Daniel James Gullo

We spend more than one-third of our lives working. Over the past few decades, more of that time is being spent working from home. Accordingly, this situation warrants closer examination.

In 2001, a gathering of 17 individuals discussing how to improve the practice of software development resulted in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, commonly known as the Agile Manifesto. From its overall focus on more valuable problem-solving and delivery, several statements were included to cover communication and collaboration.

Number six of the Principles states:

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

The Agile movement has essentially codified what has been a topic of interest from the social research field for many years. For instance, the term telecommute was coined by Jack Nilles in 1975. Agile confirms that human beings are inherently “wired” with a propensity toward socialization, learning, experimentation, responding to change, and so on.

Difficulties arise when team members are in different time zones. Email is highly ineffective. On projects where team members communicate solely via email (and other asynchronous formats), there is less team cohesiveness. The increased delays in response time lead to lags in decision making and seizing opportunities. Overall trust throughout the team and organization decreases.

Current technologies, which allow for streaming higher-quality audio and video content, can help teams collaborate, despite the distance. Yet the vast body of research tells us that remote work is inferior to in-person, face-to-face work.

Initially, there is apprehension and resistance in remote teams to being live on video all day. Sometimes there is a “big brother” vibe. Once individuals realize that each team member is in the same situation, the tension lightens. While working this way daily may be OK, it is vital to bring teams together regularly for key ceremonies, such as release planning, iteration planning, reviews, and retrospectives. A critical reason for convening in person is the team building that happens.

Oftentimes, leadership is apprehensive about the idea of working from home. Management feels that they lack control when they do not have direct line of sight with employees and their work. This mindset is a continuation of the 150-year-old paradigm that industrialization spawned with its lack of trust.

Examination of work-from-home situations has revealed how the initial benefits of increased work-life balance evaporate over time. Those who work from home tend to work longer hours with fewer breaks to compensate for the flexibility; they do not want to lose the perk. Working at home also pushes the worker into an “always on” situation as the boundary lines blur between professional and personal life.

When a worker is working from home with limited access to or contact with coworkers, a distorted sense of “normal” can emerge. Workers lack the immediate, nonverbal feedback through body language that signals cultural norms. Individuals often claim to prefer privacy and isolation, and yet they seek out social interaction with those with whom they feel comfortable, from a simple smile as feedback to praise and accolades that are verbally expressed with warmth. Additionally, working from home reduces the number of opportunities for team members to earn the respect and trust of their colleagues through interactions with other individuals. The virtual dynamic does not have the same effect.

Without direct, face-to-face interactions, teams are not able to effectively move through the stages of group development (forming, storming, norming, performing) originally described by Tuckman and confirmed by modern research, as described in Examining Tuckman’s Team Theory in Non-collocated Software Development Teams Utilizing Collocated Software Development Methodologies by John Crunk (ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2018). There simply aren’t enough opportunities for cooperation and conflict available for them to grow to a state of high performance.