Working Remote

I think working remote is a pretty simple benefit that can be given towards software developers. If you are putting restrictions on work from home, you are already showing that you don’t trust that they are able to complete work without constant supervision. This problem is unlikely to be solved by forcing people to come into work.

There was a big push for work from home during the start of the covid pandemic, but there has been another push to reverse that and get employee’s back in the office. I think this push is more ideological and starts to make a lot less sense when there are already some employees that work fully remote and some that are required to come into work because they are within driving distance.

It may start to make even less sense with the current war with Iran and the potential for gas prices to rise. Whenever there is a change in the status quo, I think this is often the catalyst for employees to start looking for work elsewhere. This happened for me at Merkle Inc., when a received a reduction in my salary at the start of covid. I felt more of an obligation to work at least a year longer because I had benefited from the pretty generous parental leave policy, but reducing my salary made me feel a lot less guilty about looking for another job. I found a job at Semanticbits which did CMS contracts that I felt had a more positive impact.