Well, I’m just saying something as simple as this.

When you’re in an office together, it’s easy to have a “whiteboard” discussion.

But try doing that with 20-30 people all working remotely. We’ve got it down I think. Same thing could be said for a classroom. Sure, it might be easy for a math class or something that isn’t very interactive, but how would you do this with a lab class, or something with a lot of discussion? I’d really like to see a company that previous had a very remote-unfriendly environment now forced to allow employees to work from home and also be nearly as effective.

Fortunately it’s not a problem from our company, because many of directors/vps (inclusive) already decided that in order to augment highly skilled workers (especially in mobile) we have no choice. Either spend a boatload of money poaching great mobile guys from the limited supply in san diego or bay area, or spend a less on very highly skilled people in lower cost areas in the U.S. without relocating the entire operations there. So you pay someone in Florida about the same as SD, and they’ll be happy employees because no one else in the same area pays nearly as much. Also, I have a lot of people that requested moving to the midwest where it’s cheaper to live and so they can start a family or for personal reasons. I’ve approved them all subject to a 90 day “try before I commit to this being permanent” policy. So some guy in the midwest is basically making 30-35% above his peers over there and home prices are 1/3 the cost in SD with flexibility as long as he gets his work done…. He’s not going to give me reasons to dismiss him. I think I went against a lot of senior management doing this, and had a lot of eyebrows raised, some warned me I might get fired for doing this. That was 6 months ago. I never missed a deadline, others have.. I think everyone else is pretty much doing the same thing now…