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7 years successfully working from home (4 for my employer, 3 years being self-employed). I have only one advice - Be responsible for your work and for yourself

by smdz 9y ago

7 years successfully working from home (4 for my employer, 3 years being self-employed). I have only one advice - Be responsible for your work and for yourself. > 1. Be as available as possible. I would highly discourage this advice. That is you setting up yourself for abuse. This happens with office employees or clients - you have to set limits and NOT respond even if you are right there. You can add a couple of hours extra, but thats it. Exceptions to that should be rare. Unless your code bug is going to cost somebody their life - everything else can wait. 7. Go outside > Highly recommended. Preferably spend some time under the sun (or go out during the day) 3. Go out of your way to be human > Usually it does not work. And people at the other end start feeling awkward. Some human interactions are just hard on a phone or chat or video. I prefer staying in touch with friends/family/community around me. Any amount of remote interaction is just that "remote". Good remote teams do not force themselves to develop a human touch. On the other hand, remote teams can sometimes develop amazing work coherence

jwong_ 9y ago
Is the 3 years of self-employment after 4 years of remote? If so, how did you transition to self-employed? I'm thinking of doing the same, but I'm having trouble sussing out a path to do so.
- smdz 9y ago
  Short story, the company I worked for remotely did not encourage remote-work. And was selective at who gets to work remotely. That itself creates a lot of problems with the team and with the opportunities you get. As this guy mentions "Be as much available as possible". That technically ends up in over-work. Management will like it, but I did not like it at all. Having said that it was riskier for me to keep the remote job. And at one point I mistook the management call as if they were going to fire me. That forced me to build up my consulting profile and start adding consulting clients. Eventually the company did not fire me - but the workload had increased quite a lot and I had reached a point where my consulting rates were pretty good than my salary. So I thought "Why not go full time consulting" and quit the job. After a few months of downs the decision turned out to be a pretty good one. Some transitioning advice: 1. Have 1-1.5 years of financial backup 2. Start building your profile while on job. And since you are remote, it should be easier. You will definitely get stressed and that might pay off in the long run 3. Calculate your hourly rate at job. Leave your job when you can earn at least 80% of what you earn at job within 50% of time (for at least 2 months). Also be honest to yourself and evaluate if the consulting-work counts as a one-off or something that can be achieved repeatedly 4. Be warned - remote job as an employee is much easier than being self-employed working remote
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - jwong_ 9y ago
    Thanks for the advice! My company is mostly remote but going through some tumultuous changes so I'm looking at my options while also trying to orchestrate a hop to another country. Maybe it's best I push consulting to the wayside after I settle in the new country. The guideline numbers you gave helped me out -- always good to have a ballpark to measure yourself against.
wmu 9y ago
I've been working for three years remotely and fully agree with you. Never ever allow your job to take over your life. I allowed, and after two years I was dreaming about eight-hour work in an office. I was a good programmer and was able to deliver results quickly. But my private life was destroyed and my mental health ruined. When I got a remote job I wasn't aware of its perils; of course, some of the problems I had was my fault.

by smdz 9y ago

jwong_ 9y ago

Is the 3 years of self-employment after 4 years of remote? If so, how did you transition to self-employed? I'm thinking of doing the same, but I'm having trouble sussing out a path to do so.

smdz 9y ago
Short story, the company I worked for remotely did not encourage remote-work. And was selective at who gets to work remotely. That itself creates a lot of problems with the team and with the opportunities you get. As this guy mentions "Be as much available as possible". That technically ends up in over-work. Management will like it, but I did not like it at all. Having said that it was riskier for me to keep the remote job. And at one point I mistook the management call as if they were going to fire me. That forced me to build up my consulting profile and start adding consulting clients. Eventually the company did not fire me - but the workload had increased quite a lot and I had reached a point where my consulting rates were pretty good than my salary. So I thought "Why not go full time consulting" and quit the job. After a few months of downs the decision turned out to be a pretty good one. Some transitioning advice: 1. Have 1-1.5 years of financial backup 2. Start building your profile while on job. And since you are remote, it should be easier. You will definitely get stressed and that might pay off in the long run 3. Calculate your hourly rate at job. Leave your job when you can earn at least 80% of what you earn at job within 50% of time (for at least 2 months). Also be honest to yourself and evaluate if the consulting-work counts as a one-off or something that can be achieved repeatedly 4. Be warned - remote job as an employee is much easier than being self-employed working remote
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jwong_ 9y ago
  Thanks for the advice! My company is mostly remote but going through some tumultuous changes so I'm looking at my options while also trying to orchestrate a hop to another country. Maybe it's best I push consulting to the wayside after I settle in the new country. The guideline numbers you gave helped me out -- always good to have a ballpark to measure yourself against.

wmu 9y ago

I've been working for three years remotely and fully agree with you. Never ever allow your job to take over your life. I allowed, and after two years I was dreaming about eight-hour work in an office. I was a good programmer and was able to deliver results quickly. But my private life was destroyed and my mental health ruined. When I got a remote job I wasn't aware of its perils; of course, some of the problems I had was my fault.