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Is it just me? Do you find that working remotely you can get more work done than being in the office with coworkers? The days that I'm in the office working I d

Is it just me? Do you find that working remotely you can get more work done than being in the office with coworkers? The days that I'm in the office working I don't seem to get as much actual work done, because I'm spending most of the day in meetings.

tarr11 13y ago
It's too easy for people to call too many meetings. There is no real cost. Perhaps if it were deducted from your pay or something ... ;) I find commuting and all it's associated challenges exhausting (traffic, public transit, parking, etc) You also have to factor in how tired you are when you start to actually work.
- GVIrish 13y ago
  I propose a meeting budget. Each manager gets a meeting budget of X minutes per week. Once you're out of budget, no more meetings, unless you want to purchase more minutes with real cash. That cash pays whoever you invited to your meeting.
henrik_w 13y ago
Meetings != being at the office. I work at an office (and get lots done), but only have a one-hour meeting every other week with my team. That's it. I'm very productive at the office, and I really value all the face-to-face interactions (discussing how to structure the code, debugging together etc). I blogged about this in "Programmer Productivity - Interruptions, Meetings and Working Remotely": http://henrikwarne.com/2013/04/02/programmer-productivity-interruptions-meetings-and-working-remotely/ http://henrikwarne.com/2013/04/02/programmer-productivity-in...
Osiris 13y ago
All my meetings are conference calls, so working remote doesn't help there. For me the big benefit or working in my basement is not having co-workers blabbering about hunting or football or whatever the topic of the day is. In my cube at the office it's really hard to tune out the noise. At home in my basement office, it's just me and the furnace. I do miss out on human interaction and being able to bounce ideas of co-workers.
nicholassmith 13y ago
I'll generally get more done in 2 hours working from my home office than I would in 4 hours in an office, let alone if there's a meeting as well.
- erichurkman 13y ago
  Don't forget the meeting that you have to prepare for the meeting; the dreaded pre-meeting. "Hey, Eric, mind if we get together to go over the meeting this afternoon?" And the feared post-meeting. "Hey, Eric, can we chat later about that meeting?" And the email, "Hey, Eric, I missed the meeting. Can you forward me your notes?"
  - nicholassmith 13y ago
    I always like the meeting you have about the meeting, then the follow up meeting a few days later.
jasonkester 13y ago
For a fair comparison, you'll need to take a 20 minute break to walk to Starbucks at 9:30, then spend the entire time from 10:30 to 12:30 discussing where to go to lunch (then an hour or so actually going there), then with luck another hour eating cake from 3-4 because it's Stan's birthday. Do those things from home, then decide whether you're more productive than at the office. Otherwise you're not really comparing apples to apples.
matwood 13y ago
Sounds like they save the meetings for when you are there. When I worked remote for a few years I had a full day of meetings every Thursday. Remote or not, meetings are still meetings.

tarr11 13y ago

It's too easy for people to call too many meetings. There is no real cost. Perhaps if it were deducted from your pay or something ... ;) I find commuting and all it's associated challenges exhausting (traffic, public transit, parking, etc) You also have to factor in how tired you are when you start to actually work.

GVIrish 13y ago
I propose a meeting budget. Each manager gets a meeting budget of X minutes per week. Once you're out of budget, no more meetings, unless you want to purchase more minutes with real cash. That cash pays whoever you invited to your meeting.

henrik_w 13y ago

Meetings != being at the office. I work at an office (and get lots done), but only have a one-hour meeting every other week with my team. That's it. I'm very productive at the office, and I really value all the face-to-face interactions (discussing how to structure the code, debugging together etc). I blogged about this in "Programmer Productivity - Interruptions, Meetings and Working Remotely": http://henrikwarne.com/2013/04/02/programmer-productivity-interruptions-meetings-and-working-remotely/ http://henrikwarne.com/2013/04/02/programmer-productivity-in...

Osiris 13y ago

All my meetings are conference calls, so working remote doesn't help there. For me the big benefit or working in my basement is not having co-workers blabbering about hunting or football or whatever the topic of the day is. In my cube at the office it's really hard to tune out the noise. At home in my basement office, it's just me and the furnace. I do miss out on human interaction and being able to bounce ideas of co-workers.

nicholassmith 13y ago

I'll generally get more done in 2 hours working from my home office than I would in 4 hours in an office, let alone if there's a meeting as well.

erichurkman 13y ago
Don't forget the meeting that you have to prepare for the meeting; the dreaded pre-meeting. "Hey, Eric, mind if we get together to go over the meeting this afternoon?" And the feared post-meeting. "Hey, Eric, can we chat later about that meeting?" And the email, "Hey, Eric, I missed the meeting. Can you forward me your notes?"
- nicholassmith 13y ago
  I always like the meeting you have about the meeting, then the follow up meeting a few days later.

jasonkester 13y ago

For a fair comparison, you'll need to take a 20 minute break to walk to Starbucks at 9:30, then spend the entire time from 10:30 to 12:30 discussing where to go to lunch (then an hour or so actually going there), then with luck another hour eating cake from 3-4 because it's Stan's birthday. Do those things from home, then decide whether you're more productive than at the office. Otherwise you're not really comparing apples to apples.

matwood 13y ago

Sounds like they save the meetings for when you are there. When I worked remote for a few years I had a full day of meetings every Thursday. Remote or not, meetings are still meetings.