[Nomentatus]

"find someone who speaks both languages and trust them to decide"

This is ideal.

But finding code monkeys that can also tapdance isn't trivial. For some companies, it isn't possible; or HR won't pay the price to hire them. Sometimes management wildly overestimates their technical chops and won't tolerate "bilingual" middle managers because such people are constantly advertently or inadvertently reminding top management of their actual lack of technical knowledge.

So this is where the Fridays scheme comes in; it requires you to gain that trust once, for the one day a week of self-directed work. You might still be able to do that. It also helps prevent dev team "tunnelling."

The author makes clear at the very end of the article that in some companies, even the amount of trust nec to pry loose one day a week can't be obtained, and the Friday scheme won't work.