we are all remote workers
DESCRIPTION
One year ago we closed our office doors to become a fully distributed company. This is our story so far.TRANSCRIPT
we are allremote workers
@nicolaiaroccinicolaiarocci.com
work from home?
Me,
a coup
le
years ag
o
we closed officeson july 2012a little more than one year ago
why?
7 team members
12 kids3 dogs
5 wivesOne husband
more like 20 team memberslife is more complex than just work
a nice proprietarylocation in Ravenna
a nice proprietarylocation in Ravenna
turns out team members are mostly from the neighborhood
Ghibullo9km
x2pp x4 trips 72 km 1h28m
Marina di Ravenna
17Km x1pp x4 trips 68 km 1h40m
Classe7Km
x1pp x4 trips 28 km 0h40m
Cervia23 Km
x1pp x2 trips 46 km 0h50m
Forlì25 Km
x1pp x2 trips 50 km 0h56m
Ravenna3 Km
x1pp x4 trips 12 km 0h24m
approximate distances and travel time courtesy of google maps
276 km, 5h58m every fucking workday
276 km, 5h58m money / time / environment / safety / fitness / stress
infrastructure
$$$power / phone / conditioning / maintenance / you-name-it
proximity is overratedWorks if you can turn your chair around and talk to a colleague, but if they’re on another floor or in another building, then they might as well be in another city.
Vivek Haldar
proximity is overratedespecially for programmers
Headphones
anyone?
besideswe were using mostly remote tools already,
right there in our offices
we are all remote workers
chances that all the people we need to collaborate withare physically close to us are infinitesimally small
inspired by Vivek Haldar’s We Are All Remote Workers, (incidentally posted on the same day I was working on this deck)
we are all remote workers
we just embraced a process which has been in the making for a very long time
how?
remote all the things
mixing remote and office workers is like black magic
HipChatfree for teams of five / github bitbucket heroku hooks / guests
Google Hangoutalso good for code reviews and pair coding
Dropboxsharing files between us and with clients
Google Docsmultiuser realtime editing for documents and spreadsheets
Google Appsshared mailboxes, domains, calendars, docs
BitBucketfree for private repositories
get and make calls on mobile and desktop for cheap
the good
save on time & money
commutes / meals
help the environmentone hundred per cent pollution reduction
flexibilitywork from everywhere
flexibilitywork at any hour as we don’t count hours*
(we focus on results and balance)
* support team being the exception
balancework / family / fun
no interruptionsthere’s no guy across the room asking for your pen
Async > Syncdrawing by Vivek Haldar
remote encourages Asyncdrawing by Vivek Haldar
recruit the bestwe can hire the best people from all over the world
reduced stressall of this results in a huge...
productivity boostand to think that most people expect the contrary
reputationpeople always ask how we pulled this out
and we have a great story to tell
last but not least...
we save a truckload of
$$$
the not so good
adaption and changein managerial and organizational styles
establishing coordination
between remote workers requires an initial effort
work and family responsibilities
not mixing them up requires a conscious effort
lack of team spiritcan be a issue if counter-measures are not taken
lack of team spiritwe have a lot of fun in chat and during hangouts. really.
lack of team spiritonce a month we meet for lunch, have fun
and discuss work and non-work related stuff
lack of team spiritwe also have regular face-to-face meetings
most of the time in exotic places
fear for data securitymake sure you do your homework here
trust & accountabilitychat and voip logs, centralized emails, hangouts, code repos
isolationget out and have fun when you feel like it
distractionhire self-motivated and productive people
not for everyoneworking from home, coffee shops or
co-working space is not for everyone (so is office work)
meeting clientsdepending on your business branch,
can be serious an issue
we believein creating a parity and a culture of work
where location doesn’t matter
Joel Gascoigne
few yearsand setups like this will be normal for most businesses
Joel Gascoigne
it’s a privilegeto be part of this innovation, experiment
and share our experience
Joel Gascoigne
by the wayour offices in Ravenna, Italy
are up for sale
by the wayas we are not going back. ever.
thank you@nicolaiarocci
nicolaiarocci.com
gestionaleamica.com
also inspired by
Vivek Haldar’s We Are All Remote Workers
incidentally posted on same day I was working on this deck
Joel’s GascoigneThe Joys and Benefits of Working as a Distributed Team
which also surfaced on the internet as I was looking for inspiration about this presentation