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Remote work is fantastic if you are willing to make some sacrifices. The biggest sacrifice is career advancement. I personally don't care because I am consider
by claydavisss 8y ago
Remote work is fantastic if you are willing to make some sacrifices.
The biggest sacrifice is career advancement. I personally don't care because I am considered an older worker...but as a remote employee, it can be more difficult to advance into management etc. I also tend to let others "win" if I have any sort of workplace conflict. Since I am not in the office, I need to make sure no one has cause to talk negatively about me.
Everything else is a positive. I can literally live wherever I want. I have no "commute". I get paid a decent Bay Area wage that is considered very high by local standards. I do not pay CA taxes.
Many companies are still hesitant to embrace remote work but that is changing.
My guess is in twenty years, the remote worker will have higher life satisfaction: much more likely to own a home, much more likely to be able to start a family etc etc.
- drdrey 8y agoI cringe a little when I hear "advance into management". Management is an entirely different job, not something that is an upgrade over an individual contributor role.
- alexgmcm 8y agoI agree but sadly the salary often is an upgrade and there are few alternative routes for advancement.
- irl_zebra 8y agoAgree. I have a job and you can either be remote or onsite. I am well on the way to c-suite roles partially because I choose to be on-site, and of course the necessary hard work. We don't typically make someone COO or Director of Engineering if they're remote for many reasons. Another reason to eschew remote is impact. Much easier to have impact and do real, meaningful work from onsite where one can convince people of things and drove companies in certain directions. Imagine Steve Jobs as a remote employee. Maybe this is cynical, but remote is great if all you want from life is to be well paid and code. For many, there's much more.
- phil21 8y agoIt depends. You describe working for a "remote allowed" company. My advice for any engineers that want to do the remote work thing and still have career advancement is find a "remote only" company. Everything you said is true for larger orgs who have physical presences. For small shops that have developed remote-only cultures most of those negatives are moot. If I were ever looking for work again I would only entertain offers from remote-only companies unless I was getting desperate.
- jamestimmins 8y agoThese jobs tend to be very, very competitive, are they not?
- imhoguy 8y ago> but as a remote employee, it can be more difficult to advance into management I agree, you need remote-first company or at least all-remote team to manage effectively. Politics are always hard but then meritocracy wins. However still I haven't found a good way to break the ice remotely - ocassional team gathering IRL helps a lot. Disruption idea: remote watercooler/lunch/hallway talks solution.