Working with the Finns

There's one Finnish chapter in my career that completely changed how I think about remote work.

It was the first place where, even though I was working from home, I was expected to be online strictly nine to six. Not flexible. Not "as convenient." More like: factory bell, time card. If you opened your laptop at ten in the evening because an idea came to you — congrats, right? Nope. You're a good employee only if at ten you were not working. Because, you know, work-life balance.

Same with weekends. Technically you could push something on a Saturday. In practice, on Monday you'd get a polite "we'd prefer you didn't." It took me a while to get it. To me it was just — I had time, I shipped the thing, what's the issue? Apparently the issue was real.

Then came the classic. They gave me a task with a one-month deadline. I shipped it in two days. Nothing heroic — no all-nighters, just turned out it wasn't as big as the ticket made it look. I figured: nice, they'll give me the next thing. The opposite happened.

The team suddenly started reviewing my commits like I'd planted a CVE in there. Every line debated for a week. Three follow-up questions on every variable name. Eventually it bubbled up to the CEO that "the team is spending too much time reviewing my PRs." And of course the conclusion was: I was the problem. Writing too much, allegedly.

When process matters more than outcome — don't try to speed it up. They won't thank you.

Two things stuck with me. First: remote isn't about tools, it's about culture. With the Finns I had the exact same Slack and the exact same git as anywhere else, but it was a different planet entirely. Second: if a team values process over outcome, don't try to make the process faster. They won't thank you. You're not a hero — you're a threat.

I look back on it now and smile. Back then I was a bit fired up.