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>Currently, with a wife, a kid, and all her kid-friends, carrying on loudly and ransacking the house at all hours, I couldn't imagine making a "bedroom converte

>Currently, with a wife, a kid, and all her kid-friends, carrying on loudly and ransacking the house at all hours, I couldn't imagine making a "bedroom converted to office" work for actual productive remote work. I can't imagine making a setup like this work for even maintaining basic sanity. Every time I read a post like this, I realize I did the right thing by not having kids. I'm constantly stressed out as it is because of the open-plan office; if I had to come home to people "carrying on loudly and ransacking the house at all hours", I think I'd shoot myself. How people can live without a good amount of peace and quiet, I have no idea.

makapuf 9y ago
Your body will trick your mind to love your children. It happens often after the fact - I know it did. Humanity wouldn't survive if not. And I now find hard not to go ransacking the house with them ;)
- Arizhel 9y ago
  You may love your children, but that doesn't mean you don't get stressed out by them. It's quite normal for parents to want to take time away from their kids, even having kid-free vacations without them as well as just "date nights". So obviously even people who aren't condemned to work in open offices and who have kids like some peace and quiet now and then.
pilsetnieks 9y ago
That's a reason to have a separate office, not a reason to not have kids (if you'd otherwise want to have them.)
- Arizhel 9y ago
  I can't have a separate office; I'm stuck with the office my employer provides me. I could go find another job of course, but it's going to be the same there, or worse, since all the employers have jumped on the open-plan office bandwagon. At home is the only place I get a little peace and quiet, aside from my cats jumping in my lap. Kids would eliminate that.
  - bartread 9y ago
    I feel similarly. Where I'm working at the moment, apart from the noise and distraction of an overcrowded open plan office, there are people in my face literally all the time due to meetings, questions, pairing, dealing with outages, and other miscellaneous interruptions. As an introvert this all becomes seriously draining so home is very much my escape. I don't think I'm alone in this either - plenty of introverts in software, and I certainly didn't choose software as a career so I could sit around yakking to people all day. Quite the opposite in fact. (I may have made this observation in a comment on HN before, so apologies to anyone who may already have read it.) The real downside of all this is that I often don't want to socialise with my friends or talk to my family outside of work because I'm basically peopled out and need some peace and quiet. Add to this the fact that the work is boring and the commute is a gruelling 2.5 hour motorcycle roundtrip (>4 hours by car, due to traffic, or about 5 hours by public transport) and it's probably high time for me to find other work.
    - pdimitar 9y ago
      I am not seeking a conflict here, please note that -- but I don't think you should limit that phenomena to introverts. I am a pretty outgoing and easy-to-make-friends-with person but I still hate working in offices and 6 or so years ago I fought tooth and nail to achieve it. I succeeded, at the cost of a relationship, very old animal friends, most of my "circle" and quite a bit of few other sacrifices. My point here is that there are other things to have in mind when choosing between on-site and remote: I personally hate commuting. Even if it's 20 minutes from my door to the office, I still hate them. That's a time nobody pays me for, and a time during which I can't be with my loved one. Add to this that we all know that no work day is like any other; there are days when you're worth $1 and there are days when you're worth $20,000. Outgoing, extroverted, expressive, call it what you want -- but I want to work on my own terms. And I am times more productive ever since I work remote. (And yes I am in a very happy relationship.)
    - gm-conspiracy 9y ago
      Find another job, please. Even if you made less, not having to commute would make you feel better.

makapuf 9y ago

Your body will trick your mind to love your children. It happens often after the fact - I know it did. Humanity wouldn't survive if not. And I now find hard not to go ransacking the house with them ;)

Arizhel 9y ago
You may love your children, but that doesn't mean you don't get stressed out by them. It's quite normal for parents to want to take time away from their kids, even having kid-free vacations without them as well as just "date nights". So obviously even people who aren't condemned to work in open offices and who have kids like some peace and quiet now and then.

pilsetnieks 9y ago

That's a reason to have a separate office, not a reason to not have kids (if you'd otherwise want to have them.)

Arizhel 9y ago
I can't have a separate office; I'm stuck with the office my employer provides me. I could go find another job of course, but it's going to be the same there, or worse, since all the employers have jumped on the open-plan office bandwagon. At home is the only place I get a little peace and quiet, aside from my cats jumping in my lap. Kids would eliminate that.
- bartread 9y ago
  I feel similarly. Where I'm working at the moment, apart from the noise and distraction of an overcrowded open plan office, there are people in my face literally all the time due to meetings, questions, pairing, dealing with outages, and other miscellaneous interruptions. As an introvert this all becomes seriously draining so home is very much my escape. I don't think I'm alone in this either - plenty of introverts in software, and I certainly didn't choose software as a career so I could sit around yakking to people all day. Quite the opposite in fact. (I may have made this observation in a comment on HN before, so apologies to anyone who may already have read it.) The real downside of all this is that I often don't want to socialise with my friends or talk to my family outside of work because I'm basically peopled out and need some peace and quiet. Add to this the fact that the work is boring and the commute is a gruelling 2.5 hour motorcycle roundtrip (>4 hours by car, due to traffic, or about 5 hours by public transport) and it's probably high time for me to find other work.
  - pdimitar 9y ago
    I am not seeking a conflict here, please note that -- but I don't think you should limit that phenomena to introverts. I am a pretty outgoing and easy-to-make-friends-with person but I still hate working in offices and 6 or so years ago I fought tooth and nail to achieve it. I succeeded, at the cost of a relationship, very old animal friends, most of my "circle" and quite a bit of few other sacrifices. My point here is that there are other things to have in mind when choosing between on-site and remote: I personally hate commuting. Even if it's 20 minutes from my door to the office, I still hate them. That's a time nobody pays me for, and a time during which I can't be with my loved one. Add to this that we all know that no work day is like any other; there are days when you're worth $1 and there are days when you're worth $20,000. Outgoing, extroverted, expressive, call it what you want -- but I want to work on my own terms. And I am times more productive ever since I work remote. (And yes I am in a very happy relationship.)
  - gm-conspiracy 9y ago
    Find another job, please. Even if you made less, not having to commute would make you feel better.