> This is why, to me, it is surprising that so few companies offer "remote only" jobs.
Politics. Politics. Politics.
How do you prove, as a manager, that you are doing your job when nobody can see half of your employees?
As a side note, there are also good reasons to have your technical team co-located. It's sometimes really hard to drill into difficult technical problems without everybody standing in front of a whiteboard.
> How do you prove, as a manager, that you are doing your job when nobody can see half of your employees?
I don't know if I buy it. How do you prove, as a manager, that you are doing your job when everyone can see all your employees? I fail to see how the visibility of you employees helps you prove that you're doing your job.
It's all perception. The manager talking with employees, having meetings with them etc gives the appearance of "work". This same thing causes interruptions to developers all day long. "Hands off" managers who hire people they trust to do their job are far more productive, but not the middle of the curve.
I think people can make lack of whiteboards work. The issue I have seen is when your team is partially co-located and partially remote -- the co-located people do the whiteboarding without bothering to involve the remote people, or the remote people do a lot more one-on-one discussions with other remote people. I think remote can work well, but the entire team needs to be remote to ensure communication.
Politics. Politics. Politics.
How do you prove, as a manager, that you are doing your job when nobody can see half of your employees?
As a side note, there are also good reasons to have your technical team co-located. It's sometimes really hard to drill into difficult technical problems without everybody standing in front of a whiteboard.