Why we are remote and How we make it work?
saturnhq.ioThere's a lot of debate around remote work vs In-office work. Many companies have started opening offices and forcing employees to come back in the name of productivity but I feel people are more productive at home with some discipline and better practices.
Remote work has many challenges. We're a startup (16 employees) so the challenges differ from the challenges faced by big tech companies.
I think there’s no right or wrong answer here. Either option has pros and cons. With In-person office work, it is hard to go into a focussed more, there are many distractions, commute takes away a lot of time & energy, etc.
While remote working requires a lot of self-discipline, it is very easy to get dragged into many work chores, hard to communicate with fellow teammates, and some folks also do moonlighting which is against many company policies.
We follow certain practices to make our remote setup work and it has worked beautifully so far So I think remote work is here to stay and many startups can adopt remote work to be more efficient, and move fast.
I think it's like learning: different strategies work for different people. Some employees will thrive in certain environments; finding the right match boosts productivity and retention.
Personally, I suspect I do best in a 1/5th in person environment.
Do you mean a hybrid model where you go to office once a week and rest days are remote?
Yes, hybrid with 4 days a week at home. There's obvious downsides, like still needing to live within commuting distance, but the in-person time is valuable to me.
This model has some benefits too just that you have to live near the office or perhaps 1 day commute shouldn't feel too bad.