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They’re Talking Behind My Back: Remote Workers Feel Unsupported
- ajr0 9y agofor some reason the usual bypass of wsj is not working, can someone assist? I tried the ole paste link into google trick.
- lightbyte 9y agoFacebook referral trick works. Create a bookmark with: javascript:location.href='http://facebook.com/l.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(location.href) http://facebook.com/l.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(location.hr... And click it when on the article page.
- amelius 9y agoThanks. You can also go to the page, open console, and run this at the JS commandline: location.href='http://facebook.com/l.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)
- swypych 9y agoThats very cool, why does this work?
- jimktrains2 9y agoThe JS console has the same scope as JS running on the page. (as does javascript: URis).
- semiquaver 9y agoWSJ (along with most news organizations that have paywalls) values clicks from social media highly enough to exempt them from the paywall. Another technique to bypass most paywalls is searching twitter for an article's title.
- swypych 9y agoInteresting, thanks
- ajr0 9y agothank you, unfortunately I block 100% of all facebook network requests on my wireless network by URLs and subnets. with this news I may consider opening a hole... but unlikely.
- zulln 9y agoJust set the referrer to Facebook on all requests to WSJ then? You seem to be up to funny network configurations.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- shoota 9y agohttps://searchengineland.com/report-google-ending-first-click-free-help-publishers-boost-subscriptions-282492 https://searchengineland.com/report-google-ending-first-clic... Google is ending requiring news publishers from showing content that would otherwise be behind a paywall for free.
- ajr0 9y agothanks I missed this notification.
- jasonkostempski 9y agoThis is exactly why I've blocked all wsj links in my browser, unfortunately, the add on I use doesn't work on mobile Firefox yet. Can't HN just ban these? It's clear they don't want nonpaying users, we should respect that wish.
- com2kid 9y ago> Can't HN just ban these? If we are going to decry the loss of quality journalism due to the loss of funds to pay for newsrooms, shouldn't we be supportive of those outlets who are unafraid to ask for quality? To make an analogy, people here are free to do Show HN's with commercial products. Apps don't have to be free (and comments often complain about free apps that don't value users!) In other words, if the WSJ is consistently providing high quality content, why not pay for it?
- revmoo 9y ago> shouldn't we be supportive of those outlets who are unafraid to ask for quality? That's fine on some other site, but I'd rather have quality homegrown content. > people here are free to do Show HN's with commercial products . I wish they wouldn't
- Aloha 9y agoBecause I also read the Washington Post, NY Times, LA Times, Seattle Times, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, and others - its unreasonably for me to have to get a subscription to each, while I'd quite happily pay maybe 10-20c per article to read.
- techsupporter 9y agoWhy is it unreasonable? You are, after all, using the product those outlets provide.
- sxates 9y agoImagine if you had to buy a whole album every time you wanted to hear a song.
- eplanit 9y agoOutline works great for this: http://outline.com/khAmVX http://outline.com/khAmVX
- angarg12 9y agoThis is a real concern for me. I got contacted for a position that sounds really good, but would require me to relocate to another country. They give the option to work mostly remote with some travel, but I'm concerned that remote work may impact my career, future promotions, etc. Anyone got any experience with this?
- dudul 9y agoYou should find out if you will be the only remote employee, or one of a handful. In my experience, it is very difficult to be the special remote snowflake if telecommuting is not fully embraced by the company.
- maxxxxx 9y agoFrom my experience remote work will most likely impact your career if the rest of the company isn't remote. You will often be the odd man out. Best is to work for a company that's mainly remote.
- itake 9y agobeen remote for about 2 years. career impacts have been: - no raises. When I left SF, they didn't adjust my comp. Because I pay no state and very low federal taxes (FEIE) adding (~$30k after tax) into my pocket at no cost to my employer and because my cost of living is lower, no raises. - promotions within this company I think will be limited for me. - if your comp isn't adjusted to your city, then it can be more difficult to find another remote position where you live. Companies tend to price you at the city you live in, not the value you provide. benefits: - co-working spaces mean I can network with other people at other companies. - no commute means more time to work on side projects or personal goals. - less "water cooler" distractions. I can turn off Slack and just focus on coding. makes it easier to get things done.
- dozzie 9y ago> Companies tend to price you at the city you live in, not the value you provide. People tend to price a glass of water at how expensive drinks around the place are, not the value this glass provides (crucial for life). Do you find this irrational or otherwise wrong?
- kemiller 9y agoRemote work works best when everyone does it in the organization. Most of these kinds of complaints come from the fact that a mixed org will tend to treat remote workers as second class citizens, even with the best intentions.
- dudul 9y agoEveryone may be a little much. But a sizable portion of the workforce at least, yes.
- kemiller 9y agoWell, let's say, everyone should have equal access to the decision makers. So, all of senior management, but in practice that tends to mean everyone.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- falcolas 9y agoI agree. Within the same company, I felt much more connected to my co-workers when there was an no more than two in any given location. On a new team, I'm the only person remote from the others, and I feel sooo out of the loop. It's also impacting my ability to network and display technical competence; It's been... frustrating... to watch someone become the product tech lead solely because folks could walk up to and interrupt them.
- dogma1138 9y agoBeing available for your coworkers is as important as pure technical competency even more so in a corporate environment.
- toomuchtodo 9y agoThe idea of a raw meritocracy dies quickly when faced with reality.
- Uhhrrr 9y agoI work in a different office from the rest of my team, and you definitely have to be more proactive about communication. Otherwise you slowly get further out of the loop.
- Boothroid 9y agoThere's a danger some of this is intentional. Being remote can generate resentment in those without the perk, and efforts to level the score. You can only accept being told 'oh, we just happened to bump into each other and talk about it in person but you weren't here' so many times before you start to recognise a pattern.
- Uhhrrr 9y agoI haven't gotten that, although it's perhaps because I'm just in another office. But I think it helps that the rest of the team is small (3 other people), and we do scrum and have scheduled meetings for design issues.
- delhiitem 9y agolets face it, there are problems with all company cultures. Remote has its problems too. Interacting with a lot of people just inheritably presents problems.
- greedo 9y agoOur team is split over two locations; one is the home office, the other is a smaller company we merged with. That part of the team doesn't have any on-site management, so they are in effect remote users. They seem to thrive well without the extra supervision, but they suffer from a lack of visibility from their immediate reporting chain. One issue with remote work is that it can be pulled back. Our company used to have a very friendly policy towards it, and people got used to working remote for a few days a week. Then there was a change in mid-level mgmt, and boom, no more remote work. That can be hard to adjust to; no one likes to have a "benefit" taken away. Our company is now one that tends to focus on the "optics" of things instead of how they really are, so working outside the office is detrimental to both career and job-security.
- dudul 9y agoOut of curiosity, what reason was given for this policy change? Did you have any full time remote workers who was forced to relocate or leave?
- maxxxxx 9y agoI have seen this at another company and I believe it was due to the fact that management wasn't very tech savvy. So when projects started to slip the only thing they could do was to call a lot of status meetings and make sure people are at the office working visibly. It's hard to judge if a remote worker works on a problem for two weeks or just does nothing.
- greedo 9y agoExactly. Our company has installed the equivalent of TPS reports so that middle mgmt can feel good about themselves. They stack rank the teams, and ticket count and closure is a "vital" metric. If you do something important that isn't easily measurable (in an automatic fashion), you better be putting in a lot of face time. Oh, and we have 4 trouble/bug/task tracking systems in place...
- 9y ago
- technofiend 9y agoAt one time you could sit in the middle as a 1099 or W-2 subcontractor; sure you didn't necessarily get a raise unless negotiated and promotions were unlikely due to contractors typically not leading teams unless they too were contractors. But it also removed you from all the office politics, employee reviews and the general hassle of being full time, and you got 100% of your equity from any company up front: they paid by the hour for every hour worked, no more no less. Much better (IMHO) than throwing the dice and hoping for a buyout or IPO on options that 9 times out of 10 are worthless. Unfortunately due to misuse of contract labor on both sides the IRS cracked down to the point where it's now rarely feasible.
- pinewurst 9y agoI've been a remote worker for about 5 years now and I really enjoy the flexibility (and the savings in commute time and energy). There are times when I've felt alienated, but I don't think that would be any better in the office given the geographically dispersed nature of my organizations. I greatly dread the prospect of returning to a butts-in-seats position.
- pmoriarty 9y agoAt some companies you're likely to be passed over for promotions if you work remotely.
- dep_b 9y agoRemote for a few years. Some organizations cannot get anything done without people physically getting up from their seats and kicking the seat of the person that's blocking. People will simply do whatever the most annoying or dangerous person coaxes them into doing. This doesn't work well as a remote peer as they know you'll never be within punching distance, can't fire them and E-mail messages and IM's can always be ignored. But this kind of organization actually also never worked really well for me being inside an office like that as well, to be honest. If all or most of the technical staff works remote then people tend to work together the best. Still, sometimes I have no idea what's actually happening in the company while I'm churning out features. And perhaps for the better.
- drraid0 9y agoI'll take more time with my family and a little ostracism over a 80 minute commute on BART and an open office any day of the week.
- HumbleGamer 9y agoDitto. Im at the same point.
- kemiller2002 9y agoWe had this problem, so we decided to make everyone be remote part time now. It forced us to rethink communication on a daily basis, and everyone is much more cognizant of leaving people out of the loop. http://structuredsight.com/2017/07/02/practice/ http://structuredsight.com/2017/07/02/practice/
- trengrj 9y agoThanks your article is well written and showed me a different approach to management.
- socialist_coder 9y agoThat is really cool. Forced remote part time. I like it! Is it still working well for you? How much remote work do employees usually do?
- kemiller2002 9y agoQuite a bit actually, and it works really well for us. It has honestly gotten to the point where I don't know when most of my staff is in the office. I just don't worry about it. The communication is so great between things like Slack, Skype, and even phone calls that being in the same office provides really no major benefit. (In truth we all like being in the office every once in a while, because it's nice to get the entire group together, but it's not necessary.) It really forced us to restructure how we worked for the better, and people love it too. When we have code reviews and people aren't in the office, we just do it using screen sharing, and everyone being out part of the time ensures all of our requirements for projects are online and available to everyone. One of our biggest benefits is surrounding the daily stand ups. We have them everyday, because we like to get together briefly to socialize a little bit and to make sure that there isn't anything that we really need to discuss, but really we know everything that is going on before the scrum. With this, people who are remote don't call in, and this saves us a ton of time and effort. Between finding a room with a phone and calling into a conference number, we realize that it's completely not worth it and it's not necessary.
- nickthemagicman 9y ago
- PatientTrades 9y agoI would happily work from home in exchange for feeling unsupported, Man some people just don't know how good they have it...