I have worked in all types of settings. Fortune 250. 5 person startup. Mid-size companies. I have managed remote teams that have built amazing technology. I have been a part of local teams that can't get their head straight. In speaking with job prospects recently, it seems like very few companies (~ 5%) are open to some type of remote work. Now please understand, I am not looking to work remote b/c I want to live in the French Riviera. I have personal commitments where I am that prevent me from leaving (at least temporarily).<p>As a Ruby developer (from what I hear and see), my skills are in high demand. Take this awesome recruiter email to me:<p>-- start email ----<p>I am a recruiter here in the Bay Area working with several significant consumer-focused internet tech companies.
What's going on in the Bay Area right now (and why I am writing you) is a major shortage of qualified Ruby engineers. For that reason, there are Ruby openings at probably 30-40 of my portfolio clients (seriously); additionally, I am seeing much higher salaries in this area because of the shortage and increased demand in the market caused by increasing venture investment in startups and more dev teams adopting RoR.
This all boils down to you.
The reason I'm writing is that I would like for you to seriously consider the possibility of looking at a new full time role as a Rails dev in San Francisco. Is this something that you would be open to?
Some of the most innovative companies in the country are here in the Bay Area. I hope that you will be interested in at least looking at a few options that are = available to you.
Feel free to give me a ring or let me know a good number and time to reach you.<p>-- end email ----<p>Wow. OK so there is huge demand (I think). Now granted NO recruiter is going to help you get remote work, but how come more of these companies don't hire remote devs? Are they scared of lack of control? Is it more fun to run screaming into someone's office yelling "Fire" about some new idea then actually thinking things through and sticking to a plan? Sorry that sounded really negative, but I am baffled.<p>HN please advise!!<p>* Also feel free to post if you are looking for remote devs.<p><i></i> If anyone finds the "February Remote Workers" thread, feel free to post here too.
Not only is it the lack of control, it's also the fuzzy feeling managers get from seeing you at your desk. Many managers don't understand that you're not necessarily working when you're staring at your screen and vice versa. Being able to walk by and see someone sitting at their desk gives gives them the (possibly false) impression that work is being done. If every moment not spent doing actual work was spent away from my desk, my employer would view me as lazy. As is, a large portion of my time is spent not doing visible work but because I'm at my desk, it's not a problem.
<i>how come more of these companies don't hire remote devs? Are they scared of lack of control?</i><p>Yep. I've managed many programmers, both in-office and remote, and let me tell you, the communication challenges with remote workers are enormous. That doesn't mean that I'd rule it out under any circumstances-- as I said, I've done it before-- but it would not be an attractive option for me as an employer under normal circumstances.<p>You say you've managed remote teams-- what's your experience been?
Don't overlook the pain-in-the-ass factor of having to support employees in different jurisdictions with different regulations.<p>Employment contracts need to be customized slightly by state. You've got to sign up for worker's compensation insurance, unemployment insurance taxes, and sometimes disability insurance. You've got to pay state taxes, and for most states you're going to need to do withholding on behalf of your employees. You've got to make sure your benefit plan provides reasonable options in that state. If you're following the letter of the law, every state has different notices you've got to post in the place of work.<p>If you're not talking about employees in different states, but instead are talking about employees in different countries, the complexity level just went up another notch.<p>I'm usually happy to employ great talent wherever it lives (and there's nothing at all wrong with living in the French Riviera), but decentralization doesn't make it easy.
Just trying to think like a corporation would...<p>Perhaps it's a signaling thing. Historically companies have wanted their workers to be loyal and dedicated to them -- that's part of the reason they do 401k's, career paths, etc.<p>So perhaps the unwillingness to relocate to on-site tells the company that you aren't as dedicated to their success as someone who is willing to be there.<p>Remember that most mid level management still seems to be stuck in 1975. They don't understand that worker loyalty went by the wayside because of the recent RIFs that became commonplace in the last 20-30 years.
Having done significant amounts of remote work with teams in India, I will say that the amount of planning required to efficiently use remote developers who have varying skill sets is beyond most startups. If you have got star programmers who are self-organizing and working on completely independent pieces then that's great, but if you are dealing with a complex app and everyone has their fingers in the pie its like (not the best analogy coming up, but give me some credit for the effort) trying to bake a cake with everyone mixing a portion of the ingredients in different cities then flying to the same city and pouring it all together and expecting to create an award winning cake on the first try.<p>Its a significant management challenge, and as a startup if you can avoid adding yet another significant management challenge by requiring your dev team to be local to the rest of the operation then you should.
Communication and team bonding. I've regularly worked with teams that spanned across multiple offices, and without doubt there's huge communication barrier introduced with distance.<p>Even development teams which are split across different locations in the same building see this problem (to a lesser extent). It's one of the main reason investment banks will put developers on the trading floor, seats on the trading floor tend to be very expensive (everything has multiple redundancy, etc) but the teamwork advantages are so great that it's worth doing.
I think you have to realise that when you say a majority of /companies/ you're actually talking about a few key decision makers in this company. The HR manager and your team leader and probably the CTO equivalent have to back this plan.<p>These people generally have to justify what they do not only to their superiors but to other people in the business. And hiring someone who isn't physically there is always going to be riskier (to them) than someone sitting at their desk whatever they are doing.<p>That's my 2p worth anyway.