This makes sense. In my team it’s the same: the young guys like going out together after work and also often don’t have the space at home to set up a good workplace. They also need the most handholding. I remember some discussions a while ago where the conclusion was that it’s hard to onboard juniors remotely and remote is more suitable for experienced people.
When I started as a developer, my team was fully remote (I was the only developer in NYC, most of the rest were in Portugal or elsewhere in the US.) I found it very difficult to ask questions remotely for several reasons: I never knew if I was intruding on somebody else's time, and explaining things over Slack isn't as effective (in retrospect, I should have made more use of video and voice chat). YMMV: some people are probably more bold in asking questions remotely. For newer developers, this is important.
You really can't overstate how useful it is to just plunk your laptop down in front of another developer and ask questions while staring at the same screen.
At my current company, I'm usually co-located with our other developer, which made the process of clarifying things for both of us a lot easier. As I've gained experience, I've found it a lot easier to ask questions remotely: we've made great use of various voice/video/screensharing functionality for this purpose.
This is why assigning an "onboarding buddy" is so important (even on-site) ... a new team member isn't going to feel empowered to ask questions and interrupt people right off the bat usually. Their more-senior onboarding buddy can make the introductions and get their questions answered by the right person without feeling awkward about it.
I'm sure people will respond with the obvious need for an onboarding guide or helper, but even this is harder to do remote. When I onboard in-person I can watch the new hire, judge their mental state or know if they're busy, check in with them often - at the right time and get to know them personally. All do-able remote but much harder.
>I never knew if I was intruding on somebody else's time
is this just a lack of understanding that (or a lack of your company embracing) chat/email is asynchronous communication?
I work remote, and all of the people who don't want to be disturbed have snoozed notifications and I understand that they'll get back to me when they're ready.
At least in my company, many folks leave it on snooze always - with a status requesting for an override if there's something urgent. Else the intrusion is very real. I personally used to get a ding from groups or PMs every other min or so. muted groups, still got one every 5 mins or so - very painful.
I prefer the onboard buddy / mentor approach: I just tell my mentee to override this.
I don't know that in person always works better, lots of people in tech aren't good in person actually or hate it when you approach them. Could be that in writing they'd have better patience.
