The Whiteboard Whisperer: Working Remotely for Microsoft

I've been at Microsoft about 4.5 years, the whole time a "remote employee," i.e. I work mainly from my home in a suburb of Portland, OR but the teams I've worked for have all been based at Microsoft HQ in Redmond, WA.

Microsoft is traditionally a company that moves the bulk of their employees to WA, especially for product team and related duties. Of course, we've got subsidiaries and sales world-wide, as well as the occasional technology team in talent hot spots around the world, but there is a large corporate bias towards moving new hires to HQ. In fact, so much so that when we've got open spots, I've learned not to recommend someone that I know won't move.

And yet, there are notable exceptions. Martin Gudgin worked from England for a number of years. Tim Ewald worked from New Hampshire. Scott Hanselman works from Portland, as did Rory Blythe. Sometimes if there's enough need and the right role, the distance bias can be overcome. And when it does, I sometimes get an IM, an email, a phone call or a meeting request so that I can answer the question: how do you do it?

Tune in tomorrow for "Can You Focus On Work At Home?"

As you know, attempts to move to Redmond ran aground due to visa restrictions. I’d jump at the chance to work for Microsoft remotely but as you say the culture is still very Redmond-focused. Pity.

Both situations have problems. 'Course, it depends on what you're doing :)

I liked working remotely, but it was too easy for team members to stab each other in the back. As a strictly stab-you-in-the-front kind of guy, I hate that.

In extreme cases, and in the worst times, it led to my boss letting me know how close I was to getting fired. Not Paul Murphy, by the way, nor Jeff. Paul is the best manager in the universe, and would never do that.

But there was this one guy... yeah. Never fact-checked, and took everything as canon as long as it was an accusation. If I defended myself, then it was an "excuse". Like the time one teammate complained that I never showed up for work.

In Florida.

The most diametrically opposed territory from mine in the states. I was a Pacific Northwest guy. Showing up in Florida would have been, you know, like, wrong and stupid.

Yet the complaint stood and was figured into the battle against Rory. I'm not being paranoid, either - it was *bad*.

On campus, the problems were different. Life was so insular that it was easy to lose perspective if you weren't being careful. Surrounded by MS on all sides - getting your food at MS - having all conversations take place with other softies and in the context of MS - it just felt wrong to me. And I think that, if you're working in a position as an evangelist, it's counterproductive to be in that environment. If you're out of touch with the world outside MS, then there's no way to be able to reliably form an opinion of your own stuff. Credibility is shot.

Anyway, I'm in neither position now :)

And I'm back in town.

And I miss you people.

And I'm past all the med problems I had last time I was around (once the Lamictal kicked in, life became downright pleasurable - it rocks - no more anxiety like when I saw you guys on the 4th).

Point being, we need to hang out. My schedule's wide open. Can you poke a hole in one of your days for me?