Remote work: culture, juniors and the office

Summary

Episode 20 of DevCast, in autumn 2020, is about remote work. The guests are Ivan Petrov, VP of Software Engineering at Paysafe, whose Bulgarian team of more than 1,200 people includes about 330 in software development, and Ivan Goychev, CTO of Cobuilder, with a development team of about 70; the hosts are Georgi Ivanov, Boris Simandov and Rossen Genchev. Petrov describes the first months of the pandemic: paranoia, and at first more throughput. Simandov saw the same: fear drove a burst of performance that then kept falling.

Genchev argues that moving a team out of the office changes a great deal. It blows up the culture: the rhythm of the day, the commute, the coffee, the water-cooler conversations and the body language all go, and the main lever left is how you communicate the goals. To Ivan Petrov's example of pilots he answers with a surgical operation, two surgeons, two anaesthetists, four nurses and eighteen more people: software is closer to that. For people who are not comfortable in an office, remote work is a perfect alternative and a manager should not force them; and nobody will go back to offices the way it was before.

The conversation also covers hiring juniors who need closer attention, keeping a culture at a distance, and a community question he brings: how to plan when someone is out with COVID for two or three weeks. The more a company works remotely, he says, the more often it must gather; GitLab brings its people together four times a year. Petrov expects a hybrid scheme with a budget for team events; Genchev adds that tooling licences at five to ten dollars a person make a large remote team expensive, and his company limits some tools for that reason.

Key moments

1. 01:53Paysafe in Bulgaria: more than 1,200 people, about 330 in software development, offices in more than ten countries.
2. 08:12The first months: paranoia, and at first more throughput and velocity.
3. 26:36Boris Simandov: fear drove a burst of performance, which then kept falling.
4. 30:24What to do with juniors, who need far more attention at a distance?
5. 45:24How is a culture built and kept when everyone is remote?
6. 47:08Not pilots but a surgical operation: why software needs the team in one place.
7. 51:22Leaving the office is a total reset of culture; the lever left is how you communicate the goals.
8. 54:22Nobody will go back to offices the way it was before.
9. 1:08:12A community question: how to plan when someone is out with COVID for two or three weeks.
10. 1:16:22The more remote the company, the more often it has to gather; GitLab does it four times a year.