5 ms·

So to provide another point of view... I worked exclusively from home for two years. The cabin fever was so bad I couldn't take it anymore. I may be in the min

by throwaway2016a 10y ago

So to provide another point of view... I worked exclusively from home for two years. The cabin fever was so bad I couldn't take it anymore. I may be in the minority for programmers but I need other people around and I need the energy of an office. From a management standpoint. A good whiteboard session goes a long way to kill communication issues on projects that are creative or not 100% straightforward. Although, of course, you don't need to be in the office "every" day for that.

mcjiggerlog 10y ago
I work remotely and do end up going a bit crazy if I work from home 100% of the time, especially as I live alone. A good compromise was going to a free coworking space for the afternoons which has been working out great. I don't have that rush to leave the house in the morning, I chat to some people, I can come/go as I please, I am not constantly interrupted like when I am in the office. It has the benefit of being 5 minutes away on my scooter, too. For me it's a great balance. I feel way more productive and energised. Every 3 months I go work from the office for a week and the thing I notice more than anything is that I am absolutely shattered by the end of the week. Offices and commuting are incredibly tiring and pretty terrible for work life balance.
- sleepychu 10y ago
  Who provides the free co-working space and why?
  - mcjiggerlog 10y ago
    Google (https://www.campus.co/madrid/en https://www.campus.co/madrid/en) and I believe because they want to encourage (and then seed) local startups. I'm sure there are other free alternatives (coffee shops etc.) but to be fair I think there are proper paid ones for not that much if you don't require your own permanent desk.
pionar 10y ago
> From a management standpoint. A good whiteboard session goes a long way to kill communication issues on projects that are creative or not 100% straightforward. Totally. I find that things are resolved much more quickly when I'm in the office vs. working from home.
ryanSrich 10y ago
I've been working remotely for more than three years now. I've dealt with cabin fever a number of times. Early on my initial reaction was to find a co-working space. My employer was more than willing to help out. I started looking around the city and eventually found one I thought I liked. After a few days I realized I hated it. I wanted to escape the office scene and here I was, given the freedom to do that, right back in an office. The second thing I tried was going to more meetups. This failed mostly because meetups are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This clashed with my workout schedule. When I changed my workout schedule I found that going to meetups was a major chore. I rarely found any value in it and my networking skills are super shitty. I'd go, sit for an hour, not talk to anyone and leave. A complete waste of time. The last thing I tried and something that has worked for me for over a year now is a combination of coffee shops, a co-working space, and my home office. I'm a man that needs options. I can't be tied down to just working at home, or just working at an office. Somedays I don't want to see or hear anyone. Those are the days I stay home. Other days I want the noise and movement of a coffee shop. So I'll venture out to the 100s of shops in my area. I meet more people there than I ever did at meetups.
- mstade 10y ago
  +1 for options. I've been working 100% remotely for about a year and three months now and while I do most work out of my home office, I tend to venture out at least 3-4 times a week to coffee shops or other venues, just to get a bit of buzz and white noise. I keep to myself and do my work, but don't use headphones or anything like that to drown out my surroundings. When I go out somewhere, I tend to stay there for 2-4 hours, depending on the place. I rarely mix places up in the same day, and generally just rotate between the same few places, maybe venturing outside the box a few times a month. Sometimes though, I'll go nowhere for weeks. Like you say: options. It's nice to have them.
- WWLink 10y ago
  I like splitting the day up on a couple of venues. Like, a few hours at home, followed by some time in the office, and maybe a coffe shop? That makes the day go super fast!
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
gcp 10y ago
I prefer an office with a good team of colleagues. Some past jobs had this, some didn't. But reality is that I can't find a comparable job close to home, and commuting for 2 x 2 hours is not preferable to being in an office. So I work from home, second job now, about 7 years in total. I have a bunch of friends on IRC that work in unrelated (though usually IT) fields. I don't ever feel lonely. I don't think I would last without IRC, though.
pmoriarty 10y ago
I wonder how prevalent cabin fever is among workers who manage to travel and work from a variety of different interesting places rather than sitting at home all the time.

mcjiggerlog 10y ago

I work remotely and do end up going a bit crazy if I work from home 100% of the time, especially as I live alone. A good compromise was going to a free coworking space for the afternoons which has been working out great. I don't have that rush to leave the house in the morning, I chat to some people, I can come/go as I please, I am not constantly interrupted like when I am in the office. It has the benefit of being 5 minutes away on my scooter, too. For me it's a great balance. I feel way more productive and energised. Every 3 months I go work from the office for a week and the thing I notice more than anything is that I am absolutely shattered by the end of the week. Offices and commuting are incredibly tiring and pretty terrible for work life balance.

sleepychu 10y ago
Who provides the free co-working space and why?
- mcjiggerlog 10y ago
  Google (https://www.campus.co/madrid/en https://www.campus.co/madrid/en) and I believe because they want to encourage (and then seed) local startups. I'm sure there are other free alternatives (coffee shops etc.) but to be fair I think there are proper paid ones for not that much if you don't require your own permanent desk.

pionar 10y ago

> From a management standpoint. A good whiteboard session goes a long way to kill communication issues on projects that are creative or not 100% straightforward. Totally. I find that things are resolved much more quickly when I'm in the office vs. working from home.

ryanSrich 10y ago

I've been working remotely for more than three years now. I've dealt with cabin fever a number of times. Early on my initial reaction was to find a co-working space. My employer was more than willing to help out. I started looking around the city and eventually found one I thought I liked. After a few days I realized I hated it. I wanted to escape the office scene and here I was, given the freedom to do that, right back in an office. The second thing I tried was going to more meetups. This failed mostly because meetups are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This clashed with my workout schedule. When I changed my workout schedule I found that going to meetups was a major chore. I rarely found any value in it and my networking skills are super shitty. I'd go, sit for an hour, not talk to anyone and leave. A complete waste of time. The last thing I tried and something that has worked for me for over a year now is a combination of coffee shops, a co-working space, and my home office. I'm a man that needs options. I can't be tied down to just working at home, or just working at an office. Somedays I don't want to see or hear anyone. Those are the days I stay home. Other days I want the noise and movement of a coffee shop. So I'll venture out to the 100s of shops in my area. I meet more people there than I ever did at meetups.

mstade 10y ago
+1 for options. I've been working 100% remotely for about a year and three months now and while I do most work out of my home office, I tend to venture out at least 3-4 times a week to coffee shops or other venues, just to get a bit of buzz and white noise. I keep to myself and do my work, but don't use headphones or anything like that to drown out my surroundings. When I go out somewhere, I tend to stay there for 2-4 hours, depending on the place. I rarely mix places up in the same day, and generally just rotate between the same few places, maybe venturing outside the box a few times a month. Sometimes though, I'll go nowhere for weeks. Like you say: options. It's nice to have them.
WWLink 10y ago
I like splitting the day up on a couple of venues. Like, a few hours at home, followed by some time in the office, and maybe a coffe shop? That makes the day go super fast!

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

gcp 10y ago

I prefer an office with a good team of colleagues. Some past jobs had this, some didn't. But reality is that I can't find a comparable job close to home, and commuting for 2 x 2 hours is not preferable to being in an office. So I work from home, second job now, about 7 years in total. I have a bunch of friends on IRC that work in unrelated (though usually IT) fields. I don't ever feel lonely. I don't think I would last without IRC, though.

pmoriarty 10y ago

I wonder how prevalent cabin fever is among workers who manage to travel and work from a variety of different interesting places rather than sitting at home all the time.