5 ms·

> it is easy to become a hermit. Easy to over-work. Hard to draw the line between your work time and your personal time Not just that, but there's also the oth

by vog 9y ago

> it is easy to become a hermit. Easy to over-work. Hard to draw the line between your work time and your personal time Not just that, but there's also the other side: Easy to procrastinate, easy to give false reports which then leads to regular overwork in the days just before a hard deadline. I know these issues from remote workers I worked with, but also know this personally while working on my Diploma theses. While we are at it: Working on Diploma/Master thesis is in many ways very similar to remote work: One works mostly from home, maybe in the library but even there mostly alone, i.e. not in an office, meeting one's mentor at most once per week. I met with other students which were in the same situation - just to get into a group feeling. That worked quite well, even though we had no overlaps in our topics and hence not much to talk about. The situation is a bit different if you write your PhD thesis, as that usually means you have a job at the university during that time, and at least have an office and collegues.

platetone 9y ago
> easy to give false reports which then leads to regular overwork in the days just before a hard deadline. Working from home for three years now as a software project contributor, this is my biggest problem. I always get my shit done, but it gets majorly stressful since daily family life goes on the same regardless of my self-inflicted work crunches. Pretty sure the tradeoffs are still worth it, though.
ZeroGravitas 9y ago
> Not just that, but there's also the other side: Easy to procrastinate, easy to give false reports which then leads to regular overwork in the days just before a hard deadline. That doesn't seem a problem unique to remote work. It's more about when tangible outputs are required from you.
- huehehue 9y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law
- pessimizer 9y ago
  It's not unique, just exaggerated; the reality of people watching you requires some degree of tangible output, even if that output amounts to "they seem to be typing sometimes."
throwawaywfh 9y ago
>Easy to procrastinate, easy to give false reports which then leads to regular overwork in the days just before a hard deadline. This is so, so true for me. I used to work in a place which had an office, but you wouldn't be expected to be there most of the time, just come in at least once a week, maybe for meetings, etc. I used to procrastinate and report progress to my manager when there was much less. But since the work was deadline-based, I'd just grind through the weekend with little sleep and catch up with what I've reported. I've never missed a deadline, but I'm still feeling bad about doing it that way and misleading them. Just to be clear, this was a long time ago, when I was just starting my professional career, and didn't yet have stronger ethics. (Throwaway for obvious reasons, the employer I worked for at the time browse HN)
wambotron 9y ago
> Easy to procrastinate, easy to give false reports which then leads to regular overwork in the days just before a hard deadline. This isn't a remote problem. I see this _all_ the time with people at work now and I don't work remotely. This is more of a personal issue -- some people do it consistently, others don't. I never had that problem working remotely, and I don't pretend to be somewhere else in my regular reports in the office either.
- stronglikedan 9y ago
  Just my personal anecdote, but I have much more discipline in the office than I do at home. I get distracted by everything at home, and I procrastinate by doing things I couldn't do at work, like housework, watching tv, etc. I know myself enough to know that I cannot trust myself to work at home on a regular basis, and I'm more content with myself regarding my productivity at the office.
  - posterboy 9y ago
    So, you are analog to a wild animal domesticated at the work place.
    - felipelemos 9y ago
      That's not a nice thing to say.
- wallflower 9y ago
  > This isn't a remote problem. I see this _all_ the time with people at work now and I don't work remotely. One solution that usually works for me is to get a standing workstation and use it. Not one of those fancy ones that go up and down. Just one that is permanently up, like the Ikea standing desk hack. For a break, you can move and sit somewhere else. Standing takes a lot more energy, so, it is my belief, that you focus better because if you are standing and goofing off, you are wasting precious energy. There are times where you don't have the energy to stand but need to work - so just sit. Standing and sitting is not a either/or thing. You don't have to be faithful to your standup desk, go slouch in a couch for a break. The biggest difference between standing and sitting is that walking away from your workstation is friction-free. You just move your feet.

by vog 9y ago

platetone 9y ago

> easy to give false reports which then leads to regular overwork in the days just before a hard deadline. Working from home for three years now as a software project contributor, this is my biggest problem. I always get my shit done, but it gets majorly stressful since daily family life goes on the same regardless of my self-inflicted work crunches. Pretty sure the tradeoffs are still worth it, though.

ZeroGravitas 9y ago

> Not just that, but there's also the other side: Easy to procrastinate, easy to give false reports which then leads to regular overwork in the days just before a hard deadline. That doesn't seem a problem unique to remote work. It's more about when tangible outputs are required from you.

huehehue 9y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law
pessimizer 9y ago
It's not unique, just exaggerated; the reality of people watching you requires some degree of tangible output, even if that output amounts to "they seem to be typing sometimes."

throwawaywfh 9y ago

>Easy to procrastinate, easy to give false reports which then leads to regular overwork in the days just before a hard deadline. This is so, so true for me. I used to work in a place which had an office, but you wouldn't be expected to be there most of the time, just come in at least once a week, maybe for meetings, etc. I used to procrastinate and report progress to my manager when there was much less. But since the work was deadline-based, I'd just grind through the weekend with little sleep and catch up with what I've reported. I've never missed a deadline, but I'm still feeling bad about doing it that way and misleading them. Just to be clear, this was a long time ago, when I was just starting my professional career, and didn't yet have stronger ethics. (Throwaway for obvious reasons, the employer I worked for at the time browse HN)

wambotron 9y ago

> Easy to procrastinate, easy to give false reports which then leads to regular overwork in the days just before a hard deadline. This isn't a remote problem. I see this _all_ the time with people at work now and I don't work remotely. This is more of a personal issue -- some people do it consistently, others don't. I never had that problem working remotely, and I don't pretend to be somewhere else in my regular reports in the office either.

stronglikedan 9y ago
Just my personal anecdote, but I have much more discipline in the office than I do at home. I get distracted by everything at home, and I procrastinate by doing things I couldn't do at work, like housework, watching tv, etc. I know myself enough to know that I cannot trust myself to work at home on a regular basis, and I'm more content with myself regarding my productivity at the office.
- posterboy 9y ago
  So, you are analog to a wild animal domesticated at the work place.
  - felipelemos 9y ago
    That's not a nice thing to say.
wallflower 9y ago
> This isn't a remote problem. I see this _all_ the time with people at work now and I don't work remotely. One solution that usually works for me is to get a standing workstation and use it. Not one of those fancy ones that go up and down. Just one that is permanently up, like the Ikea standing desk hack. For a break, you can move and sit somewhere else. Standing takes a lot more energy, so, it is my belief, that you focus better because if you are standing and goofing off, you are wasting precious energy. There are times where you don't have the energy to stand but need to work - so just sit. Standing and sitting is not a either/or thing. You don't have to be faithful to your standup desk, go slouch in a couch for a break. The biggest difference between standing and sitting is that walking away from your workstation is friction-free. You just move your feet.