14 ms·

My Experience as a Remote Worker

192 points by joshwcomeau 7y ago

tiagopc 7y ago
Interesting article. I will start working full remote starting next year and I had some of the misconceptions mentioned. Can't wait for the next article!
JoeAltmaier 7y ago
I work remotely as a contractor. Its both similar and very different from the OPs observations. For one, we're all senior so mentors and contacts with other groups are far less important. Communication remains key however.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Often if you're senior, contacts with other people can actually be more important. But, in that case, with a large organization they're often going to be pretty spread out physically. That's sort of my situation. I do a lot of individual contributor work that's both solo and working with others. But those others are largely either in other offices or working remotely.
roland35 7y ago
This post has some great points about remote work that make sense based on what I've learned from speaking with remote workers . I would love to find a remote engineering job but I have run into 2 obstacles: First, I believe some remote companies like to see some remote experience to know that you can be successful on a distributed team. This is a tough catch-22! I have asked my manager at my normal office job for opportunities to work remotely 1/5 days but I am not sure if this is adequate experience. Second, it is much harder to find remote work for embedded/hardware engineering (my background). Obviously it is different when actual hardware is involved as it is more convenient to be in the same physical location, but the advantages of a remote hardware team should be the same as a remote software team! If anyone knows of remote friendly hardware companies I would love to know!
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  Hardware is tricky. I work in medical devices and just went remote due to my partner's new job and move. There are a lot of things I can't do anymore. I used to be able to walk over to another desk and borrow $20000 test equipment for a day. Not anymore. I am sure you can do hardware dev remotely to some degree but there is a limit if you need expensive equipment. You can't just build a $500000 lab for every dev. Software is much easier that way. I am lucky that most of my work always has been pure software so I will probably try to minimize tasks that need special hardware.
  - roland35 7y ago
    Thanks for sharing your experience! Obviously with specialized hardware remote work isn't feasible, but I think with a lot of things (like smart home, iot, etc) the focus is on the firmware and not so much the hardware. I do think it may be necessary to switch over to software development but that would be a tough transition!
    - WWLink 7y ago
      Luckily that's been the case for me. I work primarily on-site, but can work from home pretty easily since the hardware I test on is easily reachable from VMs I can remote into.
    - coldpie 7y ago
      It's not hardware, but if operating systems-level programming is an interesting compromise, we're hiring remote workers for the Wine project :-) It occasionally dives down to stuff like HID, USB, Linux kernel, and X11/Wayland programming.
      - Ididntdothis 7y ago
        This sounds like an interesting area to work ok. I think I would enjoy it more than the medical stuff.
- NickBusey 7y ago
jhc_za 7y ago
Nice yoyos!
- joshwcomeau 7y ago
  Thanks! :D Unsolicited collection shot: https://i.imgur.com/H1x5k9Y.jpg https://i.imgur.com/H1x5k9Y.jpg
  - edanm 7y ago
    Oh nice! Never got too far into Yoyo-ing but always wanted to! Are some of those from One Drop?
    - joshwcomeau 7y ago
      It's a fun hobby =) works great as a software dev as well, to keep your hands busy while your brain works through a problem. A few of them are OneDrop, including a Kuntosh near the front, and a Summit a bit further back :D
      - edanm 7y ago
        Yeah, I tried to get in it for a bit, but ultimately started getting more serious about Speedcubing (Rubik's cubes). Even easier (or at least lazier) way to keep your hands busy :) I do have a couple of "serious" Yoyos, including a OneDrop, that I pick up once in a while, maybe one day I'll get back into it for real.
        jblakey 7y ago
        Kuhn or bust!:)
  - roland35 7y ago
    You would have been the coolest kid at my middle school! Yoyos were huge back in the late 90s, I do miss them sometimes. Way cooler than pogs.
ex_ex_nihilo 7y ago
I would never go back to commuting to the same place every day. It's cool that he does the coworking thing, but I've been working remotely for 6+ years fulltime (and I have other periods of 2-3 years at a time working remotely interspersed through my 20+ year career in software), and I would not give it up for anything less than a C-level role at this point. Most of the benefit to me is the lack of routine. Routine stifles my creativity. I don't want to go to the same place or do the same thing every day.
- davidweatherall 7y ago
  Were you sociable before going remote? - My biggest issue when I have periods of work from home from my job is getting very lonely from not speaking to anyone in person all day. But I imagine if I was a fully remote worker I would make active changes in my life to see more people every day.
  - slothtrop 7y ago
    That is the harshest adjustment. I had to make accommodations as my mood plummeted immediately. I work every morning at the coffee shop which gives me some social exposure and pseudo interaction. Merely being around others, and bright light, helps. I don't have to rely on meetups much anymore, but that's a very useful tool. I particularly enjoyed pick-up sports, non-fiction discussion, etc.
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    “But I imagine if I was a fully remote worker I would make active changes in my life to see more people every day.” That’s one of the biggest improvements in quality of life when I work remotely. I find working in an office (especially open space or cubes) very exhausting due to noise and lack of privacy. So I come home at night totally exhausted and do nothing. When I work from home I naturally feel motivated to do something after work which I find very positive.
  - matwood 7y ago
    It will force you to find social outside of work, but that's a good thing to do in general. Once you start getting out the house at what is normally work hours you'll start to meet other people who work remote. But, and this can be hard for people, you have to make an effort to be social. The default that someone works with you they will likely have to talk to you is no longer an option.
slavapestov 7y ago
The important thing about working from home for me is that I get to spend more time with my 2 year old. Both from not having to commute and also by getting to see him every time I get up to take a break. If I worked 9-6 at an office with an hour commute each way I’d only see him for an hour every day.
- take_a_breath 7y ago
  Not to diminish your experience, but a lot of your "calculation" seems to exists because of assumptions you have made. Isn't 9-5 the typical working day? Why does your commute need to be 1 hour each way? I work a 9-5 with a 40 minute commute each way. That 40 minutes includes 20 minutes of walking which lessens my need for other exercise. I get plenty of time with my 17-month old. 6-8 in the morning and 5:30-7:30 at night. On the flip side, my wife works from home and loves her breaks when she can spend time with our child. She is also often lamenting a lack of time for exercise and social activities.
  - odysseus 7y ago
    Not the original poster, but it's easy for a commute to be 1 hour each way even if you live very close to work. I'm about 18 minutes away from the office by car, but by bus, it takes about 1 hour or more, and monthly parking costs are insane. (several hundreds of dollars per month) As for your wife, I may be misunderstanding if she works from home as a Mom or remotely, but my wife works from home as a stay-at-home-mom and exercises almost every day with two young ones. She takes long walks with the children, one in a stroller and the other in a front pack. The other thing she does is a variety of workout videos. Our oldest actually does some of the workout with her and encourages her with the same phrases the people on the workout video use. (ex. "train your body!") It's cute.
  - gknoy 7y ago
    I had a 10 minute commute before I started working from home. The big thing that lets me see my kids more is that I am _already home_ when they get back from school in the afternoon. Previously, I only would see them when I got back home from the office, right at dinner time.
hoerzu 7y ago
Just started working remote in Tel Aviv and I must say it's a life challenging. Without a boss so to say everything comes down to your decision.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
brookhaven_dude 7y ago
Any pointers on how to go about looking for a remote job?
- pawelk 7y ago
  I have landed my previous and current job, both remote, via Stack Overflow Careers. On the first one I was approached by a recruiter, for the second I have applied myself after narrowing down some search results.
- clarry 7y ago
  You could look for any job. If you have a skillset some employer really wants, they will think about it if you let them know that you'd be interested in working for them, remote. Of course you risk running into a company that isn't very remote friendly (and the experience can be painful e.g. due to poor communication), but it's surprising how many companies that don't really advertise themselves as remote companies have or have had remote employees.
Random_Person 7y ago
I work from home one day a week, and honestly, I'm not sure I'd want to do more than a day or two each week. It's my most productive day by far, but the isolation feels unsustainable for me.
- maccard 7y ago
  I completely agree, and I think it's the right balance for me.
- dv_dt 7y ago
  Speaking of one day per week, I've been thinking that I want to start that if just to do something for the climate strikes (even if it's to just one day to not be commuting).
- sailfast 7y ago
  Working from home one day a week likely means that your company / colleagues are not set up to actually behave and interact with you normally during that day. Alternatively, if you're set up to work remotely every day, you come to work the same way you would in an office and you don't "wait until so-and-so is back in person" to get stuff done. One day a week might be a good experiment, but it's definitely not an indication of the way you would be working if it were full time and it's definitely not the same thing as remote work in my experience. Until everyone you work with works remotely (or "like they are remote") it is difficult to simulate what that work can look like when it gets going well.
- SkyPuncher 7y ago
  Having the right culture at the company is hugely important. Also, one day per week is extremely challenging. I just started a new role where video calling is engrained in communication. If you're going to be hashing things out on Slack for 10+ minutes, you might as well get on a video call for half the time.
therealmarv 7y ago
Niiice CSS styling for a personal blog! Really a pleasure to look at. Mind if I ask: Is it completely homebrewed or based on some theme out there?
- joshwcomeau 7y ago
  Afraid it's built from scratch, no theme available =( It's open-source if you're curious about anything! Though it's quite messy. https://github.com/joshwcomeau/blog https://github.com/joshwcomeau/blog
  - odysseus 7y ago
    Why the web font though? I would have liked to read your article in a standard font already built into my system. Something that I'm used to reading in, ex. Helvetica, Arial, Georgia, etc. Instead, I get this slightly-off font that isn't that widely used, and have to switch to Reader mode to get a nicer built-in font.
curioussavage 7y ago
I've been remote for only 3 months but I'm totally sure it's for me. In my case the alternative was two hours a day on BART. Now I get to see my kids way more. I guess I kind of understand single people who like being at the office all day but at the same time many of them seem to act like work is most of their social life. That seems bad to me, So your whole social life is at the mercy of your employer? What happens when you get laid off? In any case just like that guy I have options if I want to be more social. I got a house a short bike ride away from some co working spaces so it's an option. Totally agree about it being about choice which is a breath of fresh air. Companies in big cities like SF seem like they are run with single college grads in mind.
- chakerb 7y ago
  Office gives you an environment where you can meet people that you can be friends with. Something a bar/coffee shop..etc, cannot provide easily. My dearest friends are my coworkers. I have been working remotely for two months now and even though it's a great experience, I miss the occasional chit-chat or coffee. I still do that after work, it's just harder.
  - Dumblydorr 7y ago
    Why can't you make friends at a bar or coffee shop? If you're working 40 hours in the same place as people, I doubt it matters if it's an office or a cafe, you're bound to get to know people unless you're very shy.
  - mihaaly 7y ago
    Private life gives you an environment where you can meet people that you can be friends with too, maybe more than the office where you have to do several other things too. Like work.
- 121789 7y ago
  Parents often seem to be the most ardent proponents of remote work, This makes sense, because someone in a relationship with kids spends significant amounts of time with the people they love every day by default. Going to an office just takes away from that. Single people spend time alone for most of the day by default, so I don't think it's surprising at all that they would prefer to be around people most of the day before going back to an empty home. Most of us crave social interaction. All of the suggested alternatives to the office for socializing (coffee shops, coworking spaces, bars) are in general just worse, more expensive versions of a company-provided office.
aantix 7y ago
Any company that openly advertises remote work as a benefit is going to discount your salary. Imagine delivering a million dollar feature, working nights and weekends, but somehow it's discounted because of where you live? Across the river from where I live the cost of living is 5% lower - if I happen to work from there, are the features I'm delivering magically worth 5% less? According to companies like Buffer, Gitlab, Stichfix, the answer is yes. Push back on these salary discounts and double down on the value you provide. P.S. The are more remote opportunities out there than you realize. If there's a job that's a good fit for you, regardless of city, find the CTO or VP of Engineering on Linkedin, find their email on Hunter.io and directly ask if remote is a possibility. Sometimes they will say YES even though it wasn't openly advertised.
- lukifer 7y ago
  It's basic supply and demand: if hiring remote, you're drawing from a larger talent pool, and therefore increasing supply. In theory, this works the other direction (remote workers have access to more employers), but the reality is that the supply/demand ratio for devs is radically distorted in the Bay Area (and other tech hubs relative to the rest of the US, and the US relative to worldwide), so it isn't symmetric. To flip it around: if I'm purchasing labor, why should I pay a 200% premium because the employee is located in SF rather than Nebraska? If you're trying to hire top talent, one has to consider SF salaries (offset by high cost of living) as BATNA. But if you find someone willing to do the job at lower cost (factoring in lower cost of living, and location/schedule flexibility as a form of compensation), what's the problem?
  - aantix 7y ago
    I understand the business's motives. I've been on both sides of the hiring process and to get a solid candidate into advanced stages of the interview process isn't trivial. Time is always an issue - time to screen resumes, engineering time for phone screens, for online interviews, engineering time for onsite interviews all the while continuing to release new features. While the pool of candidates is virtually infinite, time isn't. And so for a solid engineering candidate, that works to your advantage. So yes, push back on discounted salary requirements. Or reach a middle-ground - offer a short term contract up front to ensure "you're a good fit for each other" and so that you can properly demonstrate your skillet. And then kill every task you're assigned. Protect your value.
lovetocode 7y ago
I have worked remotely everyday for the past three years. It has been a horrible experience for me. I am horribly depressed and feel stuck in my current position. I moved to a town with no tech work but I cannot leave because of my spouse's job and I don't want to move my kids yet again. I miss my 45 minute commute and my cubicle.
- huherto 7y ago
  Could you walk/run/bike around the neighborhood before going to work to simulate your commute ? Can you create an good work space in your house or nearby ?
- Dumblydorr 7y ago
  Can you occasionally head to the office for a few days? Work trips? Coworking space once a week? Seems you'd benefit from mixing it up.
kyberias 7y ago
People really talk about careers after three years in a field?
- blisterpeanuts 7y ago
  If I recall correctly, he said 3 years on site, then 3 years remote, so six years total. But I do admit I was taken aback that he would call himself a "senior dev" after only six years out of school. Admittedly, however, after six years at one company, he's probably considered a senior contributor.
  - bnchrch 7y ago
    I think it's worth mentioning that not all years and all people are equal. For example this is the author speaking at ReactEurope over a year ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2d9rw9RwyE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2d9rw9RwyE I would argue he's probably more "senior" then a lot of people with twice the "years" he has.
d883kd8 7y ago
One thing I rarely see in these discussions is how I feel: I don't WANT to be friends with my co-workers. I don't want my social circle to consist of people with whom I'm interdependent for my livelihood and who share a very similar educational and professional background. I LIKE keeping the "professional" folks at arms reach, neatly contained by a screen in one room of my house.
- mihaaly 7y ago
  Agreed. Although I am not keeping arms length I am not reliant on office life either, not in the need of office relationships beyond professional, if it comes then it comes, if not then not. Most of my friends happen to be from other places than my actual job and I do not feel I miss anything. Friendships depends on personalities not on my occupation.
- clarry 7y ago
  I wouldn't mind having co-workers as friends, but truth to be told, I've never been able to form meaningful relationships with them. They're just people I get along with and that's all. Past work hours, I've never really interacted with colleagues. And whatever limited interaction I had always ended when I changed jobs, so yeah... I need to find my friends elsewhere. Simply working at a place where I'm surrounded by people is no solution to loneliness.
mihaaly 7y ago
Interestingly I feel a weird insistence towards location based software development in Europe, at least in the area I am active in (engineering design software for desktop). In the past 6 months while looking for a new place - partly because of the obsession of our COO on lengthy and tedious daily commuting regardless of actual needs, just for the sake of it, but for other reasons too - whenever I found a position in an other city/country that was matching my capabilities, experience and interest very well after the first very enthusiastic round from the recruiter when the request of remote (or even remote dominant) work emerged they took a U turn saying on site presence is paramount so I will not fit. Reasons span legal through organizational to company tradition. I do not get it. Is the geographic location of making a software sooo much important? It is that very allocated desk and chair that will ensure a good product delivery so relocation of family, searching for accommodation and accepting a specific allocated city to live in and daily commuting in the overcrowded transportation systems must be mandated for a new workforce? I am ok that managers have own style and some can only function face to face but to find zero number of those willing to accept remote workers because they are agile or what not is very strange to me. Oh, btw, I worked remotely for many years earlier in total, successfully, was that just a one of experience then?
znpy 7y ago
Imho the most important line in the article is: "If you're providing Bay Area value, you deserve Bay Area dollars!" Every other kind of corporate propaganda (cost of living adjustment or whatever) is BS.
- llampx 7y ago
  I'd like to see if the companies accept less money for their products or services from people based in lower-earning parts of the world. Or less VC capital.
  - mihaaly 7y ago
    Actually it is quite common practice having diversified cost model for the different geographic regions, which is a controversial practice on its own. Just like several other aspects of commerce.
luord 7y ago
The first paragraph is my experience pretty much exactly. I haven't rented an office yet, but it's only a matter of time, I feel.

192 points by joshwcomeau 7y ago

Interesting article. I will start working full remote starting next year and I had some of the misconceptions mentioned. Can't wait for the next article!

JoeAltmaier 7y ago

I work remotely as a contractor. Its both similar and very different from the OPs observations. For one, we're all senior so mentors and contacts with other groups are far less important. Communication remains key however.

ghaff 7y ago
Often if you're senior, contacts with other people can actually be more important. But, in that case, with a large organization they're often going to be pretty spread out physically. That's sort of my situation. I do a lot of individual contributor work that's both solo and working with others. But those others are largely either in other offices or working remotely.

roland35 7y ago

This post has some great points about remote work that make sense based on what I've learned from speaking with remote workers . I would love to find a remote engineering job but I have run into 2 obstacles: First, I believe some remote companies like to see some remote experience to know that you can be successful on a distributed team. This is a tough catch-22! I have asked my manager at my normal office job for opportunities to work remotely 1/5 days but I am not sure if this is adequate experience. Second, it is much harder to find remote work for embedded/hardware engineering (my background). Obviously it is different when actual hardware is involved as it is more convenient to be in the same physical location, but the advantages of a remote hardware team should be the same as a remote software team! If anyone knows of remote friendly hardware companies I would love to know!

Ididntdothis 7y ago
Hardware is tricky. I work in medical devices and just went remote due to my partner's new job and move. There are a lot of things I can't do anymore. I used to be able to walk over to another desk and borrow $20000 test equipment for a day. Not anymore. I am sure you can do hardware dev remotely to some degree but there is a limit if you need expensive equipment. You can't just build a $500000 lab for every dev. Software is much easier that way. I am lucky that most of my work always has been pure software so I will probably try to minimize tasks that need special hardware.
- roland35 7y ago
  Thanks for sharing your experience! Obviously with specialized hardware remote work isn't feasible, but I think with a lot of things (like smart home, iot, etc) the focus is on the firmware and not so much the hardware. I do think it may be necessary to switch over to software development but that would be a tough transition!
  - WWLink 7y ago
    Luckily that's been the case for me. I work primarily on-site, but can work from home pretty easily since the hardware I test on is easily reachable from VMs I can remote into.
  - coldpie 7y ago
    It's not hardware, but if operating systems-level programming is an interesting compromise, we're hiring remote workers for the Wine project :-) It occasionally dives down to stuff like HID, USB, Linux kernel, and X11/Wayland programming.
    - Ididntdothis 7y ago
      This sounds like an interesting area to work ok. I think I would enjoy it more than the medical stuff.
NickBusey 7y ago

jhc_za 7y ago

Nice yoyos!

joshwcomeau 7y ago
Thanks! :D Unsolicited collection shot: https://i.imgur.com/H1x5k9Y.jpg https://i.imgur.com/H1x5k9Y.jpg
- edanm 7y ago
  Oh nice! Never got too far into Yoyo-ing but always wanted to! Are some of those from One Drop?
  - joshwcomeau 7y ago
    It's a fun hobby =) works great as a software dev as well, to keep your hands busy while your brain works through a problem. A few of them are OneDrop, including a Kuntosh near the front, and a Summit a bit further back :D
    - edanm 7y ago
      Yeah, I tried to get in it for a bit, but ultimately started getting more serious about Speedcubing (Rubik's cubes). Even easier (or at least lazier) way to keep your hands busy :) I do have a couple of "serious" Yoyos, including a OneDrop, that I pick up once in a while, maybe one day I'll get back into it for real.
      - jblakey 7y ago
        Kuhn or bust!:)
- roland35 7y ago
  You would have been the coolest kid at my middle school! Yoyos were huge back in the late 90s, I do miss them sometimes. Way cooler than pogs.

ex_ex_nihilo 7y ago

I would never go back to commuting to the same place every day. It's cool that he does the coworking thing, but I've been working remotely for 6+ years fulltime (and I have other periods of 2-3 years at a time working remotely interspersed through my 20+ year career in software), and I would not give it up for anything less than a C-level role at this point. Most of the benefit to me is the lack of routine. Routine stifles my creativity. I don't want to go to the same place or do the same thing every day.

davidweatherall 7y ago
Were you sociable before going remote? - My biggest issue when I have periods of work from home from my job is getting very lonely from not speaking to anyone in person all day. But I imagine if I was a fully remote worker I would make active changes in my life to see more people every day.
- slothtrop 7y ago
  That is the harshest adjustment. I had to make accommodations as my mood plummeted immediately. I work every morning at the coffee shop which gives me some social exposure and pseudo interaction. Merely being around others, and bright light, helps. I don't have to rely on meetups much anymore, but that's a very useful tool. I particularly enjoyed pick-up sports, non-fiction discussion, etc.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  “But I imagine if I was a fully remote worker I would make active changes in my life to see more people every day.” That’s one of the biggest improvements in quality of life when I work remotely. I find working in an office (especially open space or cubes) very exhausting due to noise and lack of privacy. So I come home at night totally exhausted and do nothing. When I work from home I naturally feel motivated to do something after work which I find very positive.
- matwood 7y ago
  It will force you to find social outside of work, but that's a good thing to do in general. Once you start getting out the house at what is normally work hours you'll start to meet other people who work remote. But, and this can be hard for people, you have to make an effort to be social. The default that someone works with you they will likely have to talk to you is no longer an option.

slavapestov 7y ago

The important thing about working from home for me is that I get to spend more time with my 2 year old. Both from not having to commute and also by getting to see him every time I get up to take a break. If I worked 9-6 at an office with an hour commute each way I’d only see him for an hour every day.

take_a_breath 7y ago
Not to diminish your experience, but a lot of your "calculation" seems to exists because of assumptions you have made. Isn't 9-5 the typical working day? Why does your commute need to be 1 hour each way? I work a 9-5 with a 40 minute commute each way. That 40 minutes includes 20 minutes of walking which lessens my need for other exercise. I get plenty of time with my 17-month old. 6-8 in the morning and 5:30-7:30 at night. On the flip side, my wife works from home and loves her breaks when she can spend time with our child. She is also often lamenting a lack of time for exercise and social activities.
- odysseus 7y ago
  Not the original poster, but it's easy for a commute to be 1 hour each way even if you live very close to work. I'm about 18 minutes away from the office by car, but by bus, it takes about 1 hour or more, and monthly parking costs are insane. (several hundreds of dollars per month) As for your wife, I may be misunderstanding if she works from home as a Mom or remotely, but my wife works from home as a stay-at-home-mom and exercises almost every day with two young ones. She takes long walks with the children, one in a stroller and the other in a front pack. The other thing she does is a variety of workout videos. Our oldest actually does some of the workout with her and encourages her with the same phrases the people on the workout video use. (ex. "train your body!") It's cute.
- gknoy 7y ago
  I had a 10 minute commute before I started working from home. The big thing that lets me see my kids more is that I am _already home_ when they get back from school in the afternoon. Previously, I only would see them when I got back home from the office, right at dinner time.

hoerzu 7y ago

Just started working remote in Tel Aviv and I must say it's a life challenging. Without a boss so to say everything comes down to your decision.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

brookhaven_dude 7y ago

Any pointers on how to go about looking for a remote job?

pawelk 7y ago
I have landed my previous and current job, both remote, via Stack Overflow Careers. On the first one I was approached by a recruiter, for the second I have applied myself after narrowing down some search results.
clarry 7y ago
You could look for any job. If you have a skillset some employer really wants, they will think about it if you let them know that you'd be interested in working for them, remote. Of course you risk running into a company that isn't very remote friendly (and the experience can be painful e.g. due to poor communication), but it's surprising how many companies that don't really advertise themselves as remote companies have or have had remote employees.

Random_Person 7y ago

I work from home one day a week, and honestly, I'm not sure I'd want to do more than a day or two each week. It's my most productive day by far, but the isolation feels unsustainable for me.

maccard 7y ago
I completely agree, and I think it's the right balance for me.
dv_dt 7y ago
Speaking of one day per week, I've been thinking that I want to start that if just to do something for the climate strikes (even if it's to just one day to not be commuting).
sailfast 7y ago
Working from home one day a week likely means that your company / colleagues are not set up to actually behave and interact with you normally during that day. Alternatively, if you're set up to work remotely every day, you come to work the same way you would in an office and you don't "wait until so-and-so is back in person" to get stuff done. One day a week might be a good experiment, but it's definitely not an indication of the way you would be working if it were full time and it's definitely not the same thing as remote work in my experience. Until everyone you work with works remotely (or "like they are remote") it is difficult to simulate what that work can look like when it gets going well.
SkyPuncher 7y ago
Having the right culture at the company is hugely important. Also, one day per week is extremely challenging. I just started a new role where video calling is engrained in communication. If you're going to be hashing things out on Slack for 10+ minutes, you might as well get on a video call for half the time.

therealmarv 7y ago

Niiice CSS styling for a personal blog! Really a pleasure to look at. Mind if I ask: Is it completely homebrewed or based on some theme out there?

joshwcomeau 7y ago
Afraid it's built from scratch, no theme available =( It's open-source if you're curious about anything! Though it's quite messy. https://github.com/joshwcomeau/blog https://github.com/joshwcomeau/blog
- odysseus 7y ago
  Why the web font though? I would have liked to read your article in a standard font already built into my system. Something that I'm used to reading in, ex. Helvetica, Arial, Georgia, etc. Instead, I get this slightly-off font that isn't that widely used, and have to switch to Reader mode to get a nicer built-in font.

curioussavage 7y ago

I've been remote for only 3 months but I'm totally sure it's for me. In my case the alternative was two hours a day on BART. Now I get to see my kids way more. I guess I kind of understand single people who like being at the office all day but at the same time many of them seem to act like work is most of their social life. That seems bad to me, So your whole social life is at the mercy of your employer? What happens when you get laid off? In any case just like that guy I have options if I want to be more social. I got a house a short bike ride away from some co working spaces so it's an option. Totally agree about it being about choice which is a breath of fresh air. Companies in big cities like SF seem like they are run with single college grads in mind.

chakerb 7y ago
Office gives you an environment where you can meet people that you can be friends with. Something a bar/coffee shop..etc, cannot provide easily. My dearest friends are my coworkers. I have been working remotely for two months now and even though it's a great experience, I miss the occasional chit-chat or coffee. I still do that after work, it's just harder.
- Dumblydorr 7y ago
  Why can't you make friends at a bar or coffee shop? If you're working 40 hours in the same place as people, I doubt it matters if it's an office or a cafe, you're bound to get to know people unless you're very shy.
- mihaaly 7y ago
  Private life gives you an environment where you can meet people that you can be friends with too, maybe more than the office where you have to do several other things too. Like work.
121789 7y ago
Parents often seem to be the most ardent proponents of remote work, This makes sense, because someone in a relationship with kids spends significant amounts of time with the people they love every day by default. Going to an office just takes away from that. Single people spend time alone for most of the day by default, so I don't think it's surprising at all that they would prefer to be around people most of the day before going back to an empty home. Most of us crave social interaction. All of the suggested alternatives to the office for socializing (coffee shops, coworking spaces, bars) are in general just worse, more expensive versions of a company-provided office.

aantix 7y ago

Any company that openly advertises remote work as a benefit is going to discount your salary. Imagine delivering a million dollar feature, working nights and weekends, but somehow it's discounted because of where you live? Across the river from where I live the cost of living is 5% lower - if I happen to work from there, are the features I'm delivering magically worth 5% less? According to companies like Buffer, Gitlab, Stichfix, the answer is yes. Push back on these salary discounts and double down on the value you provide. P.S. The are more remote opportunities out there than you realize. If there's a job that's a good fit for you, regardless of city, find the CTO or VP of Engineering on Linkedin, find their email on Hunter.io and directly ask if remote is a possibility. Sometimes they will say YES even though it wasn't openly advertised.

lukifer 7y ago
It's basic supply and demand: if hiring remote, you're drawing from a larger talent pool, and therefore increasing supply. In theory, this works the other direction (remote workers have access to more employers), but the reality is that the supply/demand ratio for devs is radically distorted in the Bay Area (and other tech hubs relative to the rest of the US, and the US relative to worldwide), so it isn't symmetric. To flip it around: if I'm purchasing labor, why should I pay a 200% premium because the employee is located in SF rather than Nebraska? If you're trying to hire top talent, one has to consider SF salaries (offset by high cost of living) as BATNA. But if you find someone willing to do the job at lower cost (factoring in lower cost of living, and location/schedule flexibility as a form of compensation), what's the problem?
- aantix 7y ago
  I understand the business's motives. I've been on both sides of the hiring process and to get a solid candidate into advanced stages of the interview process isn't trivial. Time is always an issue - time to screen resumes, engineering time for phone screens, for online interviews, engineering time for onsite interviews all the while continuing to release new features. While the pool of candidates is virtually infinite, time isn't. And so for a solid engineering candidate, that works to your advantage. So yes, push back on discounted salary requirements. Or reach a middle-ground - offer a short term contract up front to ensure "you're a good fit for each other" and so that you can properly demonstrate your skillet. And then kill every task you're assigned. Protect your value.

lovetocode 7y ago

I have worked remotely everyday for the past three years. It has been a horrible experience for me. I am horribly depressed and feel stuck in my current position. I moved to a town with no tech work but I cannot leave because of my spouse's job and I don't want to move my kids yet again. I miss my 45 minute commute and my cubicle.

huherto 7y ago
Could you walk/run/bike around the neighborhood before going to work to simulate your commute ? Can you create an good work space in your house or nearby ?
Dumblydorr 7y ago
Can you occasionally head to the office for a few days? Work trips? Coworking space once a week? Seems you'd benefit from mixing it up.

kyberias 7y ago

People really talk about careers after three years in a field?

blisterpeanuts 7y ago
If I recall correctly, he said 3 years on site, then 3 years remote, so six years total. But I do admit I was taken aback that he would call himself a "senior dev" after only six years out of school. Admittedly, however, after six years at one company, he's probably considered a senior contributor.
- bnchrch 7y ago
  I think it's worth mentioning that not all years and all people are equal. For example this is the author speaking at ReactEurope over a year ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2d9rw9RwyE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2d9rw9RwyE I would argue he's probably more "senior" then a lot of people with twice the "years" he has.

d883kd8 7y ago

One thing I rarely see in these discussions is how I feel: I don't WANT to be friends with my co-workers. I don't want my social circle to consist of people with whom I'm interdependent for my livelihood and who share a very similar educational and professional background. I LIKE keeping the "professional" folks at arms reach, neatly contained by a screen in one room of my house.

mihaaly 7y ago
Agreed. Although I am not keeping arms length I am not reliant on office life either, not in the need of office relationships beyond professional, if it comes then it comes, if not then not. Most of my friends happen to be from other places than my actual job and I do not feel I miss anything. Friendships depends on personalities not on my occupation.
clarry 7y ago
I wouldn't mind having co-workers as friends, but truth to be told, I've never been able to form meaningful relationships with them. They're just people I get along with and that's all. Past work hours, I've never really interacted with colleagues. And whatever limited interaction I had always ended when I changed jobs, so yeah... I need to find my friends elsewhere. Simply working at a place where I'm surrounded by people is no solution to loneliness.

mihaaly 7y ago

Interestingly I feel a weird insistence towards location based software development in Europe, at least in the area I am active in (engineering design software for desktop). In the past 6 months while looking for a new place - partly because of the obsession of our COO on lengthy and tedious daily commuting regardless of actual needs, just for the sake of it, but for other reasons too - whenever I found a position in an other city/country that was matching my capabilities, experience and interest very well after the first very enthusiastic round from the recruiter when the request of remote (or even remote dominant) work emerged they took a U turn saying on site presence is paramount so I will not fit. Reasons span legal through organizational to company tradition. I do not get it. Is the geographic location of making a software sooo much important? It is that very allocated desk and chair that will ensure a good product delivery so relocation of family, searching for accommodation and accepting a specific allocated city to live in and daily commuting in the overcrowded transportation systems must be mandated for a new workforce? I am ok that managers have own style and some can only function face to face but to find zero number of those willing to accept remote workers because they are agile or what not is very strange to me. Oh, btw, I worked remotely for many years earlier in total, successfully, was that just a one of experience then?

znpy 7y ago

Imho the most important line in the article is: "If you're providing Bay Area value, you deserve Bay Area dollars!" Every other kind of corporate propaganda (cost of living adjustment or whatever) is BS.

llampx 7y ago
I'd like to see if the companies accept less money for their products or services from people based in lower-earning parts of the world. Or less VC capital.
- mihaaly 7y ago
  Actually it is quite common practice having diversified cost model for the different geographic regions, which is a controversial practice on its own. Just like several other aspects of commerce.

luord 7y ago

The first paragraph is my experience pretty much exactly. I haven't rented an office yet, but it's only a matter of time, I feel.