I don't doubt the main conclusion of the article for certain tasks at least — what I do think is questionable though is using productivity as the only valid metric without controlling for others, including happiness, loneliness, effectiveness and sustainability.
For makers of any kind, I think remote work has mainly been a net benefit. There's a lot of developers in our teams who say they're more productive than ever.
For me as a technology manager, I'm more exhausted than ever. Video meetings are a pain. Because of this, people switch to asynchronous communication methods, which is definively more effective, but lacks even more personality. Text has many more layers of ambiguity. People get more aggressive and lonely. Misunderstandings rise.
My job is to be aware of the emotional undercurrents of arguments and technology and physical distance just seems to get in the way of that. Any forms of creativity that happens in a group, like whiteboarding together, just isn't the same.
So yes, I think I'm more productive, at least in some ways. There are some bright sides, also in my private life from being able to work from home that I'm sure to do more of once I'm able to go back to the office. But I haven't ever been as exhausted, lonely or miserable as right now and I simply can't wait to actually have the choice of seeing people in person again.
> For me as a technology manager, I'm more exhausted than ever. Video meetings are a pain. Because of this, people switch to asynchronous communication methods, which is definively more effective, but lacks even more personality. Text has many more layers of ambiguity. People get more aggressive and lonely. Misunderstandings rise.
IMO That's a cultural and psychological problem similar to when people moved from industrial facilities to service industries, or from waterfall development to agile. People can and have to learn workflows to accomodate that, and they will be happier.
> My job is to be aware of the emotional undercurrents of arguments and technology and physical distance just seems to get in the way of that. Any forms of creativity that happens in a group, like whiteboarding together, just isn't the same.
In my experience online whiteboaridng on tablets is far superior to in-room whiteboarding. Recording, replaying, integration of other tools, etc. It's again a question of consistent workflows.
This all rings true but from my vantage point this kind of management ends up introducing excess overhead that makes my work life more fraught with emotional uncertainty rather than less. I avoid it altogether.
I don't want anyone, let alone an EM — someone overwhelmingly likely to have below average emotional intelligence relative to the general population — to be probing into my inner life in 1:1s and playing 4D chess orchestrating the team. I've experienced this. It's exhausting.
The whole organizational arrangement is misbegotten. Most companies follow it largely out of faddishness and cargo-culting.
For makers of any kind, I think remote work has mainly been a net benefit. There's a lot of developers in our teams who say they're more productive than ever.
For me as a technology manager, I'm more exhausted than ever. Video meetings are a pain. Because of this, people switch to asynchronous communication methods, which is definively more effective, but lacks even more personality. Text has many more layers of ambiguity. People get more aggressive and lonely. Misunderstandings rise.
My job is to be aware of the emotional undercurrents of arguments and technology and physical distance just seems to get in the way of that. Any forms of creativity that happens in a group, like whiteboarding together, just isn't the same.
So yes, I think I'm more productive, at least in some ways. There are some bright sides, also in my private life from being able to work from home that I'm sure to do more of once I'm able to go back to the office. But I haven't ever been as exhausted, lonely or miserable as right now and I simply can't wait to actually have the choice of seeing people in person again.