The Benefits and Challenges of Remote Work in Engineering Teams

During the COVID pandemic, remote work has become increasingly predominant for most of the roles in the tech industry. As technology facilitates seamless communication and collaboration regardless of geographical location, either sync or async, many companies have adopted remote work as the main option for their teams. In August 2023, ResumeBuilder conducted a survey among 1000 company leaders, which revealed that 90% of companies' leaders want to return to the office by the end of 2024, while some experts think that forcing workers back to the office is 'dinosaur management'. Clearly, there's no consensus about the best working model!

In my view, the best working model for a company depends on various factors, including the organizational culture, nature of the work, company operations, team dynamics, and individual preferences. In this post, I’ll share my perspectives on the advantages and challenges of remote working within engineering teams based on my experience working fully on-site, fully remote, and hybrid models in the past years.

Benefits of Remote Engineering Teams

Remote work offers a good set of advantages for both engineers and development leaders. Below, I list some of the main benefits of remote engineering practices considering my experience.

Access to Global Talent

Remote work enables companies to tap into a global talent pool, facilitating the recruitment of top-tier engineers regardless of their geographical location. I had firsthand experience with this when, back in 2020, Pixelmatters changed their remote work policy to be Remote as default, Office as an option. With this policy change, Pixelmatters also expanded their recruitment efforts beyond Porto, Pixelmatters' HQ, to contain the entire Portugal. Following this change and an intensive hiring period for the engineering team I was leading, the candidate pool clearly expanded, and Pixelmatters had a significant percentage of its engineering team living outside of Porto a couple of months later.

Flexibility

Remote work grants engineers the flexibility to tailor their work schedules and environments to suit their preferences. This flexibility not only fosters a sense of autonomy but also allows individuals to achieve a better work-life balance. I've seen multiple colleagues in different companies working fully remotely and they were able to work from many different places, such as from home or co-work spaces, or even countries so they would be able to visit different cities after work. The main guideline is simple: have a place where you can be productive and professional, independently where you work from.

Increased Focus

Remote work offers an environment free from typical office distractions, empowering engineers to focus deeply on their tasks. For example, in an office environment, there's often background noise or interruptions as a colleague tapping you on the shoulder to tell a joke right while you're in the midst of a crucial task requiring deep concentration.

Cost Savings

Adopting remote work practices leads to significant cost savings not only to companies but also to employees. For instance, reducing or even eliminating the need for an office space reduces overhead costs associated with rent, utilities, and office amenities. Additionally, employees may also save on commuting expenses or lunches outside, contributing to their financial well-being and overall satisfaction.

Work-Life Balance and Improved Retention

Remote work fosters a healthier work-life balance, contributing to improved retention rates within engineering teams. For instance, I've listened to feedback from many engineers working remotely who shared that remote allowed them to better integrate their professional and personal lives. This flexibility empowers individuals to allocate time for family, hobbies, and self-care, ultimately reducing stress and enhancing overall job satisfaction.

Challenges Facing Remote Engineering Teams

Despite the benefits of remote engineering, remote work is not a bed of roses as it brings its own set of challenges. Some of the most common challenges faced by remote engineering teams are listed below.

Communication Barriers

Remote work can pose challenges in communication, leading to misunderstandings or conflicts among team members. Without the context provided by vocal intonation and facial expressions, messages may be interpreted differently than intended, resulting in communication breakdowns. For instance, I had a few examples of colleagues speculating what the meaning of an emoji meant in a sentence and I recall a time, back in 2021, when there was a global discussion about the default smile emoji, 🙂, and if it was passive-aggressive. As an example, you can check this Independent article, where they asked Gen-Z and Millennials what the emoji means to them.

Collaboration and Team Bonding

Building strong relationships and fostering a sense of camaraderie among team members can be a challenge in a remote environment, decreasing the chances of having engineers build rapport and establish personal connections with team members. By working in a hybrid model with the office as an option, I've seen the value of being along with colleagues at the office from time to time, to create an interpersonal relationship with someone you may spend hours and hours working along. Plus, some engineers have confessed to me that whenever we did a team gathering they were more willing to speak via Slack with someone they met in person.

Knowledge Sharing

Without the spontaneous interactions that occur in a physical office environment, remote teams may experience silos of information - the informal knowledge exchange that naturally occurs through casual conversations at the office may be less natural or not occur at all. In my personal experience, I've seen that this impacted mainly junior engineers because while working at the office I felt that junior engineers evolve their skills way faster than in a remote environment. Obviously, the evolution of each individual may vary depending on multiple factors, but it's indeed something I noticed.

Work-Life Balance

Remote work, despite its flexibility, can blur the boundaries between work and personal life, potentially impacting the well-being of engineers. I've observed instances where colleagues set up their remote workstations in close proximity to their bedroom or dining room. This lack of clear delineation between work hours and leisure time can pose challenges for engineers in disconnecting from work and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Without distinct boundaries, individuals may find themselves constantly tethered to their work, leading to burnout and decreased overall satisfaction with their personal and professional lives.

The “bus factor” is a term used to describe the number of people who could be “run over by a bus” before your project would be in danger of failure.

Bus Factor

The 'Bus Factor' is an important metric for engineering teams, especially remote ones. From what I've observed, teams that heavily depend on just a few people for essential knowledge and skills encounter major challenges when unforeseen circumstances as a crucial team member leaving. This underscores the importance of focusing on sharing knowledge and implementing cross-training programs in remote teams.

Final Remarks

The way we work has experienced important changes with the COVID-19 pandemic, with remote work emerging as the primary mode of operation, especially within the tech industry. Thanks to technology, we can now easily communicate and collaborate from different locations, leading many companies to embrace remote work for their teams still today. By fostering a good remote culture, organizations can take all the benefits of the remote advantages and successfully navigate the challenges associated with remote work with action plans to address them effectively.