Remote also feels more empowering should one encounter a bad manager. During my WFO days I had a boss who berated me privately and publicly; even in front of clients. It was humiliating and destructive. Only when a more senior (by age, not rank) engineer finally rebuke them did the situation improve.
Ironically I think the hardest part is not internalizing the temptation to be an ass to others. Maybe if I had called them out on it myself? IDK.
On the flip side I can say after 5 years there I never once referred a soul and in fact helped many get jobs elsewhere and have pulled friends out of them when I could.
To the parent's point: 100% agree, you essentially need a different style of communication. Has to be more explicit and include some built-in check-ups and dates. It's easy to pop in and see if someone is frustrated, a lot harder to see them failing remotely.
Can you provide an example of this and whatever the implicit alternative is?
Often in person communication can be rushed if it’s between meetings when someone has a few min to drop something on you. If you don’t have time to write it down or ask follow up questions, the ability to deliver the right thing is going to be limited.
When we’re remote, almost all delegation is either conducted or followed up in async text. This means you have something to refer back to as well as a thread to ask questions without having to find free time from the other party.
"Ok, so action items from this meeting are:
* Bob, you were going to investigate bug foo and circle back tomorrow.
* Alice, you had an idea that you were going to explore, please let us know when you can deliver that."
Implicit:
"Great meeting folks, see you tomorrow".
[Next week]: "Bob, did you investigate bug foo yet? What do you mean you thought Alice was going to do it, I asked you to!"