It's my experience that most people are simply terrible at communicating remotely. So this is what gets reflected in studies done on co-location.
After all, traditional interviews bias for those who are good at face-to-face communication. There is basically no filter for those who suck at remote communication.
It's exacerbated by the fact that it takes more than one to communicate. If you work remotely, it's not sufficient that you are capable of writing an intelligible email. Everyone you interact with also needs this ability, which tends to be rare in companies that are not purely remote workers.
I've worked on two fully distributed teams, and I can assure that it is was a part of the interview process to determine how well the individual could communicate remotely.
If scheduling our call was difficult, or if you were hard to understand on the phone, or if there was excessive background noise, I'd hold that against a candidate. If your emails were not clear and intelligible, that counted as well.
People who communicate well remotely stick out like a sore thumb when you are interviewing for those types of roles and if you value it. If you are just looking for warm bodies, I can definitely see how it would be problematic.
After all, traditional interviews bias for those who are good at face-to-face communication. There is basically no filter for those who suck at remote communication.
That's a really nice point that I'd not considered before.
It's exacerbated by the fact that it takes more than one to communicate. If you work remotely, it's not sufficient that you are capable of writing an intelligible email. Everyone you interact with also needs this ability, which tends to be rare in companies that are not purely remote workers.
The problem is that, from what I've read, the productivity advantage that folk get isn't through the sort of good communication you get from writing effective emails. It's the more ambient communication you get from noticing your coworker has been staring at the screen without typing for a few minutes, or from hearing and correcting a mistake automatically.
After all, traditional interviews bias for those who are good at face-to-face communication. There is basically no filter for those who suck at remote communication.
It's exacerbated by the fact that it takes more than one to communicate. If you work remotely, it's not sufficient that you are capable of writing an intelligible email. Everyone you interact with also needs this ability, which tends to be rare in companies that are not purely remote workers.