NYCPHP Meetup

[Tim Lieberman]

Jerry B. Altzman wrote:
> on 2008-04-17 09:18 SyAD at aol.com said the following:
>> This may have been mentioned already, but maybe the best people out 
>> there are independent?
>
> From just coming off of (and still trying to) hire PHP programmers, I 
> have to say that a great many resumes and interviews I've had are with 
> people who aren't willing to work on-site; they want to telecommute 
> 80-90% and work from their apartments in their jammies and slippers.
> Best, worst, in-between-est, I can't find someone who wants to work 
> full-time.
I'm certainly one of those people, though not in New York.

At the end of the day, I just can't justify spending time on-site very 
often.  I do a lot of work for a boutique development shop, and have a 
desk at the office.  Recently, I've tried to go in at least twice a week 
-- but it gets difficult.  I can do more, better quality, work if I'm in 
a comfortable place with all my toys.  It's only about a 20 minute drive 
to the office, and a pleasant one at that -- but between getting in/out 
of the car and drive time, that's an hour of billable time.  I've often 
fantasized about charging for travel time when someone has demanded 
on-site work when I thought it was not necessary.

Why people insist on on-site work is a bit beyond me.  If you're willing 
to pay well, you should be able to attract capable developers who can be 
trusted to work remotely.  If you want to hire a bunch of juniors to 
churn out hacks all day, and have someone supervise them, then it's 
probably worth it to have them on-site.  But anyone with 5+ years solid 
development experience should be allowed to work how they work best.  
That way, you get the best bang for you buck, IMO.

-Tim