16 ms·

Working from home – things no one talks about

226 points by fallenhitokiri 7y ago

teunispeters 7y ago
Good camera suggestions there. Nothing else there should be a surprise. Although honestly, a webcam on a laptop should be fine too, or tablet. But headphones are a really good idea for conferences.
planetzero 7y ago
I've been working from home for a decade. I've worked at many companies and been part of the hiring process for remote developers. Most people just don't have the discipline to work remotely. I think productivity will be reduced overall and it might prevent remote working in the future.
- petra 7y ago
  //Most people just don't have the discipline to work remotely What works for people without that discipline ? Why can't the boss just tell at them over Skype ?
  - allovernow 7y ago
    >What works for people without that discipline ? Amphetamines. Seriously. Prescription, of course. Coffee is a distant second. Thiobromine can be better for some people - you can get supplements it you can buy brewing cacao if you want to experiment with a potentially tasty drink. Yeah, sure, there are behavioral interventions but for a guy like me, if I can just do it with a reasonably pill I'm willing to take the risk. Your risk tolerance may vary. Meditation is a good alternative but it takes time and, ironically, discipline. Incidentally it may be the reverse, that people who are good at meditating are those predisposed to having good discipline!
- fallenhitokiri 7y ago
  I agree being remote is not for everyone. And not everyone wants to be remote. I also agree that productivity will likely drop, but the remote aspect will only be one of the many reasons considering what's going on right now. I assume any productivity drop during this time will be brought up when discussing remote, ignoring the circumstances and that it was basically enforced without any preparation.
- zeta0134 7y ago
  The two most important things for me so far have been: - Keep a morning routine and a regular schedule - Regularly check in with my colleagues, and post progress updates. For my own personal anxiety, I'll not allow myself to feel guilty if I'm being slow or unproductive, (even in the office, sometimes the energy's just not there today) but I will allow myself to feel guilty if I'm failing to keep regular contact with my teammates. Without doing this, it's far too easy to slip into a rabbit hole researching something interesting, but ultimately not work related. Or, y'know, refresh the HN homepage for an hour and get nothing done.
- friendlybus 7y ago
  The virus will associate working from home with a disease pandemic. It already is killing the work from home culture. It's okay if the majority go to an office, the problems arise when the indifferent demonize working from home.
- lsc 7y ago
  I'm one of those people who lacks the discipline. I live with someone who works remote full time, and they have that discipline, and are in fact way more productive working from home. But me? I have no problem doing well in the office, but all the full work from home jobs I've had? I've been a miserable failure. I'm worried 'cause my performance is going to drop a lot right as we head into the third recession of my career. It really varies by personality. Some people do a lot better by themselves. But if you hire me? It's worth paying for the office space.
- finaliteration 7y ago
  I really believe that working remotely or from home is a skill that needs to be developed over time in most cases. There may be some people who are just naturally better at it, but the first time I had a remote job we went from five days in the office to five days at home abruptly and I was horrible at it and inefficient at my job. With my current job we started doing 1-2 days of working from home a week over the last year or so. Doing it part time has given me a chance to develop the skills and space needed to be successful and now that we are being pushed into it full time I feel a lot more prepared for it. I do agree, though, that for most people who aren’t used to it or haven’t had a chance to develop the skills needed it’s going to be a rough transition and productivity is likely to decline, at least temporarily. Some of that may be due to working remotely, but I’m sure at least a part of it is just due to the general circumstances and anxiety surrounding it.
  - Swizec 7y ago
    But like didn’t you go to high school or college? Did you never have to study at home? How does one get into the modern office workforce without ever learning how to be productive when left to their own devices? I don’t get it For me working from an office or working from home is literally the same thing. I’m on computer with headphones on and talking through slack.
    - finaliteration 7y ago
      > But like didn’t you go to high school or college? I was home schooled for K-12 but I did go to college and I was actually pretty effective at working on my own. But I think the nature of the work you’re assigned in college is different from that of the workplace, at least in most situations. For example, college won’t necessarily teach you how to communicate effectively with a remote team, how to stick to a schedule even at home, how to set up a space so you can take calls, etc. I also think I sort of unlearned the skills needed after being forced to come into the office between X and Y time of the day for several years after college, so when I was suddenly left to my own devices again it was a difficult shift. Had I jumped straight from college to a fully remote job I may have done a bit better. Now that I’ve relearned those skills I much prefer a mix of working from home and being in the office, that way I get a good balance of focused time at home and social time at the office.
- marklkelly 7y ago
  I find I lack the discipline not to -over-work. When you don’t have clear boundaries between the home and workplace life, and you love what you do, it’s far easier to let work consume you, which isn’t generally a good thing.
- biomcgary 7y ago
  Working remotely benefits greatly from creating the right environment to reduce distractions. That can be the difference between enough discipline and failure.
- clarry 7y ago
  > Most people just don't have the discipline to work remotely. I'd phrase it differently: most people don't start with the discipline. However, it's something you can learn. I don't know if everyone learns. I don't know if everyone learns in the same circumstances. I don't think nearly as many people will learn under exceptional circumstances (virus pandemic) as they would if they were starting to do full time remote permanently. And yes I'm concerned that a lot of people/companies will draw the conclusion that remote can't work because that one time we had to do it, there were problems...
mattbee 7y ago
I read my wife the headline and we both thought of the same thing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk - which this article skips over completely. Disappointing.
- znpy 7y ago
  thanks for the good laugh
  - 7177Y 7y ago
    And now that both halves of the two income household are working from home, well... I'm investing in Durex.
- will_pseudonym 7y ago
  Such a good sketch program. I love everything Mitchell and Webb do. I thought of this video immediately. Glad to see it was already posted. :)
jmccorm 7y ago
My number one tip for employees is a simple one: above all else, be responsive. If your company has an instant messenger app, your response time should be in seconds, not minutes. If you're going on a small errand or putting together a snack in the kitchen, it is to your benefit as much as everyone else's to update your status. A simple 'be right back' goes a long ways. When managers can't get ahold of people working from home is when they start to ask questions, run VPN reports, and reign things in. In reading the comments below, this seems to be wildly unpopular. I can understand where they're coming from. Being available may be very appreciated by others, but it really hurts when you're deeply involved in something. I manage this by marking myself as busy when I know I'm about to dive deep into something, but you can't always see it coming, and I can understand the resistance to this approach.
- yowlingcat 7y ago
  You couldn't be more wrong if you tried. Use the right tool (sync vs async) communication for the right job. Establishing timelines and check-in points, communicating if and when things get off track, and delivering autonomously is how you mitigate this. Much like in real life. How lost do you have to be to conflate results with responsiveness?
- bitexploder 7y ago
  This destroys deep work. If you are paid for deep work you have to balance responsiveness with getting your work done. Don’t be unavailable, use status messages wisely, and set up an SLA that makes sense for deep work. “Seconds” is not reasonable IMO. Depends on your role, I suppose.
  - znpy 7y ago
    > This destroys deep work yes, but not everybody has to do deep work all the time. for example, part of my job is to be available to colleagues for consultation. it might be something to which i can quickly respond "ticket or gtfo" or "busy right now, could you ask me again in 10-15 minutes?". But it could also require me immediate action (some production environment is failing). As a company culture it is important to empower people to tell "not now", to educate people to only tell "not now" if you actually can't right now, and to train yourself to write "not now" without losing focus.
reaperducer 7y ago
There are so many of these work from home how-to articles because they're trendy, but almost never useful. I worked from home for ten years, then back to the office for three, now back at home. I can tell you that what works for one person does not work for everyone. For example, I am most productive in the morning, and wake up motivated and ready to work. For that reason, I don't take a shower until lunch, then use the afternoons to sort of wind-down with less productive things like meetings, reports, and such. My father worked from home in the 80's. He was the opposite. He was better in the afternoon. Because of that, he had to force himself to take the mornings seriously. He did that by getting up every morning at 6am, doing the full getting-ready-for-the-office thing, and even went down to the corner store for coffee every day as a sort of "commute." He would end up at 8am sitting in his home office in the laundry room in a full suit and tie ready for for the day, while I'm still in my sweatpants until after noon. (Equipment-wise, from working home in the 80's was very different than it is today. Think a big desk with three rotary telephones, filing cabinets, a VFD calculator, and a Telex machine.)
- sethev 7y ago
  The specifics are often not useful but one thing you'll notice is that people who made it work have some kind of a schedule that they stick to. 'Flexible schedule' can be misinterpreted as 'changing all the time'. When I see people trying that, they usually end up moving on. 'Stick to some schedule' is pretty portable advice. It sounds like you and your father both did that.
  - mirimir 7y ago
    YMMV, but my diurnal cycle is >>24hr when I'm working hard. And I take frequent short naps.
  - greyskull 7y ago
    Mirroring your comment, I have found both through personal experience and through anecdotes of others that forcing yourself into routines has benefits in all kinds of situations. Make your bed every morning, do your full hygiene routine, change out of your sleeping clothes, and so on. Helps with depression and monotony among others. I'm not surprised to see it valid here, it's universal.
mirimir 7y ago
TFA is loaded with good advice. However, there's one thing missing: Track your time, say in 10-15 minute blocks, with short notes about what you're doing. That can be integrated with your calendar. I consulted for many years, simultaneously for multiple clients with multiple projects, so that was essential for billing. But I can imagine that it'd also be useful if you're dealing with managers with little experience of working remotely. The idea of videoconferencing from home creeps me some. It's a privacy issue. And I do love working in bathrobes. It's comfortable, and makes for less laundry.
- dillonmckay 7y ago
  I am willing to bet a decent amount of work from home folks don’t wear pants.
  - ironic_ali 7y ago
    This is only anecdotal evidence, but unlike many other days, today, I am wearing pants.
  - LegitShady 7y ago
    I thought that was the whole point.
  - justrudd 7y ago
    I work from home full time now. Have been for about a year. Before I started working from home, jeans, chinos, etc. for 10+ hours a day wasn’t bothersome. But now? They bug me. I do have different kind of sweatpants to wear during work hours. That does help demarcate the work day.
  - mcpeepants 7y ago
    pants, no. sweatpants, joggers, shorts? (almost) always
- znpy 7y ago
  > Track your time, say in 10-15 minute blocks I've read this advice a lot, but quite frankly I don't believe it. 10-15 minutes block is too short, and it would probably take too much in terms of overhead (at least at the beginning). Plus, it's known that 10-15 minutes is what it takes for the average person to "get in the zone" as in "focusing on something". If we're talking pomodoros (25 minutes) that could work. I used to try 45-minutes pomodoros, but always stopped at around 30-35 minutes (focus lost, got tired/distracted, took a break).
deleted 7y ago
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eu 7y ago
No devices will help you do your job when you have a few kids and the spouse is also supposed to work from home..
- RomanPushkin 7y ago
  this. When management is no-kids, it's going to be a problem
k__ 7y ago
Working from home for 6 years now. What worked for me: Sleep till noon Checking mail/chats 2-4h creative work (design, coding, writing) interleaved with mail/chats if the flow won't hit Checking Mail/chat <30h work weeks only <4 meetings a month See that you have to find time for work and not for life.
vvanders 7y ago
Pretty decent list, as someone who's full-time remote let me add one more: At the end of the day send your manager a quick email of what you did and things that happened. You shouldn't spend more than 5 minutes and there's never an expectation of a reply but it's a great way to fill them in and augment the in-person conversations that happen in the office.
- biomcgary 7y ago
  As someone who is a remote manager of remote colleagues, I would ask any employee giving me a daily update to stop. It is one more distraction and I prefer to evaluate people for their long-term productivity rather than daily. I may be an outlier though.
  - zwayhowder 7y ago
    I'm with you on that. If my staff needed to send me a daily summary I'd worry I'd hired the wrong staff. However it's not a bad idea to keep a worklog for yourself. Just jot down a sentence for new tasks and then a rough time frame. Just so if anyone does ask next week what you did last Monday you've got some idea. (General advice, not just WFH advice).
    - vvanders 7y ago
      That's fair enough, it's something that's worked well for me and I find it handy for giving visibility into smaller things that I might not email/im about and would get lost in the mix.
      - throwaway98797 7y ago
        Some may perceive this as weakness.
  - smcameron 7y ago
    For many years, I used to have a little html file I called "log.html" (just plain html) and at the end of every day before I left, I'd add a section at the top, dated, separated with a horizontal rule <hr>, with notes about what I did that day, and also little things I learned. When it came time to make my weekly status report, I'd refer back to it. I could also search through it and find various bits of information I'd written down. And if other people wondered what I'd been up to, they could look at it too.
aaron695 7y ago
And I'd buy things sooner than later. I doubt stores have appropriate stocks for the change over.
hocuspocus 7y ago
I don't really see the need to use headphones. Almost nobody in my team does, and we were already working from home ~50% of the time before the current situation. Despite all the bad things I want to say about the Macbook Pro provided by my employer, its speakers and mic do a pretty good job during videochat.
- biomcgary 7y ago
  I purchased USB speakerphones for my team. It eliminates echo without requiring headphones.
- zwayhowder 7y ago
  The problem is the microphone is too good. I just bought my entire team headsets because I'm sick of the background noise from other rooms or in one case his next door neighbour coming over the macbook microphone. Also it stops people shouting which my experience is most people do when on speakerphone, despite the fact that they have never needed to. It would be fine if your team is used to this and understands mute buttons and whatnot. Not fine when its an employee who doesn't mute and types at 100wpm on the same macbook.
  - hocuspocus 7y ago
    We understand mute buttons. :) And there shouldn't be a lot of typing involved unless I'm in a 1:1 pair debugging/troubleshooting session, and even then it's not exactly reaching 100 wpm. I can't say I've been bothered much by background noise, that's actually more often an issue in the office. In the following weeks there will probably be more of it due to kids being home, but we have no choice here.
aasasd 7y ago
I wonder how many people need to start popping vitamin D when switching to the shut-in lifestyle—especially if living father north. And how many of them will know that they do.
intopieces 7y ago
>Make sure you have a fixed schedule. Get up. Get ready. Do your job. Sign off. This is the most important one. I sign on at 8:30, I sign off at 5:30, and I turn off my laptop and phone until 8:15 the next morning to give time to hook everything back up. No exceptions.I take a 1 hour lunch where I might continue a slack conversation but also do some yoga / Ring Fit.
- tluyben2 7y ago
  > This is the most important one. Like what everyone already said here; it depends on the person. For me that does not work. I start work at home when I wake up, which can be 3 am or 1 pm and I work until I do not feel like it anymore, which can be 1 hour or 20 hours. Been doing that for 25+ years (not sure what the average is but I would say around 7 hours), works fine.
yurlungur 7y ago
You know, last week when we were starting to WFH I thought of it as a blessing in disguise since I always liked staying indoors and often take a day or two to WFH per week to focus on docs etc. However, once everyone is WFH the experience turned out to be less than ideal to say the least. I found that I worked more, worked more at overtime hours and have been more stressed out than usual. I think it really had nothing to do with my habits and preparedness. I already had everything set up (multiple displays, standing desk etc which I've had for a long time) and had almost no productivity drop on my side. However, now all my colleagues are pinging me, the video meetings take longer to finish since people are talking over each other and now I'm asked to write much more documentation and communications for rather trivial matters instead of just talking to someone face to face for a couple of minutes. People (management) also have less respect for normal work hours. In the end I think if your company doesn't have the preparedness and more importantly the systems ready for remote work, you won't be ready for full remote work either. I just hope people will begin to adjust to the new normal better as time goes on.
- SoulMan 7y ago
  Exactly my situation. I am used to working from home and earlier I did only when I had independent work to focus on and not many meetings scheduled on that day. Now it does not work as it seems (it has always been) the other side is not prepared. I know for some people documentation (even simple MOM or writing description in the story ) is an overhead for them. Even some architect level folk love to just talk for an hour in random topics in meetings without any conclusive decision jotted down in notes for future reference. Later after implementation there is always confusion what had we decided to be the behaviour like. Junior engineers do not respond to email or public chat as they think something as to be serious and escalated to do so else just ignore. Overall it seems my family has ben more supporting and confortable than the team while working from home. I don't have dogs and my kinds are happy to be engaged with their grand parents as schools are closed (One of the advantage of traditional Indian famly)
- miranda_rights 7y ago
  I feel similar. I worked best wfh 1 day a week, whenever I had a sizeable chunk of work that required concentration time, as my open office is impossible for that. I run to work otherwise, so my commute was also my gym time, so I feel like I've lost a lot in moving to complete remote during the pandemic. I also felt comfortable turning off Slack notifications for a few hours to focus, and so on. Now, we(my manager for the team)'ve established a rule that we have to prioritize responding to pings (leaving Slack on all the time) so I feel like I've lost that quiet concentration time. I'm thoroughly not enjoying WFH for days at a time, but I appreciate that my company is letting me wfh to stay healthy. I also appreciate that I got this data point, so I can seriously think about this if I ever want a remote job.
shartshooter 7y ago
I was making the typical hour trek from San Francisco to Mountain View for four years, every day. Decided to move away and started working remotely 100%. Not having the eight hours back in my week was life changing. Habits, health, relationships have all improved. It feels like there are always going to be roles, teams and companies that must work together face to face, if we can culturally shift away from going into an office, it could really improve quality of life for lots of people. For many others it may hurt them as work is a big social outlet. That’ll have to be taken into consideration. I think we’ll see a big shift culturally over the next year as much more of the public potentially gets used to what it’s like working from home, companies may find it really helps(or hurts) their bottom line. This could end up hurting as productivity will be terrible if everyone’s distracted with news on covid and employers associate that loss due to being remote. Ultimately, post-crisis, expectations around how people work will significantly change.
- throwaway713 7y ago
  Do you miss SF though?
  - shartshooter 7y ago
    Food, talent, energy - yes Traffic, expensive everything, too much focus on work - no
kjs3 7y ago
Don't pretend that WFH makes it OK to have your dog barking in the background all meeting. Yes, we had a ton of WFH newbies this past week, and this in particular is driving me nuts.
klyrs 7y ago
The folks I eat lunch with are doing a daily zoom meeting at our lunchtime, to help with the isolation.
ladzoppelin 7y ago
I think working from home is amazing but it does take some adjustment. Good internet, exercise and Slack/Mattermost "visibility" (Participating in non-work related channels) is really important to have a good experience. Just another opinion.
rsynnott 7y ago
My main problem with it isn’t so much productivity (if anything I’m possibly a little more productive). It’s more the isolation (not helped by the fact that my country is now closing everything down). The only person I’ve talked to in person since Wednesday was a supermarket cashier. Assuming this goes on for a few months I have serious doubts about my ability to stay sane.
- chii 7y ago
  what you need is a hangout with friends on the weekends somewhere. Don't just have work in your life. Edit: obviously, the recent events would be an exception, but i'm just saying in general.
  - rsynnott 7y ago
    I mean, I do, normally. The current crisis makes that more difficult, though.
- Vinnl 7y ago
  Yeah same here. I work remotely anyway, but usually do so in a coworking space. Now that I'm actually at home, it gets kind of lonely. Not looking forward to the moment the actual lockdown reaches us.
- Tade0 7y ago
  In my case the first crisis came after three months. It gets better after that.
  - rsynnott 7y ago
    I'd definitely hope not to be doing this for three months!
farrarstan 7y ago
As someone who is on my feet all day everyday working with metal, probably inhaling bad fumes, no healthcare no benefits: that font is absolutely gouging my eyes out homie
joeax 7y ago
I figured it was only a matter of time before all the WFH "advice" articles would start. This guys's been doing it for 2 weeks and he's already an expert dispensing advice. I've been WFH for 8 years, so reading this is a bunch of LOL. Regarding headphones, this is not an issue once you move into a dedicated office space in your house. One thing I use to hate is taking headphones on/off every time there's a call. Regarding set hours, that's totally a preference. I work late at night sometimes because I feel like it. WFH means flexibility and not commuting means sometimes I get a jolt of inspiration to work off hours. I don't mind because the trade-off is I get to take time off during the day to attend school events for my kids. Remote work is a lifestyle change for sure. More loneliness, more discipline, less water-cooler gossip. It requires the right mindset and personality that some of you don't have, and I'm sure you're itching to get back to the office.
- red_trumpet 7y ago
  2 weeks? He writes he hasn't worked in an office for 20 years. And yeah, not everyone might have a dedicated to office area in there apartment, and this still would not prevent any typing noise.
Razengan 7y ago
Perhaps an office should become a part of all future houses, just like kitchens and bedrooms, to help with focus, privacy and discipline/scheduling etc. In the long run, working-from-home will only be a win, in so many aspects of society: reducing daily traffic and the associated stress, reclaiming the space taken up by office towers and parking lots, all of which will improve overall public health and increase leisure time, which would boost local economies and even travel industries and so on.
romanows 7y ago
I really dislike video chat for full-time remote work. Video chat is still too lo-fi to approach the utility of in-person meetings and has the same downsides (grooming, dress, other appearance-based stereotypes). What's wrong with voice?!
- vaylian 7y ago
  Agreed. I do quite a bit of videoconferencing and I find the "need" of other people to see faces weird. Voicechat should do the job as well. Maybe it's more difficult for people to focus on the conversation if their eyes have nothing to focus on?
  - clarry 7y ago
    Focus on writing down meeting notes (or watch another person do it and pay attention in case you have something to add or they got something wrong).
  - buboard 7y ago
    Why isnt it normal to replace your face with a cartoon or a photo. If zoom cant do it, you can use a virtual camera program instead. Really, zoom meeting screens look like a grim collection of criminal mugshots. We should be able to do better than simple face video (which also drains the battery)
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > What's wrong with voice?! What's wrong with text?
  - system2 7y ago
    Text is one way. You cannot have a fluid conversation via text. Voice and voice+video are faster, plus they carry more information, prevent misunderstandings etc.
    - nottorp 7y ago
tudorw 7y ago
Working from home is a chance to experience unbridled flow, as a home worker since 96' I would say just do 3 or 4 hours a day for the first 2 weeks and resolve all those personal and home things that are on your mind, clear the runway for some real productivity :) For now the only other tip applies only if you get irritated by distractions learn to be more gracious, I found it was the irritation I brought to the party that broke the flow, not the interruption itself.
Tade0 7y ago
Here's something I haven't seen mentioned and long term it makes a huge difference: If so far you used public transportation to get to work or just walked and otherwise didn't do any exercise - start. 30 minutes of mild yoga is enough. Remote work often comes with a double whammy of less exercise and increased snacking - both will make you put on weight. I've put on 15kg over the four years I've worked remotely and now after two months of office work already lost 4kg, because there's this hill(20m height) I have to descend every day to get to work. You keeping your balance in the bus every day really adds up over time.
rwmj 7y ago
On the subject of conference cameras I can fully recommend the Logitech BCC 950 (https://www.logitech.com/en-gb/product/conferencecam-bcc950 https://www.logitech.com/en-gb/product/conferencecam-bcc950). It's ideal for work from home and you won't usually need to use headphones with it. On the downside it's pretty expensive.
downtide 7y ago
The flip side is that when you are stuck in a busy noisy office, the only place you want to be, is at home to concentrate and do your work. Stuck at home too long, and need the office. Balance.
thih9 7y ago
> But please do not share your enthusiasm for the cat that looks like Garfield with everyone on the call. This heavily depends on the company culture, tone of the meeting, participants, etc. Basic savoir vivre still applies, interrupting someone to loudly admire a pet (or whatever) would simply be rude. But if the discussion stalls and if it’s not a meeting about personnel reduction, I see no harm in saying that Mr Fluffy Paws looks especially nice today.
lukaszkups 7y ago
The catchy title part 'no one talks about' is a bit overstated I think, as I could use it in my piece from 2018 as well for example: https://lukaszkups.net/notes/truth-about-remote-work/ https://lukaszkups.net/notes/truth-about-remote-work/ - imho I've managed to capture there some details that are often overlooked in recent trendy articles too (and also not mentioned in this thread's blog post as well) ;)
kazinator 7y ago
> If you are uncertain how to properly make sure you get a healthy lunch and dinner check “Fitness YouTube”. Why would you not know that if you're working at home, if you knew it while working at work? Or, if you didn't know when working at work, why would you start caring when switching to working from home?

Good camera suggestions there. Nothing else there should be a surprise. Although honestly, a webcam on a laptop should be fine too, or tablet. But headphones are a really good idea for conferences.

planetzero 7y ago

I've been working from home for a decade. I've worked at many companies and been part of the hiring process for remote developers. Most people just don't have the discipline to work remotely. I think productivity will be reduced overall and it might prevent remote working in the future.

petra 7y ago
//Most people just don't have the discipline to work remotely What works for people without that discipline ? Why can't the boss just tell at them over Skype ?
- allovernow 7y ago
  >What works for people without that discipline ? Amphetamines. Seriously. Prescription, of course. Coffee is a distant second. Thiobromine can be better for some people - you can get supplements it you can buy brewing cacao if you want to experiment with a potentially tasty drink. Yeah, sure, there are behavioral interventions but for a guy like me, if I can just do it with a reasonably pill I'm willing to take the risk. Your risk tolerance may vary. Meditation is a good alternative but it takes time and, ironically, discipline. Incidentally it may be the reverse, that people who are good at meditating are those predisposed to having good discipline!
fallenhitokiri 7y ago
I agree being remote is not for everyone. And not everyone wants to be remote. I also agree that productivity will likely drop, but the remote aspect will only be one of the many reasons considering what's going on right now. I assume any productivity drop during this time will be brought up when discussing remote, ignoring the circumstances and that it was basically enforced without any preparation.
zeta0134 7y ago
The two most important things for me so far have been: - Keep a morning routine and a regular schedule - Regularly check in with my colleagues, and post progress updates. For my own personal anxiety, I'll not allow myself to feel guilty if I'm being slow or unproductive, (even in the office, sometimes the energy's just not there today) but I will allow myself to feel guilty if I'm failing to keep regular contact with my teammates. Without doing this, it's far too easy to slip into a rabbit hole researching something interesting, but ultimately not work related. Or, y'know, refresh the HN homepage for an hour and get nothing done.
friendlybus 7y ago
The virus will associate working from home with a disease pandemic. It already is killing the work from home culture. It's okay if the majority go to an office, the problems arise when the indifferent demonize working from home.
lsc 7y ago
I'm one of those people who lacks the discipline. I live with someone who works remote full time, and they have that discipline, and are in fact way more productive working from home. But me? I have no problem doing well in the office, but all the full work from home jobs I've had? I've been a miserable failure. I'm worried 'cause my performance is going to drop a lot right as we head into the third recession of my career. It really varies by personality. Some people do a lot better by themselves. But if you hire me? It's worth paying for the office space.
finaliteration 7y ago
I really believe that working remotely or from home is a skill that needs to be developed over time in most cases. There may be some people who are just naturally better at it, but the first time I had a remote job we went from five days in the office to five days at home abruptly and I was horrible at it and inefficient at my job. With my current job we started doing 1-2 days of working from home a week over the last year or so. Doing it part time has given me a chance to develop the skills and space needed to be successful and now that we are being pushed into it full time I feel a lot more prepared for it. I do agree, though, that for most people who aren’t used to it or haven’t had a chance to develop the skills needed it’s going to be a rough transition and productivity is likely to decline, at least temporarily. Some of that may be due to working remotely, but I’m sure at least a part of it is just due to the general circumstances and anxiety surrounding it.
- Swizec 7y ago
  But like didn’t you go to high school or college? Did you never have to study at home? How does one get into the modern office workforce without ever learning how to be productive when left to their own devices? I don’t get it For me working from an office or working from home is literally the same thing. I’m on computer with headphones on and talking through slack.
  - finaliteration 7y ago
    > But like didn’t you go to high school or college? I was home schooled for K-12 but I did go to college and I was actually pretty effective at working on my own. But I think the nature of the work you’re assigned in college is different from that of the workplace, at least in most situations. For example, college won’t necessarily teach you how to communicate effectively with a remote team, how to stick to a schedule even at home, how to set up a space so you can take calls, etc. I also think I sort of unlearned the skills needed after being forced to come into the office between X and Y time of the day for several years after college, so when I was suddenly left to my own devices again it was a difficult shift. Had I jumped straight from college to a fully remote job I may have done a bit better. Now that I’ve relearned those skills I much prefer a mix of working from home and being in the office, that way I get a good balance of focused time at home and social time at the office.
marklkelly 7y ago
I find I lack the discipline not to -over-work. When you don’t have clear boundaries between the home and workplace life, and you love what you do, it’s far easier to let work consume you, which isn’t generally a good thing.
biomcgary 7y ago
Working remotely benefits greatly from creating the right environment to reduce distractions. That can be the difference between enough discipline and failure.
clarry 7y ago
> Most people just don't have the discipline to work remotely. I'd phrase it differently: most people don't start with the discipline. However, it's something you can learn. I don't know if everyone learns. I don't know if everyone learns in the same circumstances. I don't think nearly as many people will learn under exceptional circumstances (virus pandemic) as they would if they were starting to do full time remote permanently. And yes I'm concerned that a lot of people/companies will draw the conclusion that remote can't work because that one time we had to do it, there were problems...

mattbee 7y ago

I read my wife the headline and we both thought of the same thing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk - which this article skips over completely. Disappointing.

znpy 7y ago
thanks for the good laugh
- 7177Y 7y ago
  And now that both halves of the two income household are working from home, well... I'm investing in Durex.
will_pseudonym 7y ago
Such a good sketch program. I love everything Mitchell and Webb do. I thought of this video immediately. Glad to see it was already posted. :)

jmccorm 7y ago

My number one tip for employees is a simple one: above all else, be responsive. If your company has an instant messenger app, your response time should be in seconds, not minutes. If you're going on a small errand or putting together a snack in the kitchen, it is to your benefit as much as everyone else's to update your status. A simple 'be right back' goes a long ways. When managers can't get ahold of people working from home is when they start to ask questions, run VPN reports, and reign things in. In reading the comments below, this seems to be wildly unpopular. I can understand where they're coming from. Being available may be very appreciated by others, but it really hurts when you're deeply involved in something. I manage this by marking myself as busy when I know I'm about to dive deep into something, but you can't always see it coming, and I can understand the resistance to this approach.

yowlingcat 7y ago
You couldn't be more wrong if you tried. Use the right tool (sync vs async) communication for the right job. Establishing timelines and check-in points, communicating if and when things get off track, and delivering autonomously is how you mitigate this. Much like in real life. How lost do you have to be to conflate results with responsiveness?
bitexploder 7y ago
This destroys deep work. If you are paid for deep work you have to balance responsiveness with getting your work done. Don’t be unavailable, use status messages wisely, and set up an SLA that makes sense for deep work. “Seconds” is not reasonable IMO. Depends on your role, I suppose.
- znpy 7y ago
  > This destroys deep work yes, but not everybody has to do deep work all the time. for example, part of my job is to be available to colleagues for consultation. it might be something to which i can quickly respond "ticket or gtfo" or "busy right now, could you ask me again in 10-15 minutes?". But it could also require me immediate action (some production environment is failing). As a company culture it is important to empower people to tell "not now", to educate people to only tell "not now" if you actually can't right now, and to train yourself to write "not now" without losing focus.

reaperducer 7y ago

There are so many of these work from home how-to articles because they're trendy, but almost never useful. I worked from home for ten years, then back to the office for three, now back at home. I can tell you that what works for one person does not work for everyone. For example, I am most productive in the morning, and wake up motivated and ready to work. For that reason, I don't take a shower until lunch, then use the afternoons to sort of wind-down with less productive things like meetings, reports, and such. My father worked from home in the 80's. He was the opposite. He was better in the afternoon. Because of that, he had to force himself to take the mornings seriously. He did that by getting up every morning at 6am, doing the full getting-ready-for-the-office thing, and even went down to the corner store for coffee every day as a sort of "commute." He would end up at 8am sitting in his home office in the laundry room in a full suit and tie ready for for the day, while I'm still in my sweatpants until after noon. (Equipment-wise, from working home in the 80's was very different than it is today. Think a big desk with three rotary telephones, filing cabinets, a VFD calculator, and a Telex machine.)

sethev 7y ago
The specifics are often not useful but one thing you'll notice is that people who made it work have some kind of a schedule that they stick to. 'Flexible schedule' can be misinterpreted as 'changing all the time'. When I see people trying that, they usually end up moving on. 'Stick to some schedule' is pretty portable advice. It sounds like you and your father both did that.
- mirimir 7y ago
  YMMV, but my diurnal cycle is >>24hr when I'm working hard. And I take frequent short naps.
- greyskull 7y ago
  Mirroring your comment, I have found both through personal experience and through anecdotes of others that forcing yourself into routines has benefits in all kinds of situations. Make your bed every morning, do your full hygiene routine, change out of your sleeping clothes, and so on. Helps with depression and monotony among others. I'm not surprised to see it valid here, it's universal.

mirimir 7y ago

TFA is loaded with good advice. However, there's one thing missing: Track your time, say in 10-15 minute blocks, with short notes about what you're doing. That can be integrated with your calendar. I consulted for many years, simultaneously for multiple clients with multiple projects, so that was essential for billing. But I can imagine that it'd also be useful if you're dealing with managers with little experience of working remotely. The idea of videoconferencing from home creeps me some. It's a privacy issue. And I do love working in bathrobes. It's comfortable, and makes for less laundry.

dillonmckay 7y ago
I am willing to bet a decent amount of work from home folks don’t wear pants.
- ironic_ali 7y ago
  This is only anecdotal evidence, but unlike many other days, today, I am wearing pants.
- LegitShady 7y ago
  I thought that was the whole point.
- justrudd 7y ago
  I work from home full time now. Have been for about a year. Before I started working from home, jeans, chinos, etc. for 10+ hours a day wasn’t bothersome. But now? They bug me. I do have different kind of sweatpants to wear during work hours. That does help demarcate the work day.
- mcpeepants 7y ago
  pants, no. sweatpants, joggers, shorts? (almost) always
znpy 7y ago
> Track your time, say in 10-15 minute blocks I've read this advice a lot, but quite frankly I don't believe it. 10-15 minutes block is too short, and it would probably take too much in terms of overhead (at least at the beginning). Plus, it's known that 10-15 minutes is what it takes for the average person to "get in the zone" as in "focusing on something". If we're talking pomodoros (25 minutes) that could work. I used to try 45-minutes pomodoros, but always stopped at around 30-35 minutes (focus lost, got tired/distracted, took a break).

deleted 7y ago

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eu 7y ago

No devices will help you do your job when you have a few kids and the spouse is also supposed to work from home..

RomanPushkin 7y ago
this. When management is no-kids, it's going to be a problem

k__ 7y ago

Working from home for 6 years now. What worked for me: Sleep till noon Checking mail/chats 2-4h creative work (design, coding, writing) interleaved with mail/chats if the flow won't hit Checking Mail/chat <30h work weeks only <4 meetings a month See that you have to find time for work and not for life.

vvanders 7y ago

Pretty decent list, as someone who's full-time remote let me add one more: At the end of the day send your manager a quick email of what you did and things that happened. You shouldn't spend more than 5 minutes and there's never an expectation of a reply but it's a great way to fill them in and augment the in-person conversations that happen in the office.

biomcgary 7y ago
As someone who is a remote manager of remote colleagues, I would ask any employee giving me a daily update to stop. It is one more distraction and I prefer to evaluate people for their long-term productivity rather than daily. I may be an outlier though.
- zwayhowder 7y ago
  I'm with you on that. If my staff needed to send me a daily summary I'd worry I'd hired the wrong staff. However it's not a bad idea to keep a worklog for yourself. Just jot down a sentence for new tasks and then a rough time frame. Just so if anyone does ask next week what you did last Monday you've got some idea. (General advice, not just WFH advice).
  - vvanders 7y ago
    That's fair enough, it's something that's worked well for me and I find it handy for giving visibility into smaller things that I might not email/im about and would get lost in the mix.
    - throwaway98797 7y ago
      Some may perceive this as weakness.
- smcameron 7y ago
  For many years, I used to have a little html file I called "log.html" (just plain html) and at the end of every day before I left, I'd add a section at the top, dated, separated with a horizontal rule <hr>, with notes about what I did that day, and also little things I learned. When it came time to make my weekly status report, I'd refer back to it. I could also search through it and find various bits of information I'd written down. And if other people wondered what I'd been up to, they could look at it too.

aaron695 7y ago

And I'd buy things sooner than later. I doubt stores have appropriate stocks for the change over.

hocuspocus 7y ago

I don't really see the need to use headphones. Almost nobody in my team does, and we were already working from home ~50% of the time before the current situation. Despite all the bad things I want to say about the Macbook Pro provided by my employer, its speakers and mic do a pretty good job during videochat.

biomcgary 7y ago
I purchased USB speakerphones for my team. It eliminates echo without requiring headphones.
zwayhowder 7y ago
The problem is the microphone is too good. I just bought my entire team headsets because I'm sick of the background noise from other rooms or in one case his next door neighbour coming over the macbook microphone. Also it stops people shouting which my experience is most people do when on speakerphone, despite the fact that they have never needed to. It would be fine if your team is used to this and understands mute buttons and whatnot. Not fine when its an employee who doesn't mute and types at 100wpm on the same macbook.
- hocuspocus 7y ago
  We understand mute buttons. :) And there shouldn't be a lot of typing involved unless I'm in a 1:1 pair debugging/troubleshooting session, and even then it's not exactly reaching 100 wpm. I can't say I've been bothered much by background noise, that's actually more often an issue in the office. In the following weeks there will probably be more of it due to kids being home, but we have no choice here.

aasasd 7y ago

I wonder how many people need to start popping vitamin D when switching to the shut-in lifestyle—especially if living father north. And how many of them will know that they do.

intopieces 7y ago

>Make sure you have a fixed schedule. Get up. Get ready. Do your job. Sign off. This is the most important one. I sign on at 8:30, I sign off at 5:30, and I turn off my laptop and phone until 8:15 the next morning to give time to hook everything back up. No exceptions.I take a 1 hour lunch where I might continue a slack conversation but also do some yoga / Ring Fit.

tluyben2 7y ago
> This is the most important one. Like what everyone already said here; it depends on the person. For me that does not work. I start work at home when I wake up, which can be 3 am or 1 pm and I work until I do not feel like it anymore, which can be 1 hour or 20 hours. Been doing that for 25+ years (not sure what the average is but I would say around 7 hours), works fine.

yurlungur 7y ago

You know, last week when we were starting to WFH I thought of it as a blessing in disguise since I always liked staying indoors and often take a day or two to WFH per week to focus on docs etc. However, once everyone is WFH the experience turned out to be less than ideal to say the least. I found that I worked more, worked more at overtime hours and have been more stressed out than usual. I think it really had nothing to do with my habits and preparedness. I already had everything set up (multiple displays, standing desk etc which I've had for a long time) and had almost no productivity drop on my side. However, now all my colleagues are pinging me, the video meetings take longer to finish since people are talking over each other and now I'm asked to write much more documentation and communications for rather trivial matters instead of just talking to someone face to face for a couple of minutes. People (management) also have less respect for normal work hours. In the end I think if your company doesn't have the preparedness and more importantly the systems ready for remote work, you won't be ready for full remote work either. I just hope people will begin to adjust to the new normal better as time goes on.

SoulMan 7y ago
Exactly my situation. I am used to working from home and earlier I did only when I had independent work to focus on and not many meetings scheduled on that day. Now it does not work as it seems (it has always been) the other side is not prepared. I know for some people documentation (even simple MOM or writing description in the story ) is an overhead for them. Even some architect level folk love to just talk for an hour in random topics in meetings without any conclusive decision jotted down in notes for future reference. Later after implementation there is always confusion what had we decided to be the behaviour like. Junior engineers do not respond to email or public chat as they think something as to be serious and escalated to do so else just ignore. Overall it seems my family has ben more supporting and confortable than the team while working from home. I don't have dogs and my kinds are happy to be engaged with their grand parents as schools are closed (One of the advantage of traditional Indian famly)
miranda_rights 7y ago
I feel similar. I worked best wfh 1 day a week, whenever I had a sizeable chunk of work that required concentration time, as my open office is impossible for that. I run to work otherwise, so my commute was also my gym time, so I feel like I've lost a lot in moving to complete remote during the pandemic. I also felt comfortable turning off Slack notifications for a few hours to focus, and so on. Now, we(my manager for the team)'ve established a rule that we have to prioritize responding to pings (leaving Slack on all the time) so I feel like I've lost that quiet concentration time. I'm thoroughly not enjoying WFH for days at a time, but I appreciate that my company is letting me wfh to stay healthy. I also appreciate that I got this data point, so I can seriously think about this if I ever want a remote job.

shartshooter 7y ago

I was making the typical hour trek from San Francisco to Mountain View for four years, every day. Decided to move away and started working remotely 100%. Not having the eight hours back in my week was life changing. Habits, health, relationships have all improved. It feels like there are always going to be roles, teams and companies that must work together face to face, if we can culturally shift away from going into an office, it could really improve quality of life for lots of people. For many others it may hurt them as work is a big social outlet. That’ll have to be taken into consideration. I think we’ll see a big shift culturally over the next year as much more of the public potentially gets used to what it’s like working from home, companies may find it really helps(or hurts) their bottom line. This could end up hurting as productivity will be terrible if everyone’s distracted with news on covid and employers associate that loss due to being remote. Ultimately, post-crisis, expectations around how people work will significantly change.

throwaway713 7y ago
Do you miss SF though?
- shartshooter 7y ago
  Food, talent, energy - yes Traffic, expensive everything, too much focus on work - no

kjs3 7y ago

Don't pretend that WFH makes it OK to have your dog barking in the background all meeting. Yes, we had a ton of WFH newbies this past week, and this in particular is driving me nuts.

klyrs 7y ago

The folks I eat lunch with are doing a daily zoom meeting at our lunchtime, to help with the isolation.

ladzoppelin 7y ago

I think working from home is amazing but it does take some adjustment. Good internet, exercise and Slack/Mattermost "visibility" (Participating in non-work related channels) is really important to have a good experience. Just another opinion.

rsynnott 7y ago

My main problem with it isn’t so much productivity (if anything I’m possibly a little more productive). It’s more the isolation (not helped by the fact that my country is now closing everything down). The only person I’ve talked to in person since Wednesday was a supermarket cashier. Assuming this goes on for a few months I have serious doubts about my ability to stay sane.

chii 7y ago
what you need is a hangout with friends on the weekends somewhere. Don't just have work in your life. Edit: obviously, the recent events would be an exception, but i'm just saying in general.
- rsynnott 7y ago
  I mean, I do, normally. The current crisis makes that more difficult, though.
Vinnl 7y ago
Yeah same here. I work remotely anyway, but usually do so in a coworking space. Now that I'm actually at home, it gets kind of lonely. Not looking forward to the moment the actual lockdown reaches us.
Tade0 7y ago
In my case the first crisis came after three months. It gets better after that.
- rsynnott 7y ago
  I'd definitely hope not to be doing this for three months!

farrarstan 7y ago

As someone who is on my feet all day everyday working with metal, probably inhaling bad fumes, no healthcare no benefits: that font is absolutely gouging my eyes out homie

joeax 7y ago

I figured it was only a matter of time before all the WFH "advice" articles would start. This guys's been doing it for 2 weeks and he's already an expert dispensing advice. I've been WFH for 8 years, so reading this is a bunch of LOL. Regarding headphones, this is not an issue once you move into a dedicated office space in your house. One thing I use to hate is taking headphones on/off every time there's a call. Regarding set hours, that's totally a preference. I work late at night sometimes because I feel like it. WFH means flexibility and not commuting means sometimes I get a jolt of inspiration to work off hours. I don't mind because the trade-off is I get to take time off during the day to attend school events for my kids. Remote work is a lifestyle change for sure. More loneliness, more discipline, less water-cooler gossip. It requires the right mindset and personality that some of you don't have, and I'm sure you're itching to get back to the office.

red_trumpet 7y ago
2 weeks? He writes he hasn't worked in an office for 20 years. And yeah, not everyone might have a dedicated to office area in there apartment, and this still would not prevent any typing noise.

Razengan 7y ago

Perhaps an office should become a part of all future houses, just like kitchens and bedrooms, to help with focus, privacy and discipline/scheduling etc. In the long run, working-from-home will only be a win, in so many aspects of society: reducing daily traffic and the associated stress, reclaiming the space taken up by office towers and parking lots, all of which will improve overall public health and increase leisure time, which would boost local economies and even travel industries and so on.

romanows 7y ago

I really dislike video chat for full-time remote work. Video chat is still too lo-fi to approach the utility of in-person meetings and has the same downsides (grooming, dress, other appearance-based stereotypes). What's wrong with voice?!

vaylian 7y ago
Agreed. I do quite a bit of videoconferencing and I find the "need" of other people to see faces weird. Voicechat should do the job as well. Maybe it's more difficult for people to focus on the conversation if their eyes have nothing to focus on?
- clarry 7y ago
  Focus on writing down meeting notes (or watch another person do it and pay attention in case you have something to add or they got something wrong).
- buboard 7y ago
  Why isnt it normal to replace your face with a cartoon or a photo. If zoom cant do it, you can use a virtual camera program instead. Really, zoom meeting screens look like a grim collection of criminal mugshots. We should be able to do better than simple face video (which also drains the battery)
thaumasiotes 7y ago
> What's wrong with voice?! What's wrong with text?
- system2 7y ago
  Text is one way. You cannot have a fluid conversation via text. Voice and voice+video are faster, plus they carry more information, prevent misunderstandings etc.
  - nottorp 7y ago

tudorw 7y ago

Working from home is a chance to experience unbridled flow, as a home worker since 96' I would say just do 3 or 4 hours a day for the first 2 weeks and resolve all those personal and home things that are on your mind, clear the runway for some real productivity :) For now the only other tip applies only if you get irritated by distractions learn to be more gracious, I found it was the irritation I brought to the party that broke the flow, not the interruption itself.

Tade0 7y ago

Here's something I haven't seen mentioned and long term it makes a huge difference: If so far you used public transportation to get to work or just walked and otherwise didn't do any exercise - start. 30 minutes of mild yoga is enough. Remote work often comes with a double whammy of less exercise and increased snacking - both will make you put on weight. I've put on 15kg over the four years I've worked remotely and now after two months of office work already lost 4kg, because there's this hill(20m height) I have to descend every day to get to work. You keeping your balance in the bus every day really adds up over time.

rwmj 7y ago

On the subject of conference cameras I can fully recommend the Logitech BCC 950 (https://www.logitech.com/en-gb/product/conferencecam-bcc950 https://www.logitech.com/en-gb/product/conferencecam-bcc950). It's ideal for work from home and you won't usually need to use headphones with it. On the downside it's pretty expensive.

downtide 7y ago

The flip side is that when you are stuck in a busy noisy office, the only place you want to be, is at home to concentrate and do your work. Stuck at home too long, and need the office. Balance.

thih9 7y ago

> But please do not share your enthusiasm for the cat that looks like Garfield with everyone on the call. This heavily depends on the company culture, tone of the meeting, participants, etc. Basic savoir vivre still applies, interrupting someone to loudly admire a pet (or whatever) would simply be rude. But if the discussion stalls and if it’s not a meeting about personnel reduction, I see no harm in saying that Mr Fluffy Paws looks especially nice today.

lukaszkups 7y ago

The catchy title part 'no one talks about' is a bit overstated I think, as I could use it in my piece from 2018 as well for example: https://lukaszkups.net/notes/truth-about-remote-work/ https://lukaszkups.net/notes/truth-about-remote-work/ - imho I've managed to capture there some details that are often overlooked in recent trendy articles too (and also not mentioned in this thread's blog post as well) ;)

kazinator 7y ago

> If you are uncertain how to properly make sure you get a healthy lunch and dinner check “Fitness YouTube”. Why would you not know that if you're working at home, if you knew it while working at work? Or, if you didn't know when working at work, why would you start caring when switching to working from home?