Professor Darja Šmite – Maximizing Performance in Times of Increased Remote Working, watch the talk from myConf 2023
Following the pandemic, companies chose differently on how much remote work to allow. Some companies let go of their offices during the pandemic and have stayed remote since, some are trying to go back to the way things were by asking people back to the offices full-time, but for most companies, some sort of hybrid solution has become the new normal.
Who got it right? The waves of debate have been high. There is a lot of emotion, a lot of gut reactions and beliefs. We invited a professor to give us a clear… no, of course, it’s not that simple. But there is research and there are insights! At myConf 2023, Darja Šmite, professor of software engineering at the Blekinge Institute of Technology, shared insights and advice from her research from software organizations, comparing levels of activity, well-being, and other aspects of work, between 2019 and 2021.
Here are some insightful highlights from the talk:
- When working from home, pair programming and mob programming happens much less.
- Hackathons, and similar activities, were not as fun when done virtually.
- Flexibility has gone from being a privilege to a personal right. It has even come to be one of the most asked questions, by candidates, in job interviews.
- Focused problem-solving might increase when working from home, but social networking risks going down.
One of the conclusions Darja shares with us is that companies cannot satisfy everyone. You might think full flexibility satisfies everyone, but that is not true! If you let everyone decide when they want to be in the office those who want to be full-time at the offices will not be satisfied as they tend to want everyone else to be there too. The best way forward? Probably to allow the individual teams to decide.
Watch the video: Maximizing Performance in Times of Increased Remote Working – Darja Šmite at myConf 2023
Read more about the talk at myconf.io: Speaker announcement: Darja Šmite.