The time zone issue is really underrated. If your team is centered in California, for example, and you hire a remote worker in Australia or Germany, it's going to be hard to find a time to meet. You're off by 8+ hours so there aren't any "normal working hours" that overlap. What inevitably results is that it takes longer to have simple back-and-forth discussions, and so projects that are split between these time zones are slowed down.
A three hour difference on the other hand isn't too bad. You can separate so that California mornings / NYC afternoons are the times for meetings and discussions, and the other times are for individual work.
The other underrated issue is specifically for management. It's especially hard to mentor and give guidance to a struggling employee when you're remote. So remote teams work better with a culture of quickly firing the underperformers, rather than trying to coach and work with them to improve their skills. The flip side is that earlier in your career you can often learn a lot more in person.
Yep, here in Tel Aviv (UTC+2) the tech scene seems to have settled on 5-6 PM as the time window for syncing with the American teams, which is awful both for locals who barely get back home by dinner time and, I assume, for Californians who just woke up to join a meeting at 7 AM (although the latter are clearly much better at hiding their discontent with this arrangement).
My two cents: I recently moved to India for work and have been flabbergasted by the amount of people having two, sometimes three different jobs. I'd say somewhere around 90% of people are doing this. And how do I know? Because I talk to them while they are playing their third hour of ping pong in any given day.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of employers are being taken advantage of by their remote employees, and western companies are often too non-confrontational to chat about underperformance or even fire their employees. "It's okay - my bosses are quite chill so I don't have many deadlines," they tell me.
I also spent a few months in Europe last year and can tell you the problem there is similar except, instead of working multiple jobs, most of my European friends work only a couple of hours a day and take the rest of the day to chill / go to the beach / etc.
Yes, their rates may be much lower than their american counterparts, but their producitivty reflects this.
All crap. With teleconferencing (anyone here ever use Zoom or MS Teams?), there IS no more "remote." At any time, you're in the room with the exact people you need. So, stay out of our country. We're only interested in your work product—we don't want or need your body, family, language, food, or culture here.
The time zone issue is really underrated. If your team is centered in California, for example, and you hire a remote worker in Australia or Germany, it's going to be hard to find a time to meet. You're off by 8+ hours so there aren't any "normal working hours" that overlap. What inevitably results is that it takes longer to have simple back-and-forth discussions, and so projects that are split between these time zones are slowed down.
A three hour difference on the other hand isn't too bad. You can separate so that California mornings / NYC afternoons are the times for meetings and discussions, and the other times are for individual work.
The other underrated issue is specifically for management. It's especially hard to mentor and give guidance to a struggling employee when you're remote. So remote teams work better with a culture of quickly firing the underperformers, rather than trying to coach and work with them to improve their skills. The flip side is that earlier in your career you can often learn a lot more in person.
Yep, here in Tel Aviv (UTC+2) the tech scene seems to have settled on 5-6 PM as the time window for syncing with the American teams, which is awful both for locals who barely get back home by dinner time and, I assume, for Californians who just woke up to join a meeting at 7 AM (although the latter are clearly much better at hiding their discontent with this arrangement).
The worst is finding a time when Australia, California, *and* Germany can attend....
My two cents: I recently moved to India for work and have been flabbergasted by the amount of people having two, sometimes three different jobs. I'd say somewhere around 90% of people are doing this. And how do I know? Because I talk to them while they are playing their third hour of ping pong in any given day.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of employers are being taken advantage of by their remote employees, and western companies are often too non-confrontational to chat about underperformance or even fire their employees. "It's okay - my bosses are quite chill so I don't have many deadlines," they tell me.
I also spent a few months in Europe last year and can tell you the problem there is similar except, instead of working multiple jobs, most of my European friends work only a couple of hours a day and take the rest of the day to chill / go to the beach / etc.
Yes, their rates may be much lower than their american counterparts, but their producitivty reflects this.
So, caveat emptor.
All crap. With teleconferencing (anyone here ever use Zoom or MS Teams?), there IS no more "remote." At any time, you're in the room with the exact people you need. So, stay out of our country. We're only interested in your work product—we don't want or need your body, family, language, food, or culture here.
Is that the rudest and most ignorant comment you could think of, or do you have more?
Lots more...
If you're what our culture has to offer then I'll take Vipul's body, family, language, food and culture over you everyday.