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I started my remote first business during COVID-19. We will eventually get an office, but a small one with flex space to rent for get-togethers every one or two

by tomrod 4y ago

I started my remote first business during COVID-19. We will eventually get an office, but a small one with flex space to rent for get-togethers every one or two quarters. Eventually we'll finalized a geographic home. In the meantime, I pay my employees better, pay for their internet, give better benefits, etc. (note: open to suggestions on what makes your life better as a remote worker)

cyberlurker 4y ago
A standing desk is a must. It makes me more productive because my body doesn't fall apart from sitting all day, so if I am in the zone I can stay there but just switch to standing and back. Previously, I needed to go on walks. My body requires this in my late 20’s. Every workplace should provide reimbursement for a standing desk and floor mat imo.
Nextgrid 4y ago
> open to suggestions on what makes your life better as a remote worker Provide good networking equipment free-of-charge. Powerline adapters are cheap, will work pretty much everywhere, don't require running wires and while they won't give you the fastest bandwidth, whatever bandwidth they end up achieving will usually remain stable with little packet loss. For people with laptops, give them APs to connect to the powerline adapters and to place in every room they plan to be working in. Network connectivity is paramount in a remote setting and it will always amaze me how otherwise-smart software engineers put up with terrible connections and have no clue where to even begin attacking the problem (they'll often blame the ISP even though the problem is in their LAN in the majority of cases). An unstable connection is horrible when it comes to calls/screen-sharing/etc as "modern" conferencing software is utterly terrible at handling interruptions (despite something like TeamSpeak from over a decade ago did it better even on computers orders of magnitude slower than now). Same for audio equipment. I'm lucky enough that AirPods and MacOS work well enough generally so if most of your employees use Mac they are a good option but otherwise Jabra also makes good wireless headsets that connect via USB (and handles the wireless itself with a proprietary protocol, so no Bluetooth shenanigans) so make those available if needed.
- dont__panic 4y ago
  On the other hand, I wish my employer would ban AirPods. The microphone quality is largely garbage and frequently cuts out or devolves into robot-voice messiness. If I ran a company, I would commission every employee with a nice over-ear headset with a boom mic and slight voice feedback in the ear cups. If I ever met with someone with crap audio, they'd have no excuse not to switch to a decent mic/speaker setup.

by tomrod 4y ago

cyberlurker 4y ago

A standing desk is a must. It makes me more productive because my body doesn't fall apart from sitting all day, so if I am in the zone I can stay there but just switch to standing and back. Previously, I needed to go on walks. My body requires this in my late 20’s. Every workplace should provide reimbursement for a standing desk and floor mat imo.

Nextgrid 4y ago

> open to suggestions on what makes your life better as a remote worker Provide good networking equipment free-of-charge. Powerline adapters are cheap, will work pretty much everywhere, don't require running wires and while they won't give you the fastest bandwidth, whatever bandwidth they end up achieving will usually remain stable with little packet loss. For people with laptops, give them APs to connect to the powerline adapters and to place in every room they plan to be working in. Network connectivity is paramount in a remote setting and it will always amaze me how otherwise-smart software engineers put up with terrible connections and have no clue where to even begin attacking the problem (they'll often blame the ISP even though the problem is in their LAN in the majority of cases). An unstable connection is horrible when it comes to calls/screen-sharing/etc as "modern" conferencing software is utterly terrible at handling interruptions (despite something like TeamSpeak from over a decade ago did it better even on computers orders of magnitude slower than now). Same for audio equipment. I'm lucky enough that AirPods and MacOS work well enough generally so if most of your employees use Mac they are a good option but otherwise Jabra also makes good wireless headsets that connect via USB (and handles the wireless itself with a proprietary protocol, so no Bluetooth shenanigans) so make those available if needed.

dont__panic 4y ago
On the other hand, I wish my employer would ban AirPods. The microphone quality is largely garbage and frequently cuts out or devolves into robot-voice messiness. If I ran a company, I would commission every employee with a nice over-ear headset with a boom mic and slight voice feedback in the ear cups. If I ever met with someone with crap audio, they'd have no excuse not to switch to a decent mic/speaker setup.