15 ms·

What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

• devy 8y ago
  What strikes me the most was this line: Encouraging people to use sick days for mental health when they need them. Can't agree more, because mental health is as important as physical health. And, Finding work-life balance isn’t about prioritizing your mental wellbeing at the expense of your work. It’s acknowledging that, in the long-term, all areas of your life are better off when you put your mental health first.
  • cryoshon 8y ago
    agreed, but i'd say that mental health IS physical health. if you have depression, you are more likely to get all kinds of cardiovascular diseases, and your likelihood of death -- from any cause -- is vastly increased. it isn't acceptable to suck it up and suffer through mental health episodes like it's seasonal allergies or something. these mental health problems are left unaddressed due to the need to do work -- or more likely, BECAUSE of work -- and that causes people to die younger and live in more misery.
  • nerder92 8y ago
    But how can you evaluate when you need to rest because of mental health recovery?
• sparrish 8y ago
  Sounds like he may not be suited for remote work. I've been working remotely full-time for 10+ years now. I'm convinced some personalities just don't do well working remotely. That's not to say they're "bad", just different and would thrive in an office setting. Whereas I seem to thrive working remotely.
• dczx 8y ago
  Spot on. I have followed a very similar path. Backpacking through SEA for 6 months, then creating a remote work environment back home. But all of it was lonely. Joining a makerspace and yoga are my favorite things to keep me busy.
• meowface 8y ago
  I'm a natural recluse who loves living alone and loves working remotely. I've always been this way. This article didn't resonate with me; I don't get lonely and generally don't desire many social connections or interactions. My key issue when working from home is staying focused and avoiding distractions. Still haven't found a good solution (I only end up using website blockers a few times before my hedonistic side takes over and just stops using them). I can be very productive and effective when I'm able to stay concentrated for extended periods of time, but it's tough. I disliked working in an open-ish office, but knowing people could see my screen often pressured me into being productive.
  • piyh 8y ago
    The distractions don't go away once you step in an office.
    • jgtrosh 8y ago
      On the contrary… I'll actually stay home if I want to stay focused on one task! You have to find out what sticks with you.
      • dkersten 8y ago
        I’m the same. I find office great for planning things out with others but when it’s time to focus and implement things, I find it easier at home. Everyone had to find their own sweet spot and hopefully their employer will allow them to do that.
      • fernandotakai 8y ago
        yup. i used to work at an open plan office. it was absolutely impossible to focus on anything. even with noise-cancelling headsets, people would still talk to me. or people would do impromptu meetings on a desk by my side.
    • meowface 8y ago
      I was distracted easily in an office, too, but it was different distractions (usually coworkers wanting to talk to me, or the whole room, about some issue that's not important to answer right away). At home, my issue is really self-discipline. I'm the cause of my own distractions when I'm working from home, and this can potentially lead to boundless distraction. In theory, it's a lot easier for me to stay focused when I'm at home, and many days that is the case, but in practice my lack of discipline and procrastination become problems.
• larrik 8y ago
  Remote work is dramatically different for different people. For me, it means I'm home with my family, and in 6+ years of doing it I've not once had the urge to go into an office for any reason, much less socialization.
  • christophilus 8y ago
    Yep. Me, too. I love working remotely, and will hopefully never have to commute ever again. If I need a break, I step outside and garden, walk around the neighborhood, play with my son, etc. If I need social stimulation, I head into a coworking space or coffee shop, or just hop on Zoom with a coworker. I do miss pranks and foosball, though. But those aren't a big enough upside to justify all of the downsides of going in to an office.
    • gramstrong 8y ago
      >hopefully never have to commute ever again Yes! Honestly, my commute (probably 20 mins average) was laughable compared to anyone who works in the city. But even after good work days, getting stuck in traffic with other tired people who were driving poorly would absolutely kill my mood for the evening. I could leave work feeling energized and be absolutely dead by the time I got home. Not to mention that an extra 40 mins every day is huge for anyone who struggles to find time to exercise. For me that means I'm getting a 5-mile run in for "free" everyday and not feeling stressed out about it.
      • icebraining 8y ago
        In some places, you can combine the two; my commute is 50 mins, but 30 of those are on a bicycle, which is pretty nice.
  • fernandotakai 8y ago
    almost 7 years for me, and i still love it. i don't miss office stuff at all. it kind of helps that my wife is a housewife, so we can have meals together, we can talk to each other when we are feeling lonely and etc. also i try to chit-chat with coworkers on our "random" slack room just like i would do at an office.
• slhck 8y ago
  The importance of finding social hobbies outside of work cannot be stressed enough. However, if you are not in the lucky situation of having a partner for whom you feel responsible (e.g. by regularly doing things together, stopping work together, or even just having a conversation over dinner), it becomes way too easy to get sucked into a spiral of not going out and seeing people, and not even feeling like you want to. I have had times when I was working alone for extended periods of time, at which I felt lucky to even be able to talk to a cashier while shopping for food. That alone however didn't automatically motivate me to go out and seek friends or activities. It's way too easy to forget taking care of your mental health in such a state. Ultimately, public health systems and employment laws should take care of people by providing counseling and paid mental health days.
• d357r0y3r 8y ago
  Great article that really highlights the negative aspects of Digital Nomadism. I work with some folks that do this, and when we talk about it, they can't understand why I would want to just stay in my medium-sized city and travel a few times a year. Like, why wouldn't you want to spend 6 months a year in Thailand? It's such a no-brainer! And for me, it's just sort of mind-boggling that you'd jet set around the world. We own a home. We have friends and family. We have a great dog and probably kids in the future. We've built something here that we like. Yes, I know that the weather is great/everything is cheap/people are nice in City, Country, but the lifestyle just doesn't appeal to me. I like being at home. ---- One thing I'll say though is that the loneliness can extend to the non-Nomad remote worker as well, though. Not that long ago, I worked at a startup in my city where I came into the office every day. I really liked it, I just wanted to do something different. And now I miss the camaraderie, going out to lunch with work buddies, happy hours, and just getting in a physical room and talking through tough problems. Sorry, a few Google hangouts a week does not replace that. Are all those things mentioned above worth sacrificing for the additional flexibility, coming and going when I please, waking up when I want, working on the things I want to work on? I don't know. Some days it feels like it is, some days not so much.
  • toomuchtodo 8y ago
    I've worked for a fully remote startup, and you've nailed all the points. Remote can't replace local community (being a digital nomad sucks once the novelty has worn off, and is impossible to do with a family unless you own your own business) and in-person interactions at work (coffee and lunch with coworkers). I prefer to be at a job that had an office, but still allows me to work remote most of the month. I don't anticipate going back to a full remote org unless it was just myself doing consulting (because fully remote does not always equal schedule flexibility).
    • vinbreau 8y ago
      I've been remote for almost 8 years now. I love it and dread ever having to go back into an office. Faking productivity for show when the workload is low was the worst feeling, as if I was wasting my time and life. Plus I have social anxiety and the pressure to 'fit in' was overwhelming. Now I work from home where my wife and toddler are. Being home to educate her is worth more than just about anything. I don't have to drive 2 hours every day just to be an ass in a seat. Two hours where all I do is sit in a car and wish to be home. My productivity has remained high. I take on additional duties happily. I can chat with friends online if lonely. For me there are no cons to working remote. If I did go into an office I would be the only person from my division there, my next closest team mate is a state away, which would make socializing even more awkward for me. My goal is to never have to go into an office ever again.
• sscarduzio 8y ago
  Sorry you were not able to build meaningful relationships in Taiwan. Probably that is not the easiest place, I get it. But maybe you should work a bit more on yourself instead of writing throwing so much shit to the people who earned their high degree of freedom with a lot of effort. Also, you are discouraging people that are trying to find the courage to exit their comfort zone and reach their objective.
  • draw_down 8y ago
    Jesus, these comments are so depressing to read. This post is saying a very basic, normal thing about what can happen when you travel around a lot.
  • Baeocystin 8y ago
    I mean, I agree with a kernel of what you're saying, particularly about encouraging people to leave their comfort zones. And frankly I think Taiwan is actually a pretty friendly place, and I am genuinely happy that aspects of the overall Chinese civilization were able to separate from what happened on the mainland. But the author is clearly not shitting on anyone by describing his experience- he was a young man who learned some important lessons about his personal needs, which didn't line up with his initial expectations. Where he learned that lesson is really orthogonal to the point.
  • cryptozeus 8y ago
    Actually this is not true, I find this article insightful and he does have very valid points. At the end it is up to the individual to decide if remote life is for him or not. No need to bash the author for putting this blog out there
• androidgirl 8y ago
  Sure, I imagine if someone isn't already lonely, being put into such circumstances could make them lonely. But loneliness exists in conventional workplaces too! I work in an open office every day, but I'm still extremely depressed, isolated, and alone. Culturally, I am very different from my coworkers. I do not fit into their social events cleanly, and do not socialize with them. There are many possible boundaries to creating human connections in modern society. Individualism in America has guaranteed that. And honestly, I'd much rather work remotely and be lonely than spend all day in an office being lonely. At least at home I can focus and be more productive.
  • MoBattah 8y ago
    Read your comments and saw this wasn't the first on this theme. Depending on your status, do you have anything against asking guys/gals to grab lunch? Sounds weird but honestly, I ask out plenty of girls all the time not to date them but to see if they'd be an interesting friend. EDIT: I see you're also 21 like myself. Ever tried going to meet ups? Maybe not tech-oriented meetups but hiking, kayaking, boating, etc.
    • androidgirl 8y ago
      Yeah, loneliness is my personal struggle. I've made steps recently to combat it, I just need to be more aggressive about it. I have been going to meetups occasionally! There is an LGBT women's group I go to near my office sometimes. Still, as the article mentions, making friends is a constant battle! Got to keep working on it.
      • MoBattah 8y ago
        I like this quote: "I see that there are many young people here; as an old man, a little advice... Life can set us a lot of snares, a lot of bumps, we can fail a thousand times, in life, in love, in the social struggle, but if we search for it we'll have the strength to get up again and start over. The most beautiful thing about the day is that it dawns. There is always a dawn after the night has passed. Don't forget it, kids. The only losers are the ones who stop fighting." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mujica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mujica Email in my bio if you'd like a penpal.
• azrael49 8y ago
  Pretty one-sided article. Sure, working from home is lonely if you need social interaction and don't automatically get it from work. If you have a family, active social life, or simply don't need social interaction to be happy, it's not a problem. But what if you work in a company that's: tiny, not very social, or you just don't feel a sense of connection to anyone? My current workplace hits all 3 of these, and I feel lonelier when I'm in the office than the couple times I've gotten to spend a full week working remotely. I think the real issue is to investigate whether you have a healthy social life, or whether you're lonely and using workplace socialization as a crutch or replacement for real personal bonds and activities
• calcsam 8y ago
  This article seems to conflate "remote work" and "being a digital nomad". Lots of people work remotely without being digital nomads. Lots of people have families and work out of a home office. Especially folks over the age of 30.
  • saltcured 8y ago
    I think most people use "remote work" for the most extreme version where there is no other typical jobsite. The worker works from home, or wherever they choose, and has no regular work-imposed constraints such as onsite meetings with clients. This often applies to worker bee or creative tasks like programming or long-form writing. With teleworking infrastructure, it can also apply to more boiler-room sorts of work which have frequent interaction but no fixed location. People in sales or consulting who nearly always visit other sites used to be called "road warriors" which is definitely not implied by "remote work" in my mind. On the other hand, "work out of a home office" can mean anything. It can be someone with an office who stays home a few days a week or month, or even just works extra hours in early morning or late evening. It can be someone who does visits client sites and has client meetings in public, but keeps their files and records at home because they don't need a storefront. This could include road warriors who lack an assigned space in their nominal place of employment.
• ollysb 8y ago
  Been remote for 6 years now and I’ve had a blast. I wouldn’t say I was Nomad though, I prefer to pick a city to call home for at least a couple of years (I prefer european cities). It’s still easy to cruise a round a bit as well but I definitely like having a home with a solid group of friends etc. You do have to be proactive with the social life, but I prefer picking my friends by shared hobbies/interests than work. Remote gives you a lot of options, if you know what you like then it’s easy to design a life you’ll love.
• pvarangot 8y ago
  So basically to do remote work correctly you need 40 days of completely offline from work vacations per year, plus taking sick leave when you have anxiety or depression symptoms. It's also nice if you rent an office and if you make yourself space to have a meaningful social life. I mean, those are great tips, but any kind of remote or non remote or whatever profesional career or relation more likely will need or greatly benefit from all that!
• lukethomas 8y ago
  I've worked remotely for almost 7 years, for a few companies. Loneliness is a real thing, especially for people who are more outgoing/social. Here's what I've found works for me: 1. work at a coworking space/coffee shop. Be around people. Get out of the house some. 2. Watercooler conversations don't happen automatically. I try to schedule a coffee meeting 1x/week with someone. 3. If you manage a team, you need to understand what's going on with each person. For the past 3 years I've been building a tool for distributed teams (https://www.fridayfeedback.com https://www.fridayfeedback.com) that people have referred to as "therapy for remote teams". It's shocking what you can discover if you ask people, "what's going on" on a regular basis. 4. Quarterly or semi-annual meetups can help significantly. I want to get to know the people I work with. It's super important to be reminded that these are REAL people, not avatars on a screen.
  • diminoten 8y ago
    One of my fiancee's professors at Kellogg was all about performing a nightly reflection on his day, and the example questionnaire on your website reminds me substantially of the ideas he was preaching. I think his name was Harry Kraemer, you might find some inspiration in the stuff he's talking about.
    • lukethomas 8y ago
      Thanks for the recommendation! Will take a look.
• sixstringbudha 8y ago
  What a crappy article and an equally crappy title. > Some days I would go to bed 3am, others I would sleep until 2pm. There is your problem. Don't blame it on being remote. If you don't have the discipline, you will find that you ll hard time making a lot of things in life work..
• sebringj 8y ago
  I have a wife and 3 sons and am working remote now for over a decade. If you have family around its super not depressing. Before that being single, I had my dog or went out to the beach and sat under an umbrella and programmed wirelessly or visited a coffee shop. Being in sunny SoCal helps too. If you don't have friends or don't go out and stay by yourself all the time, the vast majority of us would feel depressed. Being remote doesn't mean being alone, it just might be correlated to people who like to be alone more and thus depression ensues for most of us in that scenario as a "feature" of evolution. Some tips to combat depression in general are to work out in the morning, go for a run, listen to fun music that makes you feel energized, try to work outside or around people when you can, use sunlight as your friend meaning respect that you evolved for waking hours and your circadian rhythm sleep cycle is regular, and you have a nice social network where you also physically are in the same room with people etc. Basic stuff kind of like food... in that eating healthy over junk makes you feel better, so is the social and routines that make us feel more healthy, you needs it even if you would rather be a recluse at times and not shower for a week living in your basement with the blinds closed.
  • jhall1468 8y ago
    Same here, wife and 4 kids. Definitely not depressing. People like to associate big targets with their mental health, but honestly remote work doesn't make you depressed, your lifestyle can, and remote work can emphasize that. If you get your "fill" of social interaction via other means, there are enormous advantages as well.
    • sjg007 8y ago
      I mean being around family reduces the risk of depression. Being married especially so.
      • jhall1468 8y ago
        Yep, that's kind of the point. Working remote doesn't cause depression, it enables it, particularly when your lifestyle makes depression a high probability. If you're a type B "loner" that doesn't really have friends/family, I would argue that you probably shouldn't work remote if you also happen to be susceptible to depression.
• walkingolof 8y ago
  I worked remotely for 7 years, sitting at home (alone), and it’s great, I interact as much with other people as in an office, just over slack/zoom, I do not feel alone and save allot of time not commuting, time I spend with family and friends.
• nickjj 8y ago
  I don't think the title ("What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work") makes sense for this article. He mentions co-founding a company and never had a "real" job but his title is all about being a remote worker for a company. There's a HUGE difference between being a remote worker FOR a company, and a remote worker for YOUR OWN company. In the employee / company case, you have someone telling you what to do work on day to day and probably report to them on a regular basis for progress. You have no chance to spiral out of control because if you produce low quality or no work over a few days or a week you'll get reminded by your employer that they are paying you to do work. In the entrepreneur case, you have no one for that and then it's very easy to get into trouble. I've been working remotely for ~20 years (for my own freelance / teaching business) and I find it super simple to find motivation to work on client work because someone is requesting I do something for them, and they pay me in return (similar to a "real" job). But for the teaching (creating and selling video courses) side of things, it's much harder to grind through everything because there's no real deadlines (other than being irrelevant if you take too long, which is a serious threat but you typically don't think of that during your day to day). I imagine someone working on a startup as a solopreneur could have the same issues, because it's the same thing.
  • radoslawc 8y ago
    Exactly what I was going to write. Plus, if you end significant relationship, then cut off all support group (friends and family) you can be in literal paradise and still be depressed and suffer.
  • towelr34dy 8y ago
    Reminds me of all those people saying how well electricians/plumbers and other tradesmen earn. Most of the time they are looking at someone with their own PLUMBING BUSINESS and saying how easy it is to make money. Sorry, owning a business is not easy. Doesn't matter what type. There is a lot of risk, and people need to be rewarded for that risk. That is not free money. If we look at the average repair guy for the a property manager, who works a fixed schedule with a fixed pay check and who and does plumbing and electricity, that guy will not be earning so well.
  • diminoten 8y ago
• gfarah 8y ago
  I’ve been working remotely for almost 5 years. One thing I would recommend remote teams is visiting teammates cities (if possible and if traveling is your thing). Is a nice way to see the world and for team bonding at the same time.
• topkai22 8y ago
  Very interesting post, as it helps me see things from the perspective of someone at a different life stage from me. I’ve been leading a distributed (my preferred term) team for 2 years now. I’ve got 4 other humans + associated animals in my house, a dedicated outbuilding as an office, and the option to visit a an office if I want to. What’s more, I came to working remote after doing 50-75% work travel for a couple years. Being able to see my kids and wife everyday is absolutely amazing and makes any other annoyance worth it. But I’ve got 20 people on my team. Some of them are new grads, some are recently divorced, etc... This article helps me see areas we as a team can do better serving them I wouldn’t have seen myself. Thanks to the author and OP.
• goshx 8y ago
  I did remote work for many years starting back in 2003. The worst time, when I almost lost my mind, was when I was living in a tiny apartment, having my work desk inside my bedroom. Although I had my mother and my sister living with me, I was supporting all of us and that pressure was strong, so we didn't interact much. I'd never leave the apartment. I'd wake up and jump on my work chair and start coding. I'd get stuck in my bedroom sometimes working 16 hours in single days. At some point I didn't know if I was working from home or living at work. It was terrible. I wasn't aware of the potential problems at the time, so I let it happen to myself. I had to eventually rent an office, otherwise I'd lose my mind for real. I love remote work and I love times of solitude, however you need a break from time to time. Even if you are anti-social, you need to at least see and be near people. Co-working spaces, coffee-shops, etc. they all work great for me.
  • eeeeeeeeeeeee 8y ago
    I had a similar issue when I was in a studio apartment. My desk was right next to my living space and bed. I'll never do that again. Now I have the luxury of having an additional bedroom that I converted into my office and so when I'm done with work, I close the door.
• bitL 8y ago
  Dunno, if you have a life outside work, the remote work is absolutely amazing. If you are glued 12-16h to a computer, then it is likely horrible. By remote work you already saved 1-4h of commuting, you don't have to be in an office with people you don't like, you can work in comfortable clothes, can take packages you ordered right at home instead of picking them up from post office, you can be productive even when your office is going through virus epidemics etc. Often you can set cool working hours like 6am-2pm and do whatever you like afterwards... If your income is sufficient, you can even travel the world, working one month from one cool place, the next month from another one, and surprisingly getting a huge productivity boost just from changing the scenery (if your job is in any way creative).
• paradite 8y ago
  > I lived in Taiwan for about a year before I returned to Europe. The whole Taiwan part is not really related to the issue of remote work. Remote work or not, moving to another country and then returning to home country after 1 year simply means you made a rush decision to relocate or you are bad at coping with a new environment.
  • leesec 8y ago
    Or he tried living in Taiwan for a year and decided it wasn't for the best. Not everyone can just fit in anywhere but its still worth trying if you feel you should.
    • paradite 8y ago
      I agree that there's many explanations to this, but my point is that this is a separate issue from the remote work.
• ryanSrich 8y ago
  I've worked completely remote for the last 5 years. Before doing so, I read articles and sought advice. Most of the advice was the same — "try to get out of the house for a few days per week", "be sure your home office has a door", etc. This type of advice is shallow, obvious, and unhelpful. The only thing that has worked for me is having a disciplined routine that I follow. - Bed by 10pm - Up by 5:30am - Coffee made by 5:45am - Protein smoothie for breakfast with coffee by 6:00am - Yoga/dynamic stretching for 30 minutes - Read through and reply to all emails and missed slack messages from the previous 12 hours - Then work starts for me at 8am - Pause work for 2-3 hours for rigorous exercise for 2 hours (BJJ) - Dinner by 8pm - Work for 2 hours - Bed by 10pm This is my specific routine. Your routine will be different, but the point is you need one, and it must be disciplined. Going to the gym, coffee shops, meetups, social events, etc. will bring you friends and other acquaintances. It's the routine of your daily activity that will bring you mental health.
  • fwip 8y ago
    Doing the math... this looks like 1.5 (email) + 12 - 2 (work till dinner, minus break) + 2 (dinner to bed) = 13.5 hours of work a day. That sounds awful.
    • ryanSrich 8y ago
      When you enjoy what you do and get paid well for it the math works out.
      • PeterStuer 8y ago
        In the short term, yes.
      • cryptozeus 8y ago
        Totally agree with this, it does not have to be 8 hr exact. If you are working on something love then it is completely fine. We have all put in work in after hours and weekends. Plus it looks like he has very healthy routine of waking up early and going to the gym/yoga etc. I say in long run this is healthy.
• rbreve 8y ago
  There was an article about loneliness a few days ago, it’s not related to remote work, you can be lonely and working at an office and living in a city for years, I think it depends on the persons social skills, programmers are introverted and they will feel lonely if they don’t work on their relationships.
  • icebraining 8y ago
    It also depends on your personality; some of us don't really get lonely, even with a bare minimum of social interaction (I can't say I've ever tried full isolation).
• k__ 8y ago
  Sounds more like the author had psychological problems than problems specific to remote work. I don't travel much, but I woudln't stop working remote for all the money in the world. Working when and from where I want is a huge chunk of freedom. Don't throw you lifetime away.
• daddyofive 8y ago
  People who want to go to Thailand are ignorant — it’s a red flag you can use to spot naive people. Thailand sucks. It’s filled with crime and people there are very petty. Usually it takes Americans several years of living there to realize this. Anyway, I also think it’s dumb when people attribute their happiness to one thing or another. A featured tweet said that “crafting things with my hands is key to my happiness.” That’s so sad to read because as long as you are searching for specific remedies to unhappiness, and therefore as long as you are attributing progress to one arbitrary construct like “crafting” with your “hands,” you are unhappy. People who say they found happiness in X are always actually still in the middle of massive unhappiness. Their special activity almost always lapses after a while.
  • teh_klev 8y ago
    > Thailand sucks. It’s filled with crime and people there are very petty. Usually it takes Americans several years of living there to realize this. That's such a sweeping, verging on racist, terrible generalisation of Thai citizens. I have one friend who has lived in Thailand since 2002 and another who lived there up until ~2009 before his company shipped him off to the US. Both have nothing but good things to say about their living experience there and the people they met. Sure you're going to encounter cultural differences (for god's sake don't say anything bad about the monarchy), but that's up to you to integrate. And by all accounts, in Thailand, it isn't that hard to make these adjustments compared to say certain countries in the middle east.
  • sctb 8y ago
    If you keep posting uncivilly and unsubstantively like this we'll ban the account. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    • daddyofive 8y ago
      Excuse me? What is so uncivil about my comment? I would point out the flaws of my own country just as quickly as I would those of Thailand. The culture of Thailand is a burden to its people, as well as its economic and education situation. To brush aside my comment is to condemn the good people of Thailand because without broaching the elephant in the room, nothing will change. Please take your fake social justice elsewhere, especially far away from your moderation duties.
• leesec 8y ago
  I haven't worked remotely but I have travelled solo a fair amount and his points about loneliness resonated with me. However, I don't think everyone has to stay traveling if they are a remote worker. As he mentions it takes time to build community and relationships, but for me that is a reason to go remote. I want to live stably in another city where I feel I will integrate better with the people then the city my office is currently located. I don't want to switch apartments every month or live out of a backpack.
• programminglisp 8y ago
  Good article although I could not read all of it. I found it long and repetitive.
• armandososa 8y ago
  Why is there so much pressure on Americans to leave their family's home as soon as possible? I lived with my parents and my two sisters in Mexico until I got married at 32 and I think that helped me avoid depression in my twenties. Had I've been alone in those years I think I would have killed myself. And apart for having moral support it was financially sound. When I was doing well with my freelance gigs I would contribute to the household and everybody enjoyed the fruits of the excelente USD to MXN exchange ratio, when work dried up I knew I wouldn't starve. There's always a character in US sitcoms that lives with their parents and is portrayed to be such a loser. I just don't get it. I guess, what I say is: if you want to travel around the world do it. If you want to live alone or with annoying room mates do it. But if you're happy with your parents (and vice-versa) why does the culture wants force you to be miserable and alone? Screw the culture.
  • nerdnumerouno 8y ago
    You're trying to compare two things that aren't equal. People who stay home for family/to help raise siblings/etc are different from leeches staying at their parents with no job and life goals. You seriously lack perspective, friend.
    • cat199 8y ago
      > leeches staying at their parents why is this automatically a 'leech'? Shouldn't parents be happy to contribute to their childrens lives, irrespective of age? but of course in supporting OP, my response clearly shows 'lacking perspective'
    • meesles 8y ago
      This comment would have been better without an ad-hominem attack at the end. Also, grand-standing.
    • dang 8y ago
      We've banned this account for breaking the site guidelines.
  • pc86 8y ago
• mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
  Not remote but I started freelancing a few years ago out of necessity. At the time I had to put in every hour of the day to make ends meet and I was getting burned out quickly. There were no weekends nor a week work, everything blended in and I greatly missed the physical cutoff between work and play. I was also struggling with occasional bouts of depression. It didn't help that my foreign wife was dealing with depression which dragged me into it even further. It was my primary reason for moving to her native country to be closer to her family. Fast forward a year and a half and I still work on my own but now as a consultant. I work at most 3-4 hours per week of actual focused work. The rest of the time I work on side projects that never seem to come to fruition but that's another story. Mental health wise I no longer feel depressed but that may have something to do with having a newborn son who keeps me plenty smiling and a reason to live. I still go to bed late (writing this at 2:15am in my bed) and I think this alone is having a terrible effect on my health but I feel powerless to stop it. These days I am more isolated than ever with zero real life friends and very few old friends I still talk to online. I don't feel the need for human connection as I know spend most of my spare time with my son but that could just be something I tell myself. Truthfully, I want to make friends I can meet with to hang out but it has become somewhat an impossibility with my current work situation and language barrier - not to mention the social barriers put up by people of this society. I am not sure where I am going with this or what the trick is to working remotely... I guess if I think there is one thing that helps, it's that working less is more beneficial than busting your ass day in day out.
• eip 8y ago
  What non-remote companies don't tell you is how super awesome remote work is. If people caught on then all those near useless mid level extroverts wouldn't have anyone to poop next to at the office.
• PeterStuer 8y ago
  Anecdotally, working in IT, I see no higher depression rates between remote or office workers. If anything, it is the reverse, but not to a high degree.
• slantedview 8y ago
  The type of remote work matters a lot, such as whether it's as part of a distributed team or solo. That said, having things and people outside of work is always beneficial as well.
• dennisgorelik 8y ago
  I enjoy running my business (postjobfree.com) from my home in Florida. It also allows me to have "non-standard day" (about 30 hours, that is about 6 hours longer than regular ~24 hours day that most people have). I am not sure if such non-standard day is good or bad for me, but I like it so far. To stay mentally sane, I make sure that: 1) I exercise every day (usually, run for ~3 miles). 2) Talk with people -- both business and personal - (usually on Skype).
  • QuotedForTruth 8y ago
    So your schedule shifts 6 hours forward each day?
    • dennisgorelik 8y ago
      Correct: about 6 hours forward every day (sometimes more, sometimes less).
• cm2012 8y ago
  I'm a consultant who works remotely. I don't miss the office in the slightest. If I can get away with it I don't even go to Manhattan (I live in Queens).
• poulsbohemian 8y ago
  Me, for background: "Non-traditional" worker since ~2005, including stints as employee, as freelancer, as business owner. Some in a co-working space, some in home office, some as road warrior. I don't really recognize the issues the author is describing. Obviously exercise, activities apart from work, and being cognizant of one's mental / physical / emotional needs are all good things. But, I can't say I've ever felt loneliness or any kind of existential dread over any of it. If it weren't for my kids (school, activities) we would go nomad for big chunks of the year too.
• inertiatic 8y ago
  Sure, these things can happen, such feelings can come up. But these pale IMO next to the disastrous effect of forced interaction for one third of your day every day of your life. Yet very rarely do we see an article complaining about such things (besides the occasional mildly damning article on open office arrangements).
• cryptozeus 8y ago
  Great article and good discussion going on in the comments. I personally am going through very interesting transition. My company has decided to let people work remote or from the office so I have 2 days work from office (T,W) and 3 days work from home (M,Th,F) schedule. Here is my observation for last 2 years (working in bay area) Days I am working from home - I have better energy in the morning and evening due to no commute. - I work way more and focus on personal diet and health way less because of no set schedule. Days I go to office - I feel more energetic during morning and afternoon. This is mainly due to socializing with colleagues and working with humans face to face. - I get out more, go for walk, have lunch with people outside. - Evenings are dreadful with 1/2 hr commute. - No energy at night. My personality is such that I like to be around people and like to get out. Remote work sort of stops me from doing that however if I go to the office everyday then commute kills me. Have not found the answer to this problem yet.
  • subsection1h 8y ago
    You "focus on personal diet" less when working from home? At home, you have 100% control over all the ingredients in all your meals. When I worked in a office years ago, I frequently ate donuts and pizza because they were free. LOL.
    • cryptozeus 8y ago
      I know its crazy but at office I have whole food and other great options next door. I just walk over there to eat, at home I have to cook the meal or do doordash which does not have good options
• sologoub 8y ago
  Not sure if this is more of an American thing or common elsewhere, but in US we tend to tie a lot of our social connections and self-worth with the job. If these were not the case, loneliness and other social pressures would be less of a thing - if your normal circle of communication, social connections and support systems are not tied to work, then not physically being next to your coworkers wouldn’t make that same impact. That’s not to say that face-to-face cannot at times be more productive (though it could also be less productive too), but the psychological impacts would simply not exists as you wouldn’t be isolated in the first place.
• aviv 8y ago
  It's much harder to climb the corporate ladder if you are one of the only remote employees in a company.
• notacoward 8y ago
  I've worked remotely for several years, but not alone. From time to time before that I worked alone (i.e. one-person projects) but not remotely. I think it's the combination of the two that's far more toxic than either alone. If you have either collaborators or people nearby, it's fairly easy to get your recommended daily allowance (whatever that is) of human interaction. If you don't have either, and particularly if your outside-of-work social sphere is also small, things can get weird fast. The sort of people who might once have been lighthouse keepers or custodians of some remote outpost might still be OK with that, but they're pretty rare. For anyone else, it's an almost sure route to depression or worse.
• silverdrake11 8y ago
  I worked in a office setting for four years doing development work (finance). I found it very difficult to make friends and very isolating. Then I ended up getting laid off and living with roommates and found it much easier to make friends and less lonely.
• arwhatever 8y ago
  I'm digital nomading with my wife, and we both agree that this is the happiest point in either of our lives. No doubt it requires the people nomading to be very compatible with each other and both individually compatible with the lifestyle. I could see it being difficult without the company, unless you just settle in some place long enough to make friends, which is really really more like moving than nomading. We have one suitcase each, with more clothes than we need, and one decent laptop, camera, and phone per person. We definitely want to head home to visit family and friends about twice a year, evenly spaced. But from my samples size of 1 (or, 2), I recommend it very highly.
• jarym 8y ago
  I really resonated with this article and didn’t find much to disagree with from my own personal experience. Thanks to the author for writing it.
• sergefaguet 8y ago
  the article highlights very avoidable problems. i have lived completely remotely for the last 2 years – hotels, different countries etc., have not spend over 60 days in a single location at a time. i think it is amazing once you know how to do certain things well: - have a very well-adapted set of routines. - know how to maintain deep relationships everywhere - appreciate different places for different things - are busy i use silicon valley for interactions with smart people and fundraising, russia for hiring and great social life, switzerland for deep work, asia for seeing very forward-thinking economic markets etc. if you have good practices around arranging time with people in each location, mix in a bit of acid/MDMA/meditation – you can have it all – deep relationships, understanding of many markets/cultures, independence from annoying governments and their taxes, and the best of each location. i would also argue there is a lot of value in training yourself to be independent of locations in the modern world – it feels like it increases your overall flexibility and ability to adapt. which is clearly worth a lot. i write a lot about my specific routines for making this work here https://hackernoon.com/biohack-your-intelligence-now-or-become-obsolete-97cdd15e395f https://hackernoon.com/biohack-your-intelligence-now-or-beco...
  • volkk 8y ago
    i read your article, and im praying that it's satire. and if not, i'm extremely concerned that it has 34k "claps" or whatever you call it on medium
    • sergefaguet 8y ago
      lol. it is not satire. the claps are just a reflection of that a lot of people consider this a good life strategy.
      • redisman 8y ago
        I'm exhausted just skimming through it. Whatever works for you I guess
        • sergefaguet 8y ago
• deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
• xyd 8y ago
  We are the generation who will be responsible for introducing this new paradigm. We are the generation with all the tools and platforms. Let’s try to avoid adding unneeded layers of skepticism just because people can’t or didn’t think it through. I suggest folks to try it with a critical mindset in evaluating the productivity and social interaction. With a mature sense of responsibility. If you miss meetings or don’t deliver, you’re making it harder for others who know how and love to do it. Be mindful, either if you’re a worker or a company. I have been working remotely for few months every year. My director was skeptical initially. I told him that if I didn’t act responsibly, that would have been my last time. That happened almost 10 years ago. It’s really on us, folks. For people that feel alienated, well, social (and social network) skills can be improved and put us on the stage of this kaleidoscopic beautiful world. : )
• deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
• late2part 8y ago
  Blogger who never worked in an office and thinks remote work is moving to another country to be a nomad after you breakup with your S.O. False dichotomy. Remote work from home is dissimilar from nomadic work. Mental illness is a real problem but I don’t see the correlation. Some kernels of good in there but 8 weeks vacation? Why not 12 weeks vacation and 3 hour work days. Irrational proposals. Not a reasonable article in my opinion.
• keerthiko 8y ago
  I became a nomad on our 4-person team because of visa issues. It resulted in our company optimizing to be remote-first, and now post-visa-issues we're still all remote. No question about it, the best part of being an all-remote team are the days when we get together to cowork in person, and it can't happen regularly enough. Funny how that works.
• analog31 8y ago
  I wonder how much about remote work also applies to remote school, i.e., online education. The boredom and loneliness of trying to get something like a college degree remotely must be staggering.
• person_of_color 8y ago
  Where can I find remote companies that pay SV salaries and don't adjust for local COL?
  • EduardoBautista 8y ago
    I sometimes wonder why don't SV companies hire more in Canada and/or Europe just by offering slightly higher than average salaries. Their runway will be a bit longer. They will easily higher more people especially if they let people know they offer higher than average salaries, it will attract the best engineers in the area, and I don't see how the product will be any worse.
  • mtnGoat 8y ago
    dont work for cheapskates? ;)
• amag 8y ago
  This is very interesting. A couple of years ago I was pretty sure that working from home was the ideal for me, but that was after being exposed to a series of either small, cramped offices with a bunch of people or large open offices with lots of people. What I have come to realize that I really want though, is what I had at the turn of the century; my own private office with a door to close. That provides the best balance for programmers IMHO. If you need to focus - close the door. If you need to coöperate - either go to a coworker's office or set up a meeting. If you just need to feel less isolated - leave the door open.
• dizzystar 8y ago
  Working remotely is fine as long as you are someone who has hobbies and interests. It's usually an insult to say "take a hike," but in the remote working world, this activity is super important. Walk to the store, walk outside, join a hiking group, walk to the bar and grab a beer. Or whatever your interest is, turn off the computer and do that during the evening, and try to get fresh air. I spent a lot of time travelling / being a nomad. The article touches on a brutal reality of the experience, but most of us who's done this really don't talk about it. We just shrug and say we know how it goes.
• DoreenMichele 8y ago
  I’ve never worked from a real office or even had a “real” job. This doesn't outright invalidate the main thrust of the piece, but it does perhaps explain the rose colored glasses he appears to have for the benefits of a normal job. I was a homemaker for many years. Then I had a corporate job. I've done remote freelance work since. Jobs can be crazy making, soul sucking and put you in awful situations you have no control over. People put up with it because they need a paycheck. My mom was a homemaker for a long time and also did freelance work from home for years before going to work. I'm perhaps more prepared than most to live this way because I saw it growing up. I'm all for finding ways to improve the status quo. That can be done without injecting so much judgy drama into the problem space. He begins with talking about leaving a girlfriend and moving elsewhere and how miserable he was. He basically blames his misery on doing remote work. I lived in the same house from age 3 until I was an adult. I got married, he joined the army and we went to outer first duty station. I was miserable. It was horrible. It took me years to stop blaming Texas and realize I would have been miserable anywhere. It was a huge shock to my life to move someplace new. I had no coping skills at all for such a scenario. You can't blame remote work for the misery of combining multiple major shocks like dumping a girlfriend and leaving town. That's not realistic. You can have that same scenario without remote work, such as by joining the military. I do occasionally have to stop and make a conscious effort to count my blessings. Working the way I do allowed me to repeatedly move pretty much at will and that has benefited me tremendously. It helped me solve problems that would have been much more nightmarish if I needed to job hunt to move. I wish him well in meeting his goals of improving remote work for his people. But I respectfully suggest he first disentangle some things from it in his mind that he is conflating as due to working remotely.
• golemiprague 8y ago
  The guy went for one year abroad, not sure what exactly he was expecting? It takes time to build contacts in a new place. Most digital nomads don't move from one place to another all the time, they got 2 or 3 bases where they stay most of the time and where they build their social circle.
• mvkel 8y ago
  I feel like people say they want to work from home until they do. Then they never want to do it again.
• bogomipz 8y ago
  This is a really confused and flimsy piece of writing. The author starts by recounting a life-changing after which they decided to completely uproot and move to another country where they found themselves lonely and depressed. The author then uses this anecdote to assert that "working remotely" is fraught with peril. They say nothing about why they chose to move to Taiwan. Was it a place they had always wanted to see? Or was it just an attempt to try to escape in the wake of a breakup? The anecdote also makes no note of how or even if being a "remote worker" factored into their unhappy experience. Further moving and traveling are not the same thing at all. I sounds like the author moved: >"I lived in Taiwan for about a year before I returned to Europe" The article seems to willfully conflate moving to another country, working remotely and working while traveling. These are all distinctly different things they people might choose for different reasons. And some of the assertions are just downright silly such as: >"Loneliness isn’t something that many traveling remote workers write about. You won’t see it in their Instagram stories." It's also not something that sedentary office workers write about either. Having a daily routine and a familiar office space does not prevent loneliness. And most social media to has a positivity bias, nobody seems to curate anything other than a "fabulous" online persona for themselves. You would have to be a fool to let yourself be "informed" by social media.
• laurex 8y ago
  I've worked remotely on and off for the last 8 years or so, and currently work for an all-remote company. I am at least somewhat extroverted (ambivert fits well) and it's totally doable, as long as you have the right company culture and take the effort to have other professional social opportunities like meetups or coffees. In my case, being remote has meant that I probably work more than I did in an in-office job, but have more flexibility to do things like pick up kid from camp. One of our developers has a dog and I often see him (via our team's Marco Polo video messages) walking around in the parkland near his house. We have "core hours" where generally everyone is online. I'd say that enjoying remote work and keeping it viable depends on overcommunicating to some degree and to knowing your own boundaries, but I feel much more connected to my current remote team than I did with folks at my last in-person job.
• moltar 8y ago
  Remote != work from home. I work remotely from a shared office with other people. We socialize all the time and go for lunches together, just as I did when I worked at the office. Before I did that, I did work from home. And it’s definitely isolating.