How strongly do I recommend Remote?
6 / 10
Review of Remote
Remote is fundamentally a rebuttal to the most common criticisms of remote work. Rather than focus on the points and counterpoints, I mostly noted tips for improving both in person and remote work.
Are you in office, but acting remote?
We’re in person, but still messaging people on slack, sending emails, and escaping our desk in search of quiet. What’s the point of being in person if we’re trying so hard to escape the people?
Remote engineers, show your work often
The authors point out the primary benefit of showing your work often – as you show your work, you build trust with your manager and team.
But I want to reframe what it means to show your work and the benefit.
For an engineering team, the best form of showing your work is shipping code. Release relentlessly.
Deployment frequency is one of the four key measures of high performing engineering teams identified in Accelerate.
Clear WIP and ship. Getting code in production not only delivers customer value earlier, it builds trust within your team.
Remote workers are not second class citizens
Having managed a mixed remote and in-person team, a few of the mistakes I’ve inadvertently made against remote employees are:
- Not inviting remote employees to ad-hoc meetings or conversations
- Not having good audio for meetings
- Not considering them for leadership positions
- Forgetting about their timezone
- Failing to send them swag or goodies that our in-person team receives
Supporting remote teammates takes a little more work, but it’s well worth it.
