) the topic itself is very topical and the article received a lot of comments, 2) the publication scored a rating of more than 100, 3) while it doesn’t, in general, provide any real explanation, but is built on very controversial arguments - slogans.

I present the author's reaction. Reading these lines, he recalls that he cited a bunch of important pros in the article. We will analyze these arguments in detail. Moreover, he himself asked to leave his comments.

The article is written, according to its creator, to "... prove that remote work does not harm the business, but only helps him." But what I read did not convince me. Author, do not be offended, I just want to understand this topic with you in more detail. I have been working as a programmer, 8 systems analyst and PM for 18 years, and for the last 3 years I have also been in charge of IT firm. Someone has gained experience by participating in different roles of IT activities. Let's first go through the arguments first, and then try to analyze the practice of remote work from home. No, I don’t want to say that it’s impossible to organize work from home, but still effectively. Sure you may. But let's not rely only on impressions, but analyze the situation and try to systematize information about such an organization of work.
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The purpose of my publication I would define as follows: Identify the causes that affect the efficiency of IT professionals, and establish ways to improve it. We will conduct the review as part of the organization of the workplace of an IT specialist.
So, let's start with the arguments “for” remote work from home, given in the above article:

1. “The opportunity not to waste precious time on the way to work. ... the stress that public transport brings ... All this affects the productivity and health of employees. " Here you can not argue reinforced concrete argument, I fully agree.
2. “Ability to work in comfortable conditions. You must admit that very few people will answer the question “in the office” to the question “where you work well”. Or clarify about the early morning when there is no one. Not everyone understands that a programmer’s work is a creative work that requires concentration and attention. ” But with this absolutely disagree. No, of course, if you have a large mansion with your own office, and children with other households are accustomed not to run into it without knocking, but to quietly walk on tiptoes in soft slippers, then maybe I will agree. But from my experience, most of my friends live in ordinary apartments in which children rush, wife bustles, TV works, neighbors make repairs, about the mother-in-law, who comes to visit, or about the horror living together, I’ll keep silence. Therefore, now the topic of cavalry has flourished, in which there is also coffee with livers, and a rest room, and the main cozy workplace with silence around, providing precisely this creative atmosphere. And sometimes creative meetings are provided by meetings with colleagues, the drive of which is very difficult to feel through the manager.
3. And the developer’s effectiveness argument is: “the opportunity to leave the city on Thursday evening and return to the city only on Monday evening,” I personally draw shashliks, sea, nature and fresh air in my imagination, but not work. Most people are creatures that are weak, especially creative people. And when around the mass of temptations to distract, they are distracted. At best, they will be tormented by remorse of conscience, which is precisely what hurts their health.
4. The argument: “Ivan and Vasily work from home, why can't the rest? We are a team doing a common cause! ”Is also controversial. The problem is that when a person gets what he wants, he first tries very hard to convince everyone that he did not receive it in vain. And he pyzhitsya, straining, in every way justifies the high trust placed in him. But over time, everything becomes boring and becomes commonplace. Nobody wants to prove anything, and in general, it could be better. And they will not get anywhere without me, and let them just try to select the won privileges, etc. That's the way man is life.

But let's leave the arguments alone and begin to analyze all the same.

So, the subject of our consideration is the contractor of works related to the development of software for which it is necessary to organize a workplace. He can be a permanent employee of the company, or hired under the contract to perform design work. This difference is important to take into account, since the long-term goals, they will differ.

Thus, the first task that we have to perform when creating an employee’s workplace is to provide the equipment and software installed on it, which allows to effectively perform the tasks set.

According to my observations, most often remotely work at home on their personal equipment, and in the office, on the equipment of the company. And more often, in the office the equipment is more powerful and diverse. But there are, in general, options and the difference in my opinion is insignificant, and the difficulties are completely surmountable.

Now about the environment of our employee:

1. The head, directly supplying work and providing the conditions for its implementation. There may be several of them, depending on how the control is organized (linear, matrix, design, etc.).
2. Team of collaborators. In almost all large projects, it is necessary to interact with other employees who produce one common product together.
3. The customer for whom the software is developed. Most often, developers are isolated from it, but we are now talking about a software development team, and this could be analysts, project managers, etc.

Perhaps we will dwell on this environment, proceeding from the framework of our analysis. And for effective work with him, it is necessary to ensure effective interaction with all team members. This is the second task that we need to solve when organizing a workplace.

Here, again in my opinion, remote work from home loses significantly. I argue:

1. The manager, in my experience, most often needs to get uninterrupted access to the employee’s ears. This is especially sensitive when the team works on a subcontract and the chain of receiving requests for work and responses to them is long and requires a lot of approvals and clarifications. And besides, everyone is now striving for customer orientation. And the situation when the manager, who issued you a subcontract of work, wants to get clarification, and in response he hears the babble that a person who “knows everything about it” is not yet available, and when he is not exactly known, can cause very Negative consequences.
2. No matter how I treat the flexible methodologies, one thing that they cannot take away from them is the rallies rallying the team. And holding them at the blackboard is much more efficient than via Skype. Again, from my experience, I almost every day hear the exclamations of programmers in the office: “And someone already did this and that” and in most cases there is someone who actually did it and is ready to give explanations. To achieve this effect remotely impossible.
3. Well, about communicating with the client in person or remotely, I think in general no one will have any doubts in favor of the first one.

Therefore, from the point of view of communication, the use of remote work can be effective only if the contractor has a rather limited circle of contacts and a long phase of independent work.

And finally, what is necessary to get from a person working in an organized workplace? No matter how banal and cynical it sounded: "As much work as possible, for as little money as possible." But here it should be understood that for a long time to work this way, more often than not it will not work. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an employee with all sorts of benefits that help him to think as much as possible about work, and not about all sorts of worldly difficulties. As I said above, a modern office is very much superior in terms of convenience for work, almost any own housing. And in this case, in my opinion, 2 points are very important:

• Creative environment in the office;
• Constant emotional communication with colleagues.

Yes, both of these arguments can vary greatly depending on the office, and more precisely on the person who organizes its work. But here I can say for sure that both of these indicators in the office, if desired, can be made much more attractive than at home.

The only indisputable plus of remote homework remains moving to the workplace. Here while science and technology could not step so far ahead.

Here is my point of view on this question, which can also be contested.
In more detail the social functions of the organization, I considered in my publication “The Social Organism - as a form of effective team interaction”