we are all
remote workers
@nicolaiarocci
nicolaiarocci.com
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work from home?
Me,
a couple
years ago
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we closed offices
on july 2012
a little more than one year ago
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why?
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7 team members
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12 kids
3 dogs
5 wives
One husband
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more like 20
team members
life is more complex than just work
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a nice proprietary
location in Ravenna
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a nice proprietary
location in Ravenna
turns out team members are mostly from the neighborhood
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Ghibullo
9km
x2pp x4 trips
72 km 1h28m
Marina di
Ravenna
17Km
x1pp x4 trips
68 km 1h40m
Classe
7Km
x1pp x4 trips
28 km 0h40m
Cervia
23 Km
x1pp x2 trips
46 km 0h50m
Forlì
25 Km
x1pp x2 trips
50 km 0h56m
Ravenna
3 Km
x1pp x4 trips
12 km 0h24m
approximate distances and travel time courtesy of google maps
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276 km, 5h58m
every fucking workday
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276 km, 5h58m
money / time / environment / safety / fitness / stress
proximity is overrated
Works if you can turn your chair around and talk to a colleague, but if they’re on
another floor or in another building, then they might as well be in another city.
Vivek Haldar
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proximity is overrated
especially for programmers
Headphones
anyone?
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besides
we were using mostly remote tools already,
right there in our offices
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we are all
remote workers
chances that all the people we need to collaborate with
are physically close to us are infinitesimally small
inspired by Vivek Haldar’s We Are All Remote Workers,
(incidentally posted on the same day I was working on this deck)
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we are all
remote workers
we just embraced a process which has been
in the making for a very long time
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how?
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remote
all the things
mixing remote and office workers is like black magic
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HipChat
free for teams of five / github bitbucket heroku hooks / guests
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Google Hangout
also good for code reviews and pair coding
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Dropbox
sharing files between us and with clients
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Google Docs
multiuser realtime editing for documents and spreadsheets
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Google Apps
shared mailboxes, domains, calendars, docs
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GitHub
free for public repositories
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BitBucket
free for private repositories
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Trello
organize, kanban style
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get and make calls on mobile and desktop for cheap
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the good
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save on
time & money
commutes / meals
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help the environment
one hundred per cent pollution reduction
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flexibility
work from everywhere
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flexibility
work at any hour as we don’t count hours*
(we focus on results and balance)
* support team being the exception
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balance
work / family / fun
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no interruptions
there’s no guy across the room asking for your pen
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Async > Sync
drawing by Vivek Haldar
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remote encourages Async
drawing by Vivek Haldar
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recruit the best
we can hire the best people from all over the world
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reduced stress
all of this results in a huge...
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productivity boost
and to think that most people expect the contrary
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reputation
people always ask how we pulled this out
and we have a great story to tell
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last but not least...
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we save a truckload of
$$$
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the not so good
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adaption and change
in managerial and organizational styles
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establishing
coordination
between remote workers requires an initial effort
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work and family
responsibilities
not mixing them up requires a conscious effort
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lack of team spirit
can be a issue if counter-measures are not taken
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lack of team spirit
we have a lot of fun in chat and during hangouts. really.
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lack of team spirit
once a month we meet for lunch, have fun
and discuss work and non-work related stuff
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lack of team spirit
we also have regular face-to-face meetings
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most of the time in exotic places
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fear for data security
make sure you do your homework here
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trust & accountability
chat and voip logs, centralized emails, hangouts, code repos
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isolation
get out and have fun when you feel like it
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distraction
hire self-motivated and productive people
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not for everyone
working from home, coffee shops or
co-working space is not for everyone (so is office work)
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meeting clients
depending on your business branch,
can be serious an issue
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we believe
in creating a parity and a culture of work
where location doesn’t matter
Joel Gascoigne
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few years
and setups like this will be normal for most businesses
Joel Gascoigne
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it’s a privilege
to be part of this innovation, experiment
and share our experience
Joel Gascoigne
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by the way
our offices in Ravenna, Italy
are up for sale
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by the way
as we are not going back. ever.
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thank you
@nicolaiarocci
nicolaiarocci.com
gestionaleamica.com
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also
inspired by
Vivek Haldar’s
We Are All Remote Workers
incidentally posted on same day I was working on this deck
Joel’s Gascoigne
The Joys and Benefits of Working as a Distributed Team
which also surfaced on the internet as I was looking for inspiration about this presentation