a lot of people here would probably tell you that if you need face time to motivate people and you are the kind of person who unironically says "align the company's vision", you're probably screwed anyway.
I don't know if I personally would go that far, but I can say that after five years of working in an office, exciting ideas communicated succinctly transcend the medium. if you tell your people good things, you can use IRC, twitter, quill and parchment, or smoke signals. it won't matter. they'll be motivated.
It is a manner of balance. There are people that work better with lots of face time, need to discuss problems, etc. There are other people that can do amazing things when they go off the reservation for a while (could be a day or two, could be a week). Problem is, any team is going to be a mixture of these and, generally, most management will insist on having the final say.
In my experience, a good team (with a supportive manager) will find the best equilibrium for getting things done. The team (in concert with the manager and product needs) will understand when people need to work together and when those that need quiet time can go off and do what they need. At the same time, a good isolationist (or a mediocre one, properly managed) will know when it is important to come together and integrate/deliver.
A company (and management) that insists on rigid facetime and all hands on deck, all the time, don't know how to manage projects. I learned late in my career that one really does need to look for signs if a manager is going to be hyper-controlling and if that is a situation you want to be in. Sometimes it is hard, we get worked up in the focus of wanting to succeed and deliver at the expense of our own time and work/life balance.
it's definitely true. but I'm pretty convinced that the most legitimate considerations are ones born out of physical necessity.
are you doing archaeological excavation? studying wildlife in a forest? need to do everything in magical shielded rooms with no internet connection "for security purposes"? okay, I probably need to be there for that.
oh, you're writing software? for the web? yeah, I can do that anywhere, thanks...
If you are not at the office what differentiates you from someone in china/russia/india/europe? Why should you be paid 150k/yr for something when people who are also not present would do the same thing for 30k/yr? There are people who speak english in other places than Canada/USA/UK...
the quality of my work, both in terms of the product (code, papers) and the experience of working with me (communication, cultural fit, etc)?
just because you have remote people or even just because your entire workforce is remote, doesn't mean that cultural fit isn't important! culture is about way more than how your food smells while you're microwaving it ...
Culture in the USA is not that different from the UK/Ireland/other 1st world English speaking countries. So you have a $109k/year position in SF and a $61k/year position in Dublin. Microsoft figured this out years ago.
>when people who are also not present would do the same thing for 30k/yr?
Because the people who are as good as I am also cost 150k/yr. Salary depends on market value, not what it costs you to live. Just because a rockstar in India can live on 30k/yr doesn't mean he will when he can get more.
That to be blunt is bollocks a co located team where you can both sit together at the same screen and say right mr customer exactly what do you mean by X is far better than some remote developer 500 miles away in a different time zone.
I don't know if I personally would go that far, but I can say that after five years of working in an office, exciting ideas communicated succinctly transcend the medium. if you tell your people good things, you can use IRC, twitter, quill and parchment, or smoke signals. it won't matter. they'll be motivated.