The one that hasn't been mentioned yet is that the flip side of "managers want to see their people" is "managers' jobs are much harder in remote positions."
It means that every meeting is via zoom. That's great for 2 hours a day. It's terrible for 6 hours during a meeting-heavy day. (Consider a manager with 15 reports that meets with 2 tech leads half hour weekly, a manager for half hour weekly, all ICs for a half hour bi-weekly, and has 4 hour long manager screening interviews a week. Team rituals usually take about 4 hours a week; anything else has been moved to email/slack. That's about 16 hours a week base load. Every single one of those, and every other meeting, is either on zoom (exhausting) or writing up an email (which takes 2-3 times as long as having a meeting.)
On top of that, performance management is more difficult. For great and average performers, it's not that different. However, it's much harder for low performers because it's bad to offer feedback async. So, things that should be a five minute conversation in an office turn into having to schedule a meeting. It also means that we have to rely on metrics more as well, and everyone here knows how bad metrics are at judging performance.
The problem amplifies for senior management. You lose the rewarding parts of the job and the parts that were positives turn into drudgery or negative.
I work remotely. I choose to work remotely because the positives outweigh the negatives, even as a manager, but it is a harder and less rewarding job remotely.
It means that every meeting is via zoom. That's great for 2 hours a day. It's terrible for 6 hours during a meeting-heavy day. (Consider a manager with 15 reports that meets with 2 tech leads half hour weekly, a manager for half hour weekly, all ICs for a half hour bi-weekly, and has 4 hour long manager screening interviews a week. Team rituals usually take about 4 hours a week; anything else has been moved to email/slack. That's about 16 hours a week base load. Every single one of those, and every other meeting, is either on zoom (exhausting) or writing up an email (which takes 2-3 times as long as having a meeting.)
On top of that, performance management is more difficult. For great and average performers, it's not that different. However, it's much harder for low performers because it's bad to offer feedback async. So, things that should be a five minute conversation in an office turn into having to schedule a meeting. It also means that we have to rely on metrics more as well, and everyone here knows how bad metrics are at judging performance.
The problem amplifies for senior management. You lose the rewarding parts of the job and the parts that were positives turn into drudgery or negative.
I work remotely. I choose to work remotely because the positives outweigh the negatives, even as a manager, but it is a harder and less rewarding job remotely.