Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by opless 644 days ago
If you can elaborate a role that does require in person collaboration, I'll discuss it for sure.

But you are aware that videoconferencing has been around for decades now?

As I've said in earlier posts, if you have to physically manipulate something or its a performance of some kind then it's unlikely not to be able to be done remotely.

I'm not here to destroy my own argument. If you think I'm wrong then you need to present your own argument.

1 comments

Video conferencing imposes a hurdle to communication that doesn't exist when people are working in the same physical space. One thing I've heard from some people who prefer working remotely is that it's easier for them to 'just put their headphones on and focus' because there are less distractions. But that makes the mistake of assuming they're being being paid to focus on a specific set of tasks, when in actual fact they're being paid to do a lot of things including passing on their experience to junior members of staff, and to communicate freely with other people working on their project. These things (in my and many other peoples opinion) work better when the small hurdle to communication I mentioned earlier doesn't exist.
Actually, if that's not in your contract, it literally isn't your job to train up junior members of your team. Of course, we're not monsters so we do.

You're paid to do what's outlined in your contract nothing more.

Headphones on. Crack on with the job at hand. That's exactly the way to go. Having to be distracted by annoying co-workers who don't understand that, is a benefit of WFH for sure.

Who wants to be constantly interrupted by random folk when you're likely working to a deadline?

That's because when you're suddenly distracted by "just a quick question..." It takes you an age to unwind the stack and try to realign back to what you were doing.

That 5 minute 'quick question' becomes 15-30 minutes of getting back into the zone. Send an email, an IM, post the question on the slack channel for anyone to answer.

Just. Don't. Disturb. Me.

You think it's subjective. "My and other people's opinion", who? Really? Or are they just nodding and saying that you're right because it's actually impossible to talk any sense into you?

Take a moment and meditate how toxic the behaviour you described above actually is to the real needs of the business, and not your feelings.

The world has moved on. Maybe you should too?

It's very difficult to have a conversation when you're making so many projections about a business you likely know very little about. Most of the employees in the industry I work in are artist, not SWEs, and they're working on creative problems with often loosely defined briefs that change every day, and require teams of people to work closely together for many months to achieve. They're also using complex and often poorly documented software that may have been built to solve a specific problem they're attempting to solve.
It's very difficult indeed to argue, when you're giving very little information to back up your assertions.

If you're not given clear briefs, and you accept the work, then it's clear to me that as an industry you've allowed this to go on too long ;)

Let's face it, you're unable to be shifted from your viewpoint. So the utility of this discussion is approaching zero.

I hope your situation improves. Especially with the cranky software! I'm very curious what the software does as I'm always looking for a niche product to build!