It’s 7am in the morning and I’m still in bed.Upon hearing the beep on my cellphone announcing a direct/group message, I get out of bed. It’s my Agile Manager and she’s already hard at work.
The six weeks since I joined Polymorph has been a life-changing experience. Although I have spent only a few days face-to-face with my teammates, I’ve probably talked more in those six weeks than in the 6 months prior. I was behind my steering wheel in broad daylight. I was able to receive a delivery at my home and had builders take a look at some issues there. I visited a client. Sounds ordinary? Not to me. Sounds effortless? Yes, it was.
Working remotely at Polymorph means that most employees only spend one day a week at work, and the other four days at their home office. Looking at everyone in the office, it’s immediately obvious that everyone wants to be friendly with their neighboring colleagues. The seating arrangements are flexible. We all play musical chairs, to some extent, depending on who arrives first.
Developers and designers mix freely. Polymorph seems to have moved away from the concept of only employing similar people on teams – making for an interesting office.
Team days are a great opportunity to talk and explore technical issues as a group. Taking your turn to cook lunch for everyone at lunch club and participating in hack days are great ways to build relationships.
So what are the disadvantages of working remotely? Staying productive, avoiding loneliness and maintaining privacy seem to be common concerns. At Polymorph though, these are not issues. Regular stand-ups keep productivity high and with a very active company chat room with a multitude of channels, loneliness seems unlikely. Maintaining privacy is not an issue. But, yes, my one team mate responds to direct messages at 7 pm in the evening – I think I must take care not to abuse this fact!
