8 ms·

May I ask, how do you find working remotely? I imagine the freedom aspect is nice, and the fact that you don't have to spend x mount of hours every week commuti

by Izmaki 7y ago

May I ask, how do you find working remotely? I imagine the freedom aspect is nice, and the fact that you don't have to spend x mount of hours every week commuting, but were there other deciding factors in your case? Would you recommend a remote job over a job "on-site"?

codingdave 7y ago
I love it. I spread 8 hours of work each day across more like a 12 hour day (5 AM MST - 5 PM MST), giving me tons of breaks while actually improving my availability to my team worldwide, as I'm not restricted to an 8 hour window. I can be working with someone in NYC at their 7 AM, while still talking to people in Vancouver in the middle of their afternoon. And I still have breakfast with my kids, lunch with my wife, go for a walk each morning, and have as much of a free evening as any office worker. My coding is done on my own schedule, in my own space, with my own music, set up the way I want it. So I do recommend it, but it depends on who you work for - if they want you to sit at your desk for specific office hours, and be available instantly via Slack... or if they fill your entire day with calls, then you may as well go to an office, as that scenario I just described isn't possible.
tempguy9999 7y ago
I did a lot of it a few years ago. I liked it but you had to get out in the evening for social reasons. The hardest part of remote working is stopping. People assume it's difficult to get motivated, but in fact it's knowing when to stop is the problem because you don't have the external cues of people around you winding up, shutting down computers, seeing the office emptying, the commute back. All these are cues to say Stop, You're Done. Without them you can just keep going, and that's not good.
- BorisBorisov91 7y ago
  That is indeed the case. Some of my new teammates asked if we should have some time tracking software, to reassure me they are doing their job. But I told them that they have my trust since we have hired them, and if they deliver on the expectations they set, they will keep having our trust.
RussianCow 7y ago
Not OP, but I've been happily working 100% remotely for almost 4 years, so I'll share my two cents. Personally, I get a lot more work done from home than I ever did at an office. Offices have lots of distractions, and it's way too easy to waste time chatting up the person sitting next to you. (That might just be me, though; I'm pretty chatty.) Cutting out the commute is a big one as well, not just for the time saved but also money (gas and car depreciation) and mental energy (I found driving 45 minutes each way pretty draining). Plus, I have the flexibility to take a break and walk the dog, or run a quick errand, or play video games—things that wouldn't be feasible in an office. That said, there are distractions at home, too, and you have to have a lot of discipline. I got almost nothing done in my first couple months of remote work, and it took me close to a year to get into the flow and develop a structure that actually felt productive. (And then I had the opposite problem of working too much because it's harder to draw a line between work and play.) I do miss the coworker comradery sometimes, but my wife and I also have a pretty big group of close friends that live nearby, so I get to socialize with people outside of work fairly often. Working remotely is definitely not for everyone, but you would have to pay me a LOT of money to convince me to commute to an office every day.
- BorisBorisov91 7y ago
  OP agrees :D I've been working 4 years remotely and I wouldn't go switch to on site. We are building our company as a fully remote company.
  - bitL 7y ago
    I worked for 7+ years remotely and turned down Google/Facebook/Uber/Amazon/Netflix because they wanted me to move. I'd rather spend two months on Hawaii than in some "cool open-plan office", distracted to death, getting sick around influenza periods and wasting time commuting in the process.
    - o-__-o 7y ago
      Ha if you think you won’t get the flu because you work remotely.. by not being in an office, herd protection actually goes down. I’ve had more illness working remotely than working in the office over my 20+ years. That said, you’re away from coworkers with kids. That’s the sickness that doesn’t help immunity. But once you have a kid of your own, all that worry goes out the window. Don’t mean to be a party pooper, but its all reality out here *also how does this remotemore site compare to triplebyte?
BorisBorisov91 7y ago
You should check our blog - the article about reasons to work remotely, and reasons to not work remotely. blog.remotemore.com
rhizome 7y ago
It really depends on the person. Some like it, some don't.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  I worked remotely for 10 years, then for the last five have been on-site. Now my company may send me back to remote work because of space constraints. I'm not sure how I feel about it. In some ways I'd love to go back to remoting because it offers a lot of freedoms that can't exist in an office with other people. But the last five years have taught me that there is a lot of value in structure, routine, and especially physical presence. The thing that tips the scales in favor of remoting for me is the lack of a commute. Commuting sucks and I hate it and it's terrible. I think if my office was a walk away (right now it's 50 minutes by car or 2h30m by bus), I would probably stick with working in the office. At least the coffee is free.
  - codingdave 7y ago
    > ...structure, routine, and especially physical presence. I agree, but structure and routine can certainly exist remotely, and while physical presence is great, remote video calls aren't a bad 2nd place. You just need a team culture where poking someone on Slack and asking if they have a few minutes to chat is a normal thing. I'm on and off calls with various members of my team all the time.
Mountain_Skies 7y ago
I've been working remote for the past two years. It was a bit difficult starting but much of that was due to living in a studio size condo in the middle of a large city. I was surprised by the amount of distractions during work hours and since the amount of space was so small, it felt very cramped being in the same room for twenty or more hours a day. I had to get out after work even if just to walk down to the store and back. I lived in the middle of the city because I hate commuting. Stop and go traffic sucks the life out of me and the stress of making connections on public transportation created terrible bookends to each day so I always tried to live as close to work as possible. Having a remote job allowed me to move out on the exurban edge where I have a much larger space, it's quieter, and I'm close to the mountains so in the summer I can get in a hike after work when I want. I would have gone further out but internet connectivity quickly goes from 1Gig down to unreliable 30Meg on DSL with a small band of 300Meg service in-between. I do still make it a point to go out and socialize, which does get more challenging being in a less dense area where I haven't lived long enough to build up social connections. As far as work goes, most of the time it is better but being able to get a group together around a whiteboard can't be beat. Remote collaboration tools are constantly getting better and there are some pretty nice electronic whiteboard tools that would be great to have but the expense right now is too high. Hopefully in the years to come the price will go down. Overall I find working remotely to be one of the best benefits of my current job.
ConcernedCoder 7y ago
I just applied to job listings with 100% remote options, interviews, take home test projects, etc... got hired, still work for the same company... have moved out of the high-rent tech area to low cost of living area while doing so, COULD NOT BE HAPPIER.
- BorisBorisov91 7y ago
  Sounds great!
mikekchar 7y ago
Also not OP, but the biggest hurdle I've found is communication. I feel I'm quite good at communication and I do a lot of little things to make other people feel comfortable (like making sure that my work is always visible, discussing problems and decisions I'm making on group chat, etc, etc). One thing I didn't take into account when I first started doing remote, though, is that communication is a 2 way street. No matter how good you are at it, if the person you have to talk to can't deal with you being remote, it can be really difficult. It helps enormously if the company you work for is remote across the board because then everybody is struggling with the same issues. If you have a team where some people are remote and some people are local, the local people often don't realise problems. I've found most of the issues arise around meetings. I work 8 time zones away from the main office so it's an extra challenge. People often plan meetings at midnight my time (even regular weekly meetings), or they will forget to invite me. Sometimes people will make decisions in the hallway and forget that I wasn't in on it. Frequently people will optimise for being interrupted in person, but not online. If I need to talk to a stake holder, I'm often in a position where they have turned off notifications on chat and are 2 weeks behind on their email. I literally have to ping someone else and ask them to walk up to the stakeholder's office and knock on their door for me. Another serious problem is that people who don't live online often have trouble identifying with you as a person when you are remote. I've had instances where people will get really angry with me because they imagine I'm someone who I'm not. Although video conferencing helps, even 5 minutes in person can make a huge difference. Make sure that the company you are doing remote work for has budgeted for some face time every year. Also realise that this means you almost certainly have to travel a bit, unless you live close to the office. Again with respect to having a remote job in a not-completely-remote office is that you are going to be on an uneven playing field with your colleagues. I've had a PGM once literally try to sabotage me. It's no fun and the worst part is that there is almost nothing you can do. It is insanely easy for a single person to engineer it so that you are mostly powerless. You really need to be able to trust your co-workers in a way that you don't need to when on-site. This is one of the reasons I wouldn't recommend it for someone who isn't already fairly experienced with politics -- you need to be able to keep your cool and wait for your opportunities. The other main downside is that you are almost certainly going to be at a disadvantage for promotions, etc. Management types trust people who they can see and talk to every day. No matter how good a job you are doing, things are going to sway towards the people they connect with. When remote, it's almost vital to make sure that you keep talking with people, and maintain communication through email or chatting. You need to make sure that your name also pops up on reports and projects so that management remembers that you exist. Again, if you haven't got the experience to know how to accomplish this, then you may have a rough time. For these kinds of reasons, I highly recommend at least starting out with either part time remote (a few days in the office and a few days remote), or working on a full remote company. I would especially avoid working from a different time zone when working with a company that is not fully remote until you have a lot of experience doing remote work.

by Izmaki 7y ago

codingdave 7y ago

I love it. I spread 8 hours of work each day across more like a 12 hour day (5 AM MST - 5 PM MST), giving me tons of breaks while actually improving my availability to my team worldwide, as I'm not restricted to an 8 hour window. I can be working with someone in NYC at their 7 AM, while still talking to people in Vancouver in the middle of their afternoon. And I still have breakfast with my kids, lunch with my wife, go for a walk each morning, and have as much of a free evening as any office worker. My coding is done on my own schedule, in my own space, with my own music, set up the way I want it. So I do recommend it, but it depends on who you work for - if they want you to sit at your desk for specific office hours, and be available instantly via Slack... or if they fill your entire day with calls, then you may as well go to an office, as that scenario I just described isn't possible.

tempguy9999 7y ago

I did a lot of it a few years ago. I liked it but you had to get out in the evening for social reasons. The hardest part of remote working is stopping. People assume it's difficult to get motivated, but in fact it's knowing when to stop is the problem because you don't have the external cues of people around you winding up, shutting down computers, seeing the office emptying, the commute back. All these are cues to say Stop, You're Done. Without them you can just keep going, and that's not good.

BorisBorisov91 7y ago
That is indeed the case. Some of my new teammates asked if we should have some time tracking software, to reassure me they are doing their job. But I told them that they have my trust since we have hired them, and if they deliver on the expectations they set, they will keep having our trust.

RussianCow 7y ago

Not OP, but I've been happily working 100% remotely for almost 4 years, so I'll share my two cents. Personally, I get a lot more work done from home than I ever did at an office. Offices have lots of distractions, and it's way too easy to waste time chatting up the person sitting next to you. (That might just be me, though; I'm pretty chatty.) Cutting out the commute is a big one as well, not just for the time saved but also money (gas and car depreciation) and mental energy (I found driving 45 minutes each way pretty draining). Plus, I have the flexibility to take a break and walk the dog, or run a quick errand, or play video games—things that wouldn't be feasible in an office. That said, there are distractions at home, too, and you have to have a lot of discipline. I got almost nothing done in my first couple months of remote work, and it took me close to a year to get into the flow and develop a structure that actually felt productive. (And then I had the opposite problem of working too much because it's harder to draw a line between work and play.) I do miss the coworker comradery sometimes, but my wife and I also have a pretty big group of close friends that live nearby, so I get to socialize with people outside of work fairly often. Working remotely is definitely not for everyone, but you would have to pay me a LOT of money to convince me to commute to an office every day.

BorisBorisov91 7y ago
OP agrees :D I've been working 4 years remotely and I wouldn't go switch to on site. We are building our company as a fully remote company.
- bitL 7y ago
  I worked for 7+ years remotely and turned down Google/Facebook/Uber/Amazon/Netflix because they wanted me to move. I'd rather spend two months on Hawaii than in some "cool open-plan office", distracted to death, getting sick around influenza periods and wasting time commuting in the process.
  - o-__-o 7y ago
    Ha if you think you won’t get the flu because you work remotely.. by not being in an office, herd protection actually goes down. I’ve had more illness working remotely than working in the office over my 20+ years. That said, you’re away from coworkers with kids. That’s the sickness that doesn’t help immunity. But once you have a kid of your own, all that worry goes out the window. Don’t mean to be a party pooper, but its all reality out here *also how does this remotemore site compare to triplebyte?

BorisBorisov91 7y ago

You should check our blog - the article about reasons to work remotely, and reasons to not work remotely. blog.remotemore.com

rhizome 7y ago

It really depends on the person. Some like it, some don't.

reaperducer 7y ago
I worked remotely for 10 years, then for the last five have been on-site. Now my company may send me back to remote work because of space constraints. I'm not sure how I feel about it. In some ways I'd love to go back to remoting because it offers a lot of freedoms that can't exist in an office with other people. But the last five years have taught me that there is a lot of value in structure, routine, and especially physical presence. The thing that tips the scales in favor of remoting for me is the lack of a commute. Commuting sucks and I hate it and it's terrible. I think if my office was a walk away (right now it's 50 minutes by car or 2h30m by bus), I would probably stick with working in the office. At least the coffee is free.
- codingdave 7y ago
  > ...structure, routine, and especially physical presence. I agree, but structure and routine can certainly exist remotely, and while physical presence is great, remote video calls aren't a bad 2nd place. You just need a team culture where poking someone on Slack and asking if they have a few minutes to chat is a normal thing. I'm on and off calls with various members of my team all the time.

Mountain_Skies 7y ago

I've been working remote for the past two years. It was a bit difficult starting but much of that was due to living in a studio size condo in the middle of a large city. I was surprised by the amount of distractions during work hours and since the amount of space was so small, it felt very cramped being in the same room for twenty or more hours a day. I had to get out after work even if just to walk down to the store and back. I lived in the middle of the city because I hate commuting. Stop and go traffic sucks the life out of me and the stress of making connections on public transportation created terrible bookends to each day so I always tried to live as close to work as possible. Having a remote job allowed me to move out on the exurban edge where I have a much larger space, it's quieter, and I'm close to the mountains so in the summer I can get in a hike after work when I want. I would have gone further out but internet connectivity quickly goes from 1Gig down to unreliable 30Meg on DSL with a small band of 300Meg service in-between. I do still make it a point to go out and socialize, which does get more challenging being in a less dense area where I haven't lived long enough to build up social connections. As far as work goes, most of the time it is better but being able to get a group together around a whiteboard can't be beat. Remote collaboration tools are constantly getting better and there are some pretty nice electronic whiteboard tools that would be great to have but the expense right now is too high. Hopefully in the years to come the price will go down. Overall I find working remotely to be one of the best benefits of my current job.

ConcernedCoder 7y ago

I just applied to job listings with 100% remote options, interviews, take home test projects, etc... got hired, still work for the same company... have moved out of the high-rent tech area to low cost of living area while doing so, COULD NOT BE HAPPIER.

BorisBorisov91 7y ago
Sounds great!

mikekchar 7y ago

Also not OP, but the biggest hurdle I've found is communication. I feel I'm quite good at communication and I do a lot of little things to make other people feel comfortable (like making sure that my work is always visible, discussing problems and decisions I'm making on group chat, etc, etc). One thing I didn't take into account when I first started doing remote, though, is that communication is a 2 way street. No matter how good you are at it, if the person you have to talk to can't deal with you being remote, it can be really difficult. It helps enormously if the company you work for is remote across the board because then everybody is struggling with the same issues. If you have a team where some people are remote and some people are local, the local people often don't realise problems. I've found most of the issues arise around meetings. I work 8 time zones away from the main office so it's an extra challenge. People often plan meetings at midnight my time (even regular weekly meetings), or they will forget to invite me. Sometimes people will make decisions in the hallway and forget that I wasn't in on it. Frequently people will optimise for being interrupted in person, but not online. If I need to talk to a stake holder, I'm often in a position where they have turned off notifications on chat and are 2 weeks behind on their email. I literally have to ping someone else and ask them to walk up to the stakeholder's office and knock on their door for me. Another serious problem is that people who don't live online often have trouble identifying with you as a person when you are remote. I've had instances where people will get really angry with me because they imagine I'm someone who I'm not. Although video conferencing helps, even 5 minutes in person can make a huge difference. Make sure that the company you are doing remote work for has budgeted for some face time every year. Also realise that this means you almost certainly have to travel a bit, unless you live close to the office. Again with respect to having a remote job in a not-completely-remote office is that you are going to be on an uneven playing field with your colleagues. I've had a PGM once literally try to sabotage me. It's no fun and the worst part is that there is almost nothing you can do. It is insanely easy for a single person to engineer it so that you are mostly powerless. You really need to be able to trust your co-workers in a way that you don't need to when on-site. This is one of the reasons I wouldn't recommend it for someone who isn't already fairly experienced with politics -- you need to be able to keep your cool and wait for your opportunities. The other main downside is that you are almost certainly going to be at a disadvantage for promotions, etc. Management types trust people who they can see and talk to every day. No matter how good a job you are doing, things are going to sway towards the people they connect with. When remote, it's almost vital to make sure that you keep talking with people, and maintain communication through email or chatting. You need to make sure that your name also pops up on reports and projects so that management remembers that you exist. Again, if you haven't got the experience to know how to accomplish this, then you may have a rough time. For these kinds of reasons, I highly recommend at least starting out with either part time remote (a few days in the office and a few days remote), or working on a full remote company. I would especially avoid working from a different time zone when working with a company that is not fully remote until you have a lot of experience doing remote work.