filePro programmers

[Fairlight]

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> Fairlight wrote:
> >
> > I find that a pretty weak rationale.  Unless you're doing something
> > that involves needing physical access to switch media constantly or
> > cycle power, etc., it's irrelevant, and it's an indication that
> > someone really doesn't have much of a clue about telecommuting.
> 
> Or that you really don't have much of a clue about working with others in a
> community/office.

*cough*  '85-'93.  BTDTGTTS.  It's overrated.  Highly.  I have more than
clue about it.  I also have more than a slight distaste for it in that
context.

> When I started here, we all used to work in the office. Then one of us
> switched to always working from home and the  others got to working from
> home almost 1/2 of the time. So I've been through an experience that shows
> the difference working together makes more apparent than it might otherwise
> be if say, I had worked for one company where everyone worked together and a
> different company where everyone worked remotely.

I find I work far better without the distractions of petty office politics,
people yammering on endlessly about this or that (official or unofficial,
business or personal), etc.  I also work a lot better in comfortable
surroundings, dressed comfortably, where I can throw on whatever music
is inspirational to me (or none at all in place of some environments'
omnipresent Muzak).  I'm simply more productive when I don't have to waste
energy putting up with petty BS and/or trying to conform to some corporate
idea of what an employee should look like, say, etc.

Don't even get me started on business dress.  I'm not sure whose idea it
was to force men to wear clothing that looks like overpriced pyjamas to
work, but I've always thought it patently absurd.  The only thing about
-that- that's more patently absurd than a company enforcing a haughty
dress code is the knowledge that all too many people are SO clueless that
they won't take you seriously if you -don't- toe the line and dress like a
drone.

> For straight programming work, it seems at first like there is no
> difference, but over time I can see that there really is.

What you cite in the next paragraph is not straight programming.  It's
business.  And in my experience, nothing that conference calls can't
handle.

> When we do all work together once in a while, we get a lot more of the
> intangibles done. We do a much better job of directing the business and
> deciding what to do and where to invest attention and kick ideas back and
> forth. We get more done over a nice lunch than in sometimes months of phone
> & email. You can voice an idea and others can evaluate it in a split second
> at least enough to know whether to think about it further. We all end up
> wasting so much less time when we are working on projects by deciding what
> to do so much more effectively, and being so much clearer and in better
> agreement between us about what exactly to do. The whole machine just runs
> smoother and produces more finely tuned results and reacts to the
> environment faster and more accurately.

IM/phone/email.  Check out Jabber.  Cross between IM and IRC.  I've never
run into something I can't handle on a conference call that would
absolutely require a face-to-face meeting.

> Not to mention it's simply more satisfying to spend 50% of your waking life
> in the company of others instead of by yourself. Although for that part to
> be true of course, you have to like your co-workers or at least respect them
> and I guess that's not always attainable.

The only people that I've thoguht I could enjoy working with in person and
felt I could tolerate dealing with on a regular basis, I've never met in
person.  I never really did like the cow-orkers I ended up with prior to
going solo.  I choose my company pretty selectively.  My best friend and I
worked together at several jobs.  But outside of that, although I can make
some nice acquaintances (and have) at just about any job, the downsides
outweigh any marginal upside.

There are very few people I'd want to spend 8hrs+/day with.  As it is,
I get to spend as much time with my wife as I like, have no commute, and no
utterly wasted time on meetings that go nowhere.  I have numerous friends
and colleagues in various industries who will fully agree with me that the
weekly meeting is probably the biggest waste of time that the business
culture has ever drempt up.  In a lot of companies and government agencies,
it takes hours out of a day, accomplishes nothing, and does nothing but
annoy everyone except the person that thinks it's a bright idea to have the
meetings.

And I'm really not into mixing business and pleasure.  "Working lunches"
just don't do it for me unless it's having dinner in front of the console
with some code.  There's a reason states mandate breaks and lunch breaks of
'x' duration.  Working over the top of that entirely defeats the purpose of
getting the hell away from work for a while to clear your head, destress,
whatever.

I respect that it works for you and your company.  YMMV.  For my part, I
can do without it quite easily.  If you think that a lack of any drive to
be around people I have no choice but to be around due to obligation makes
me some sort of misanthropic entity, so be it.  I'm quite content, and
considering LTS as it is, that's what really matters.  If you're not
happy, you shouldn't be doing it.

mark->
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