Well, let's see, it's been a little over a year since I started with IBM as a remote employee (my management team is in Raleigh, I'm in California). In that time I've learned at least one extremely important fact: working remote is a total $%@!@ but it beats the alternative. The upside is the amount of time I get to have with my family. I'd rather have more face-time with my wife and 2yr old than with my manager and VP. The hours are flexible and the work enjoyable. The downside is the complete lack of a direct connection with your coworkers. Face-to-face builds trust. Never underestimate the power of being able to walk into someone's office and having a chat.
There is a special strain on the relationship between the manager and the remote employee. The managers job is to keep the team focused, on track, moving towards a target that the team may not necessarily see or understand. In doing so, the manager must connect directly with the team. It's extremely hard to directly connect when 2,646 miles of continent separate you and when the only real way to communicate is via email and a weekly half hour call. Both the manager and the employee have to go through a sharp learning curve.
There is a second thing I've learned. It is very, very easy to underestimate the level of politics (both necessary and unnecessary) that goes on in a large organization. Prior to joining IBM, all of the company's I worked for were small, no more than a few hundred people at most. In fact, the employer I left to come to IBM had only 5 developers and a smaller number of staff -- less than 10 people altogether. To vastly understate the fact: coming into IBM has been a bit of a culture shock.
All in all, I'd have to say that it's been a bit of a rocky start. I've pissed off more than my fair share of people while trying to balance my overly cut-the-crap-and-get-to-the-solution method of dealing with issues with a new and unfamiliar political environment and working conditions but have scored some significant successes at the same time. It has been, in a very realy sense, a prototypical first-year-on-the-job. The new kid at school trying to figure out the social order of the new playground. It'll be interesting to see how the next year plays out.
If I had any advice to give to remote employees it would be this:
- Open as many channels of communication with as many people as possible. Connect with people however you can. Make efficient use of the phone, email, instant messaging.
- When you're talking with someone you don't see on a regular basis, make an attempt to connect personally with them. It's not just about getting business done, it's about building a friendship. As a remote employee, you cannot have enough friends on the inside.
- Disagreements magnify over email. Be extremely careful of your word choice. Don't assume that everyone on the copy to list will understand the context of a statement or an objection. Keep the copy to list small. Realize that email while email is essential to the remote employees existence, for regular employees it tends to be a distraction so they read it as little as possible. I've found that email is an extremely inefficient tool to accomplish anything. Pick up the phone.
12:47:31 AM 
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