I’m very torn about developers working from home (WFH).
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I’m very torn about developers working from home (WFH).
I myself is a very disciplined individual. I get more work done at home because of fewer interruptions.
But I’ve also talked to developers that estimate they put in about 50% WFH. The rest of the time they do chores and play video games. The lure of not working is too strong.
While I don’t want a ”back to the office mandate”, I want to recognize that WFH is a problem for some individuals.
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I’m very torn about developers working from home (WFH).
I myself is a very disciplined individual. I get more work done at home because of fewer interruptions.
But I’ve also talked to developers that estimate they put in about 50% WFH. The rest of the time they do chores and play video games. The lure of not working is too strong.
While I don’t want a ”back to the office mandate”, I want to recognize that WFH is a problem for some individuals.
How you make a companypolicy when some developers benefit from WFH and others can’t handle it is tricky. You don’t want to punish people that clearly benefit from the freedom because some can’t handle the responsibility.
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How you make a companypolicy when some developers benefit from WFH and others can’t handle it is tricky. You don’t want to punish people that clearly benefit from the freedom because some can’t handle the responsibility.
@mikaellundin Back when I headed up a software dev org I just took the view that I expected everyone to deliver and I didn't care "how". Since everybody had chosen to give up overtime pay in liu of extra vacation days that also meant working hours weren't tracked.
Some surely worked 30 hour weeks from home and coffee shops and excelled. Others sat at the office all weeks and didn't. In the end I just looked at what they had accomplished.
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
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@mikaellundin Back when I headed up a software dev org I just took the view that I expected everyone to deliver and I didn't care "how". Since everybody had chosen to give up overtime pay in liu of extra vacation days that also meant working hours weren't tracked.
Some surely worked 30 hour weeks from home and coffee shops and excelled. Others sat at the office all weeks and didn't. In the end I just looked at what they had accomplished.
@troed I absolutely think @mikaellundin has a point. But in many cases the real issue is that managers have no f**king idea what they expect, meaning they can’t track it in a meaningful way.
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@troed I absolutely think @mikaellundin has a point. But in many cases the real issue is that managers have no f**king idea what they expect, meaning they can’t track it in a meaningful way.
@Karolina @troed thanks for your feedback.
I’m not a big fan of measuring developer productivity. One person might not be committing much code but it turns out they’re helping everyone else and making them productive. Should that be disciplined or rewarded?It’s also very hard to spot with remote teams. I used to think we should be ”remote by default” but I’m not so sure anymore. I think it all boils down to trust. Do I trust workers to be as productive remotely as in the office.
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@Karolina @troed thanks for your feedback.
I’m not a big fan of measuring developer productivity. One person might not be committing much code but it turns out they’re helping everyone else and making them productive. Should that be disciplined or rewarded?It’s also very hard to spot with remote teams. I used to think we should be ”remote by default” but I’m not so sure anymore. I think it all boils down to trust. Do I trust workers to be as productive remotely as in the office.
Right, I now see you're in a PM role. I think the decision on where people work from should lie with their line manager ("unless required by the project") and it's the line manager that should evaluate productivity. The PM should of course give input if a developer doesn't manage to close out tickets etc - but the line manager is the one that should have regular 1on1 talks with their employees.
I found that just sitting down and talking to my people for half an hour (without a set agenda! talk about anything) a week did wonders - both for their experience of "being seen" at the workplace and my understanding of what if anything was hindering them from doing their best.
