
Ask HN: Good Remote Work Literature? - anacleto
I&#x27;ve been working remotely for the last 4 years of my life. In my latest company, I just realized how little literature has been written on the topic of remote working. I&#x27;ve been seeing some forms of reports on the status of remote working [0], but I couldn&#x27;t find any in-depth materials (whether blogs, essays, papers or even books) with some qualitative thinking on remote work and the future of work. We have been flooded with solutions and tools without a deep understand of our working flow and caveats.<p>Ie: why are things happening in a certain way? What are the school of thoughts? What are the best practices (synchronous vs. asynchronous, remote vs distributed)? What is the Keynes vs. Hayek of the subject? What are the implications of remote working on organizational structures (eg. functional vs. divisional)? What can and cannot work? What&#x27;s the tool stack one should adapt depending on the org configuration?(Slack + Zoom for sync, etc) How does this should adapt as the org changes over time?<p>Do you have specific resources you could recommend me to read on the topic?<p>This write-up I just published on the blog is the closest example to what I&#x27;m looking for: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sametab.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;future-remote-working&#x2F;<p>[0] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;buffer.com&#x2F;state-of-remote-work-2019
======
langitbiru
GitLab is one of the most successful remote companies. Their handbook is free
to read.
[https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/)

But what you are looking for is this one:
[https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/)

~~~
cwarrior
They pay salaries based on the location of the employees, which kinda sucks.

~~~
blumomo
They go great lengths to justify why salaries are paid location based:
[https://about.gitlab.com/2019/02/28/why-we-pay-local-
rates/](https://about.gitlab.com/2019/02/28/why-we-pay-local-rates/)

I think that's a wise decision because it allows you to stay where you are
without pushing you into another country just to benefit from lower living
costs while having a comparatively high income.

~~~
rtkwe
Yeah, to attract people already living in high COL areas you have to pay them
well otherwise they'll work local which will track to the living expenses.

~~~
godelski
But why not move to a higher COL area if you can get the same living style. If
you're putting x% of your savings away (this is what COL does) then the person
in the higher COL nets more savings.

------
hoodwink
Echoing the recommendation for Remote elsewhere in this thread. I also
recommend Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace.

Cubed does not address remote work per se, but it does help explain the
history of the office and how that became the de facto workplace for cognitive
labor. It also discusses the history of the theory of management, which is a
relatively young scientific subject, maybe 130 years old, which is predicated
on one assumption: everyone is in the same building!

As a proponent of remote work, I believe what is happening right now is
practice is outstripping science. It’ll take several years before science
catches up to study what entrepreneurs and companies have already figured out
through trial and error.

~~~
kitd
I've not read Cubed. It sounds interesting. But the topics you mention brought
to mind similar themes in Peopleware by DiMarco and Lister. I'd add that to
the list, though not related to remote working.

------
raamdev
Distributed.blog is a new podcast series by Matt Mullenweg (co-creator of
WordPress and CEO of Automattic, a fully-distributed company of nearly a
thousand folks). The podcast explores distributed work, the future of
business, and what it means for the global economy.
[https://distributed.blog/](https://distributed.blog/)

~~~
buboard
Great resource, thanks

------
dashpeak
The team at Doist (creators of Todoist, Twist) just released long-form guides
on remote work (e.g. asynchronous communication, taxes, product design,
management, hiring, project management, etc.)

[https://twist.com/remote-work-guides/](https://twist.com/remote-work-guides/)

------
mikkelam
I'm also interested in how to RUN a remote company as i've found myself in
that position without previous experience. I've found most material online to
be related to how to work remotely as a person but not how to actually run the
comapny.

------
mvip
Shameless self-plug, but I wrote about my decade long experience of remote
work here[0], and included some further reading material that I've personally
found useful. There are some books dedicated to this. I am actually toying
with the idea of writing a book on this and would love to get your thoughts.
Ping me at @vpetersson if you wanna chat.

[0] [https://blog.viktorpetersson.com/remote-
work/2019/05/18/a-de...](https://blog.viktorpetersson.com/remote-
work/2019/05/18/a-decade-of-remote.html)

------
vinrob92
I wrote two free books specifically on productized services.

The first book discuss how to productize your services and hire and manage
remote workers (and it covers the tools and techniques to work remotely). The
second book is mostly about value proposition and marketing.

1) [http://www.productizebook.co](http://www.productizebook.co) 2)
[http://www.productizemarketing.co](http://www.productizemarketing.co)

------
ed_balls
[https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-
job](https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job)

~~~
supr_strudl
Table of Contents > Humor >
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW3lhfVpLL4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW3lhfVpLL4)

------
fovc
Related question: how do you manage payroll in all the different countries? I
noticed Gitlab hires as contractors but curious if anyone is using
international PEO or other solutions

Edit: Looks like Gitlab uses CXC and Safeguard Global as employers of record

~~~
jobvandervoort
We're working on something at Remote. While working at GitLab, I saw the
issues they were having, so we're building an alternative to CXC and
Safeguard.

Launching a little launch page later today, but feel free to email me if
you're in need of some help: job at remote dot com.

~~~
thepratt
Is the launch related to Employ?
[https://remote.com/employ](https://remote.com/employ)

Have not come across remote.com previously; a focused job board is useful, but
Employ looks game-changing. (Note: I do not know what exists in this space
already - if anything.)

~~~
jobvandervoort
It is!

Happy to chat about it in detail if you're interested.

------
SMFloris
You should read: The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work

Its a real treat.

~~~
bap
Seconding this!

------
buboard
Edit: I have not seen anything coming from the economic literature about
remote work. Sadly economists are focused on bigCorps and VCs who are not
remote-friendly.

Some of the best articles from remote workers i saw recently:

[https://a.wholelottanothing.org/2019/08/09/tips-
from-16-year...](https://a.wholelottanothing.org/2019/08/09/tips-
from-16-years-of-working-from-home/)

[https://mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2019/08/a-year-of-
wo...](https://mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2019/08/a-year-of-working-
remotely)

More links like this here: [https://reworkin.com/](https://reworkin.com/)

------
jasonwen
The ones who come to mind are Zapier and Basecamp, which has been mentioned
earlier.

[https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/](https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/)

------
mmikeff
[https://leanpub.com/geographicallydistributedagileteams](https://leanpub.com/geographicallydistributedagileteams)

------
evjan
I read this years ago and remember nothing about it, but it's a start: Remote
by Jason Fried and DHH -
[https://basecamp.com/books/remote](https://basecamp.com/books/remote)

~~~
chrisweekly
+1 for REMOTE for having at least some perceived authority (authored by
successful / well-known business owners who practice what they preach), and
for explicitly addressing each of several audiences. It's not particularly
deep, but it might be useful.

~~~
davnicwil
I second this. It's an interesting and good read but it is more a sell on the
philosophy of remote work and its benefits than a practical guide that goes
into specifics.

No remote work literature review would be complete without it, but it might
potentially be less interesting for a reader who has already been working
remotely for 4 years, other than to mostly validate what they probably already
know.

------
mattsy123
There is a lot of academic work on this subject among researchers on
teams/virtual teams, see e.g. the work of Pam Hines and Melissa Valentine at
Stanford, Mark Mortensen at Insead. There is also a whole literature in
'Computer Supported Collaborative Work' in CS depts.

------
krzrak
I recommend the book "Work Together Anywhere" by Lisette Sutherland and her
other contributions (i.e. talks). She talks on many aspects of remote work:
starting from benefits and how to convince your boss, through team dynamics,
to what tools to use.

------
whsheet
In this context: Does anyone have experiences with Tandem, especially this
feature where you can see what your peers are doing (showing the app name of
your focused window, I think)?

~~~
OJFord
No experience with it, but I struggle to imagine it being useful where the
viewed person is a programmer. A day is split between, what, a browser and a
terminal emulator? And an IDE if used?

~~~
whsheet
I agree but this might be already useful. The biggest challenge for most when
they work from home is lacking social pressure leading to procrastination.
When I read about Tandem's take on this, I thought that’s a smart, subtle
solution. You could still game the system by just using your phone but still:
Any cheating results in odd behavior on Tandem and probably to more
discipline. Maybe I am wrong but I need just people who tried Tandem and share
their experiences.

~~~
redleader9345
Isn't this really an incentive problem? I find it hard to believe that
snoopware will foster a high trust environment.

------
grengale
Read my book - The Remote Project Manager - on Amazon. It covers the
challenges of managing teams remotely as well as how to best use the available
Technology. Gren Gale

------
donnie3000
I've been collecting remote work material (books, articles, discussions,
talks) here — [https://www.notion.so/scenery/Remote-
Work-2c76a8c189f248c2b9...](https://www.notion.so/scenery/Remote-
Work-2c76a8c189f248c2b94977e204fbea37) whilst working on my own remote tool —
[https://www.scenery.app](https://www.scenery.app)

------
nealdt
I found the book 'Work together anywhere' by Lisette Sutherland extremely
helpful. You can skip past the first five chapters if you already are in this
situation.

It's really helped me work with a remote team. The book has tons of good
recommendations as well, so it's practical as well as helpful.

------
dubeux
This is by no means an in-depth research on the topic - just a remarkably
well-written chronicle related to remote work.

[https://williamkowalski.com/brief-life-happiness-engineer-
au...](https://williamkowalski.com/brief-life-happiness-engineer-automattic/)

------
snikeris
Not quite what you asked for, but I'm finding it enlightening:

[https://daedtech.com/developer-hegemony-the-crazy-idea-
that-...](https://daedtech.com/developer-hegemony-the-crazy-idea-that-
software-developers-should-run-software-development/)

------
boltzmannbrain
Related: Is there a dedicated HR tool for remote companies?

It's been quite burdensome figuring out payroll, benefits, employment forms,
etc. for int'l employees (contractors and full-time). I'd love a slim version
of TriNet/BambooHR/etc that makes all of this easy for us.

------
JSeymourATL
> remote vs distributed)?

Matt Mullenweg on why he prefers distributed >
[https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_mullenweg_why_working_from_ho...](https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_mullenweg_why_working_from_home_is_good_for_business)

------
alohaandmahalo
I recently joined GitLab to lead its all-remote initiatives. I've lived and
worked remotely in a variety of settings (all-remote, remote-first, part-
remote, etc.) and I'm building out pages within GitLab's publicly accessible
All-Remote section to hopefully answer questions like these. The hub is here
(as mentioned by langitbiru — thank you!):
[https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/)

We're sharing what we've learned scaling the company to over 800 people across
nearly 60 countries, 100% remote with no offices. The goal is to share this
knowledge and see other organizations replicate, iterate, and evolve.

Some of the more recent ones are below.

People: [https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/people/](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/people/)

Jobs: [https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/jobs/](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/jobs/)

Hiring: [https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/hiring/](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/hiring/)

Compensation: [https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/compensa...](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/compensation/)

Learning and Development: [https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/learning...](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/learning-and-development/)

Informal Communication: [https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/informal...](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/informal-communication/)

Meetings: [https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/meetings...](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/meetings/)

Part-remote: [https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/part-
rem...](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/part-remote/)

Remote work conferences, summits, and events:
[https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/events/](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/events/)

Advantages and benefits: [https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/benefits...](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/benefits/)

Disadvantages: [https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/drawback...](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-
remote/drawbacks/)

More to come! If you have questions on making all-remote work, hiring all-
remote workers, or managing/communicating in an all-remote environment, leave
a comment! We're always looking for challenges happening across the space, so
we can ideally find and document solutions.

------
breerly
I quite liked the book 'Remote: Office Not Required' from the founders of
37signals.com

------
0x262d
curious for things like this more explicitly from workers' perspective, rather
than like running a company in general.

