Remote - Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Office Not Required
We usually can’t get work done at work.
[bq] “Offices have become interruption factories. A busy office is like a food processor - it chops your day into tiny bits.”
Ask yourself and other people: “Where do you go when you really have to get some work done?”
Answer usually won’t be in the office in the afternoon.
Should switch from synchronous to asynchronous communication/collaboration.
Escaping 9-5 benefits everyone, making work fit their own optimal schedule.
[bq] “Especially important when it comes to creative work. If you can’t get into the zone, there’s rarely much that can force you into it"
[bq] “It’s the work - not the clock - that matters.”
[bq] “The luxury privilege of the next twenty years will be to leave the city.”
Why should we live a deferred life? Should (and can) pursue our passions now!
Obviously comes with tradeoff. E.g. requires more personal commitment and a good routine.
Companies already outsource lots of their crucial work, like legal, HR, payroll, advertising,… Why do they distrust their own employees?
In person brainstorms are good, but only very rarely. The largest chunk of the work is not coming up with “the next big thing”, but working on existing ideas. Most brainstorm ideas are soon forgotten again anyway or just lead to a larger backlog.
Most fears about remote work come from a lack of trust.
But people have “amazing ability to live down to low expectations.”
But the opposite is also true if people are trusted.
Don’t hire people you don’t trust.
Essay: “Give people freedom of where to work” by Richard Branson
[bq] “False equality benefits no one.”
There might be people (e.g. customer support) who simply have to work at certain time/place. But that doesn’t mean everyone has to.
Culture doesn’t suffer. It’s not the chance encounters, the lunches, the office parties. “It’s the spoken and unspoken values and actions of the organization.”
Need to get used to the fact that almost no questions actually really needs an immediate answer, most can wait. Want to become “ASAP-free”
Managers/bosses often afraid to loose control and this can be hard to overcome.
86% of Deloitte employees work from home at least 20% of the time.
To make remote work work, need at least some overlap of working hours between team members.
Screensharing or screenshots with narration can be extremely powerful.
Materials and instructions need to be open and available for everyone, always.
A “what have I been working on this week” chat where everyone posts informally once a week is a great way to keep everyone motivated and feeling like a team.
During flu seasons, makes sense to have lots of people remote or at home.
[bq] “Meetings and mangers are actually the greatest causes of work not getting done at the office.”
[bq] “Constantly asking people what they’re working on prevents them from actually doing work.”
Basecamp actually sponsored and supported people’s hobbies and giving the time off for them because they believe in the power of personal development.
Employees shouldn’t be payed less because they live in a cheaper city. Only the work itself should be important.
[bq] “Being a good writer is an essential part of being a good remote worker.”
Working as a contractor for a while is ideal training for later remote work.
In the history of a company, ideally want to integrate remote work into the culture as early as possible.
Managers should know and be technically skilled in what they are managing.
Open source projects are extremely successful and they are as remote as it gets.
Only granting access to information on a need-to-know basis is not really necessary except for military and just makes things extremely inefficient.
Extremely important to establish a good routine for remote work, otherwise can be hard to get in work mode or have work bleed into other things.
Use separate devices/computers for work and free-time.
Even nomadic lifestyle highly doable while full-time employee.
Working remote allows for constant change of scenery, different coffee shops every day for example, which can be great creative boost.
One way to be heard and noticed as a remote worker: Produce great work!
And that’s easier remotely than any other way.
[q] “In thirty years time, as technology moves forward even further, people are going to look back and wonder why offices ever existed.”
- Richard Branson