3 ms·

i work for american companies from abroad (i am english, but live in chile). i have worked for a small-ish startup (about a dozen employees) and a technical co

i work for american companies from abroad (i am english, but live in chile). i have worked for a small-ish startup (about a dozen employees) and a technical consultancy (similar size). before that i had worked with a team split across two locations (usa and chile); before that i worked from england for a company in scotland (after working locally - moving south pushed me into my first remote job). i am not convinced that the problems are any worse than working locally, to be honest. the problems may be different, but it's still true that a good manager makes life easier, and that a bad manager can be worked around. so i would say that if you have an experienced employee that you trust (as i hope i am!) then it's not a big deal. and inexperienced people that you don't trust are still a crap-shoot - remote working doesn't change that. any way of working has its own issues. if you're competent you can solve them; it's your job to do so. if you can't, working locally will only make the misery local. i guess maybe people want specific advice anyway. the most important thing is that you (as employee) need to force feed status to your employer. there's no feeling worse in the world than hearing "so what have you been doing?". meeting up physically once a year or so is also a good idea. weekly teleconferences help. that's all as obvious as it sounds, which brings me back to my original point... [ps and personally, i love it. the peace and freedom are great. good pay (compared to local market) is a bonus.] [pps an observation that might be illuminating - i just realised that half my computer screen is devoted to communication. i have a text console on the left, with (ascii) mail in the current tab; on the right i have an open chat window; in the middle is eclipse). the web browser alt/tabs over eclipse and chat.]

route66 15y ago
> that you (as employee) need to force feed status to your employer That's what I experienced also. Make yourself heard: a simple mail at the end of the day to your team/manager will do. Ask for feedback. This is important when you are remotely attached to an otherwise locally working team, prevents ending up as "the guy who breaks CI once a month". When you feel stuck or have the idea you feel disconnected from the flow of the team (or something stalled there) it's easy to ask for a skype/chat meeting with the group. In general I find communication not to be the problem, but it shows that bad or lacking communication locally gets somewhat amplified if you're passive because you don't share water cooler/bathroom with the team.

route66 15y ago

> that you (as employee) need to force feed status to your employer That's what I experienced also. Make yourself heard: a simple mail at the end of the day to your team/manager will do. Ask for feedback. This is important when you are remotely attached to an otherwise locally working team, prevents ending up as "the guy who breaks CI once a month". When you feel stuck or have the idea you feel disconnected from the flow of the team (or something stalled there) it's easy to ask for a skype/chat meeting with the group. In general I find communication not to be the problem, but it shows that bad or lacking communication locally gets somewhat amplified if you're passive because you don't share water cooler/bathroom with the team.