5 ms·

I worked for a company once that was very remote friendly. You could disappear for a month and then pop into Slack and ask, what’s next in the issues queue? The

I worked for a company once that was very remote friendly. You could disappear for a month and then pop into Slack and ask, what’s next in the issues queue? Then work on issues for however long you wanted, billed hourly at a generous rate. Several times I disappeared for weeks to travel and climb and was always welcomed back. That company was minting money and wasn’t worried about deadlines. I wish more work was structured this way.

rrggnnlldd 5y ago
Wow that sounds great. Were you be able to charge overtime? And since you said "worked", what made you decide to stop popping back to the issues queue at this particular org?
- tppiotrowski 5y ago
  I never hit 40 hours a week. Thirty seemed like a good balance between work/life. Eventually, working on a CRUD app didn't peak my interest anymore and I moved onto some other projects. Company was sold a few years later.
  - mrkurt 5y ago
    How did you track your time? I kind of love this idea but time tracking is a pain in the ass. Seems like maybe you could use "day" or "half day" granularity?
    - faeyanpiraat 5y ago
      You need to get used to it. Use a kitchen timer, then every time you finish something input the time precisely.
      - jpindar 5y ago
        There's an app and site called Toggl that makes this easier.
        faeyanpiraat 5y ago
        It actually complicates things in my experience. Nothing beats a physical item with a stop/start button
    - cachvico 5y ago
      I used RescueTime when I was freelancing. It's an app you install and it tracks what you're working on down to the second. It works by reading the titlebar of your current app, so it works well for development, and you can set up filters in the web dashboard to divide by projects and so on. Of course there's a privacy trade-off to consider as it's a SaaS.
      - knr2345 5y ago
        TimingApp is a similar alternative with a local-only option. If I recall correctly, the syncing feature is opt-in and only required if you’d like to sync activity from multiple computers.
    - mgkimsal 5y ago
      I typically use 15 or 30 minute granularity, and I remember to log stuff multiple times per day (not every few minutes, but at least a couple) Time trackers that watch what you're doing are handy, sometimes, until you take a call away from the computer. You just had a 30 minute meeting about something - you're not at a computer. Did it not happen because it wasn't logged by an app tracking your screen/windows? Of course it did - you just have to get used to doing it. Tracking down to a minute is generally pointless for some (most?) situations - people generally care about the results/outcome, and allocating time to various buckets shouldn't be overly important. I HAVE been in situations where logging 19 minutes to project X and 37 minutes to project Y was 'crucial' because 'accuracy was vital' but... damnit - I don't stop thinking about your project just because I'm not sitting in front of some time tracking app. I avoid those situations wherever possible now (and it's quite possible).
    - throwawayboise 5y ago
      > tracking is a pain in the ass It becomes a lot easier when you need to do it to get paid. I loathe time tracking for internal metrics, but if I need to do it to get paid the motivations change and it just becomes part of the workflow.
    - komali2 5y ago
      I use org-mode. I have a .org file for each company, then TODO bullets for whatever task, usually copied directly from Jira or etc. Org-clock-in when I start my day, org-clock-out when I finish, estimate an extra hourish for whatever slack messages I answer throughout the day. I used to be super granular about it until I realized I was billing the equivalent of 8 hours of work as a full time engineer, as 2.5 hrs or whatever, due to the nature of granular billing. Turns out I'm hella unproductive when I spend all day at the office. So I switched to more like dedicating some chunk of my day to work, then billing that chunk, even if some of the time I was making coffee or like, going on a quick walk break. In all honesty with how much more productive I am as a contractor I could probably justify billing flat 8 hours a day but I'm just too honest or something.
JoshTriplett 5y ago
What was the company?
- tppiotrowski 5y ago
  It was a crypto exchange during a BTC boom period (2016-2017)
vsareto 5y ago
Oh good lord, just when I think I've found the perfect job, you have to go and shatter my comfortable illusions!
- tppiotrowski 5y ago
  There is greener grass to be found everywhere. It tends to wilt once you find it.
zzt123 5y ago
I had an analogous arrangement. I would pop in and out, identifying/building high impact projects, in a mix of web dev, PM, and analyzing data. I was usually available for brainstorming/chats during my sometimes months of off cycle, including at non-regular hours. I'm hopelessly neural atypical with on/off cycles of productivity and haven't found a way to make myself more regular. I was paid as a full time employee despite my schedule, with a mutually agreed upon below-market offer in exchange for that freedom. USD 130k/y with full benefits and a much smaller than normal equity grant. That arrangement lasted 7 years before moving on to new opportunities.
- GFischer 5y ago
  Wow, this offhand comment reminds me that there's a vast gulf between US compensation and elsewhere... 130k/y as a "below market" offer... I doubled my salary between last year and this one and I'm still not even halfway to 130k/y (and I'm happy because it's remote).. .and I live in the most expensive city in South America (more expensive than US midwest & Texas, cheaper than NY / SF of course). I thought USD 130k/year was a good offer even in the US, I think it's roughly what the Texas-based developers I work with make.
  - zzt123 5y ago
    130k is a good non-FAANG offer for typical developer roles, as far as I’m aware. But if you go FAANG and/or atypical role, the limit is much higher.
franga2000 5y ago
This is pretty much my current arrangement and it really is a great way to work. Just today I popped into Slack after a week-long break, completed some low-hanging fruit issues and assigned myself a big one to work on for the rest of the week. Our boss occasionally sends us priority updates and of course there are high-priority issues that need to be dealt with immediately by someone, but for the most part, it really doesn't matter if I work full days for a week straight or if I spend two or three days working "overtime" and enjoy a 4-day weekend. Besides being generally nice, it's also a total godsend when you have other things going on - I'm currently working towards a CS degree and there's no way I could've balanced the two if I had a "regular" job. We're one of the few industries where we are not only able to work like this, but also have the tools to do it efficiently (because we built them!). Yet, inexplicably, the majority of companies still insist on cubicles, strict working times and constant synchronous communication. To be clear, there are definitely disadvantages to this and we need to be very careful to not let this idea turn into a gig economy type situation where if the company doesn't have work for us, we don't get paid (stable pay is often far more important than how high it is), where an individual's slice is too small to live off of and where people turn into expendable "work processors", but if done correctly, this really does seem like the way forward.
- knr2345 5y ago
  Any chance you might be willing to share the business domain or your role? I’m at the half way mark of a MS in CS and trying to get a feel for the commonality of flexible positions in the industry, particularly for non-senior roles.

rrggnnlldd 5y ago

Wow that sounds great. Were you be able to charge overtime? And since you said "worked", what made you decide to stop popping back to the issues queue at this particular org?

tppiotrowski 5y ago
I never hit 40 hours a week. Thirty seemed like a good balance between work/life. Eventually, working on a CRUD app didn't peak my interest anymore and I moved onto some other projects. Company was sold a few years later.
- mrkurt 5y ago
  How did you track your time? I kind of love this idea but time tracking is a pain in the ass. Seems like maybe you could use "day" or "half day" granularity?
  - faeyanpiraat 5y ago
    You need to get used to it. Use a kitchen timer, then every time you finish something input the time precisely.
    - jpindar 5y ago
      There's an app and site called Toggl that makes this easier.
      - faeyanpiraat 5y ago
        It actually complicates things in my experience. Nothing beats a physical item with a stop/start button
  - cachvico 5y ago
    I used RescueTime when I was freelancing. It's an app you install and it tracks what you're working on down to the second. It works by reading the titlebar of your current app, so it works well for development, and you can set up filters in the web dashboard to divide by projects and so on. Of course there's a privacy trade-off to consider as it's a SaaS.
    - knr2345 5y ago
      TimingApp is a similar alternative with a local-only option. If I recall correctly, the syncing feature is opt-in and only required if you’d like to sync activity from multiple computers.
  - mgkimsal 5y ago
    I typically use 15 or 30 minute granularity, and I remember to log stuff multiple times per day (not every few minutes, but at least a couple) Time trackers that watch what you're doing are handy, sometimes, until you take a call away from the computer. You just had a 30 minute meeting about something - you're not at a computer. Did it not happen because it wasn't logged by an app tracking your screen/windows? Of course it did - you just have to get used to doing it. Tracking down to a minute is generally pointless for some (most?) situations - people generally care about the results/outcome, and allocating time to various buckets shouldn't be overly important. I HAVE been in situations where logging 19 minutes to project X and 37 minutes to project Y was 'crucial' because 'accuracy was vital' but... damnit - I don't stop thinking about your project just because I'm not sitting in front of some time tracking app. I avoid those situations wherever possible now (and it's quite possible).
  - throwawayboise 5y ago
    > tracking is a pain in the ass It becomes a lot easier when you need to do it to get paid. I loathe time tracking for internal metrics, but if I need to do it to get paid the motivations change and it just becomes part of the workflow.
  - komali2 5y ago
    I use org-mode. I have a .org file for each company, then TODO bullets for whatever task, usually copied directly from Jira or etc. Org-clock-in when I start my day, org-clock-out when I finish, estimate an extra hourish for whatever slack messages I answer throughout the day. I used to be super granular about it until I realized I was billing the equivalent of 8 hours of work as a full time engineer, as 2.5 hrs or whatever, due to the nature of granular billing. Turns out I'm hella unproductive when I spend all day at the office. So I switched to more like dedicating some chunk of my day to work, then billing that chunk, even if some of the time I was making coffee or like, going on a quick walk break. In all honesty with how much more productive I am as a contractor I could probably justify billing flat 8 hours a day but I'm just too honest or something.

JoshTriplett 5y ago

What was the company?

tppiotrowski 5y ago
It was a crypto exchange during a BTC boom period (2016-2017)

vsareto 5y ago

Oh good lord, just when I think I've found the perfect job, you have to go and shatter my comfortable illusions!

tppiotrowski 5y ago
There is greener grass to be found everywhere. It tends to wilt once you find it.

zzt123 5y ago

I had an analogous arrangement. I would pop in and out, identifying/building high impact projects, in a mix of web dev, PM, and analyzing data. I was usually available for brainstorming/chats during my sometimes months of off cycle, including at non-regular hours. I'm hopelessly neural atypical with on/off cycles of productivity and haven't found a way to make myself more regular. I was paid as a full time employee despite my schedule, with a mutually agreed upon below-market offer in exchange for that freedom. USD 130k/y with full benefits and a much smaller than normal equity grant. That arrangement lasted 7 years before moving on to new opportunities.

GFischer 5y ago
Wow, this offhand comment reminds me that there's a vast gulf between US compensation and elsewhere... 130k/y as a "below market" offer... I doubled my salary between last year and this one and I'm still not even halfway to 130k/y (and I'm happy because it's remote).. .and I live in the most expensive city in South America (more expensive than US midwest & Texas, cheaper than NY / SF of course). I thought USD 130k/year was a good offer even in the US, I think it's roughly what the Texas-based developers I work with make.
- zzt123 5y ago
  130k is a good non-FAANG offer for typical developer roles, as far as I’m aware. But if you go FAANG and/or atypical role, the limit is much higher.

franga2000 5y ago

This is pretty much my current arrangement and it really is a great way to work. Just today I popped into Slack after a week-long break, completed some low-hanging fruit issues and assigned myself a big one to work on for the rest of the week. Our boss occasionally sends us priority updates and of course there are high-priority issues that need to be dealt with immediately by someone, but for the most part, it really doesn't matter if I work full days for a week straight or if I spend two or three days working "overtime" and enjoy a 4-day weekend. Besides being generally nice, it's also a total godsend when you have other things going on - I'm currently working towards a CS degree and there's no way I could've balanced the two if I had a "regular" job. We're one of the few industries where we are not only able to work like this, but also have the tools to do it efficiently (because we built them!). Yet, inexplicably, the majority of companies still insist on cubicles, strict working times and constant synchronous communication. To be clear, there are definitely disadvantages to this and we need to be very careful to not let this idea turn into a gig economy type situation where if the company doesn't have work for us, we don't get paid (stable pay is often far more important than how high it is), where an individual's slice is too small to live off of and where people turn into expendable "work processors", but if done correctly, this really does seem like the way forward.

knr2345 5y ago
Any chance you might be willing to share the business domain or your role? I’m at the half way mark of a MS in CS and trying to get a feel for the commonality of flexible positions in the industry, particularly for non-senior roles.