[pmarreck]

It may depend on the person and the job.

Pre-pandemic I lasted only 4 months at a remote job. I kept asking to meet them (they were in Atlanta, me in Long Island, but most of them were scattered), meeting stakeholders in person gives me a charge which aids my focus and overall productivity. Anyway they kept deferring, and then one day sort of out of the blue and without warning (literally... the day prior the supervisor's supervisor did a call with me and it went well), the supervisor and a longstanding coworker both just started grilling me hard and when they didn't like my answers (note that I was still learning the very complex application codebase at this point) the supervisor basically decided it's not working out.

This past year has terrified me with the idea that all tech work will now be done remotely. Fortunately I'm working on my own projects directly for clients but unfortunately it's not paying very well at the rate I'm being productive (which is "not very"). I am FAR more productive when working physically with other people (who also know intuitively when to not interrupt because they're also programmers).

[tene]

How do you check during the hiring process to tell whether new hires will intuitively know when not to interrupt?

Have you often worked on teams where everyone intuitively knows when to not interrupt someone?

Every office I've ever worked in has always had people who interrupt me while I'm trying to focus. If you've got a way to exclusively hire mind-readers that can effectively avoid this, I'm curious to hear how you've managed it.

[pmarreck]

The handful of development shops I’ve worked in, I don’t recall ever being frustrated by interruptions. These were also startups, where perhaps an entirely different mindset exists. There was kind of an ebb and flow.

In the real estate office I now work out of sometimes (they offered me a free desk due to my project work)? It is CONSTANTLY annoying.

[exotree]

Why did you take a job that you knew was remote but insist on meeting the stakeholders in person? You shouldn’t have taken that job with that expectation.

[pmarreck]

They agreed to meet before I was hired, after I started, so they set up the expectation and then stalled on follow-through

[dleslie]

I'm roughly 6 years into working from home; the pandemic isn't really a new experience for me.

The first year was concerning because it was different and weird, but it rapidly became normal. Now, I reflect on how _slow_ office work was and find myself frustrated for my past self.

[pmarreck]

That’s great for you, but I don’t like feeling like a pariah or digital monk