36 ms·

Remote Working – 3 Year Retrospective

145 points by duggan 12y ago

gii 12y ago
You've pretty much outlined all the pros and cons of working remotely. However working remotely is not so common in Europe than it is in US. Probably Europe is lacking behind with 5+ years, because most of the companies here are still on the "top-notch MBA consulting" staff. I still meet people who make their living from 2 excel files they copied from their Big4 internship :) You said you are the only guy outside US. Have you tries looking for something "nearby"?
- whichdan 12y ago
  I think you're hugely overestimating how many US companies support remote working.
- jonlives 12y ago
  Oh I don't mind being the only non-US person, I love my job :) I was more presenting it as a factor that plays into my views.
zedpm 12y ago
Excellent analysis of remote working. I worked for nine years remotely (full-time for the last three years) with an entirely remote team, and most of this article rings true. Flying team members in every so often for in-person meetings is hugely valuable. This subject is near and dear to me, as I live in a rural area and I'd like to find another full-time remote position. I'm frustrated by the opposition to remote devs from so many tech companies, who ought to be the last ones to resist this obvious solution. Many of the reasons ring hollow when the same companies lament the lack of qualified candidates to fill their positions -- they're essentially saying that they'd rather do without than deal with the potential downsides of remote workers.
- gii 12y ago
  This is due to mediocre middle/upper management. For them it is a huge difference if you are the building next to theirs or in some rural area, although in both cases you will communicate through the wire. The business is already global, soon or later they'll have to accept this.
- jmccree 12y ago
  This subject is interesting to me. I've worked remote my entire career, and mostly positive experiences. One negative experience was at a place struggling to fill positions and opened up to remote team members, but they did not change the company culture to support the remote members, and as a result all of the remote members were gone within a year or two and the experiment deemed "a failure". So I understand why some companies are reluctant to bring on remote members. It requires your entire company culture to change if you want a remote team member and not just someone used as basically contract labor. For a team used to making decisions and having conversations in person, it's a big change to have to move everything online to include the remote person/s. It can breed resentment on both sides. In my negative experience I would find out decisions had been made days ago while the on-site team was out to lunch together, and no one had informed those of us working remotely. Change is not easy. Companies that started with a remote workflow or commit fully to embracing a remote workflow can make teams located anywhere work. Adding on remote team members without a culture change to support it is a recipe for disaster.
percept 12y ago
I wouldn't recommend making office visits a requirement, however, as some companies appear to do. Like all things corporate-mandated, this can seem heavy-handed and present logistical challenges for remote workers. I believe I've seen some companies requiring quarterly travel, and this places a burden on devs with families, pets, etc. Even then, would those who opt-out be treated differently? ("Well Jon has no problem traveling to the office, why do you?")
- jonlives 12y ago
  Excellent point - it should be made easy, but not mandatory :)
virmundi 12y ago
On the "Substandard Treatment", my personal experience is the loss of power. I was the team lead for a government project. My wife took a job she always wanted; we move 900 miles away to Florida. Pretty much after that, while still team lead, the team lost cohesion. It was harder to drive changes and tasks at a distance than if I was in someone's cube.
- gii 12y ago
  You lost team spirit, but this is not because of the distance. It is either "team culture" or your personal skills.
- yankeehue 12y ago
  I'm in a similar boat: remote team lead on a government project living in FL :) Was the rest of the team local to each other? That can be difficult because the team may be accustom to conducting all communication verbally, where you need it to be electronic. I was a new-comer to the team when I became the remote lead, and one of the things I did was focus on getting folks to communicate electronically. Luckily for me, they were in individual offices spread around the building and two were in other buildings, so they were already using IM, chat, and email. I just needed to reinforce it. Also from the beginning, I've focused on team cohesion and team communication. The team was in a bad state when I joined, so again lucky for me, it was something I knew needed extra attention. As a team lead, it's an important factor that you need to pay attention to, but perhaps don't have to spend a lot of time on when everyone is local. As a remote team lead, you need to spend a non-trivial amount of time on it. And face time is still important. I travel twice a month for a day or two and try to meet with everyone during that time. I also conduct a daily standup where the rest of the team is in the room and I'm on the phone. It can be difficult to follow the conversations in the room from the phone, but really the goal is to make sure the team is talking to each other, and isn't about my control of the conversation or of the team. Where in FL are you?
  - jmccree 12y ago
    Have you tried doing a daily standup where everyone calls in individually from their office? In my experience things work the best when everyone is operating remotely with the same "communication handicap".
quaffapint 12y ago
I've been working remotely for a big bank for the past 7 years. I don't go into an office and haven't seen my team in the past 4 years. The last time people got together for a project kickoff a few years back they just sat around a conference table all on webex. I stayed home. Unfortunately new management is taking away the remote option for new hires for the most part. Also some people based on where they live had to go back into the office. For myself, I never felt a difference in work, other than I didn't have to have headphones on all the time to try and get any work done in a cube and no tie. I did find that it can lead you to feel 'alone' during the day when wife is at work and kids at school I guess. Though after getting a dog who wants to play and go out it's not as bad :-). When I move on from this job, it will be VERY hard to not work at least some days remotely. There aren't a lot of jobs around here that offer that. That is a downside of doing this so long, it just becomes how you work and how your day is supposed to be. I've tuned my life around it.
- stripe 12y ago
  Do you know the reasons why management is moving away from working remotely? In an effort to attract and keep more talent the company for which I work allows working remotely more and more. Without that option the turn over rate for engineers would have doubled in the last year.
  - quaffapint 12y ago
    The reason they went remote was to save money on real estate. They could sell buildings and get rid of leases. The specific reasons they no longer want to go remote has not been shared with us other than the usual 'we want more teamwork'. It's a shame. I tried to apply to other internal jobs, but they won't allow me to work remotely because of the new policy. So now they've severely limited their candidate pool and may have to look outside the bank and incur the costs that brings.
- boothead 12y ago
  Not seen that much remote work in banking. I work at an investment bank in London at the moment, and while I do have to option to work at home, it's only really supposed to be if you need to. With the state of public transport in London, it can't be long before they start looking at how much money they lose on a prticularly bad day of thier employees being stuch on a train somewhere!
karlb 12y ago
He mentions improved video conferencing. I recently discovered that a $90 Logitech webcam [1] hugely outperforms the one built into my Retina MacBook Pro. It has a wider angle, higher resolution, and—most importantly—makes the room look bright in a way that I never managed to achieve using lighting. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Webcam-Widescreen-Calling-Recording/dp/B006JH8T3S/ref=sr_1_1 http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Webcam-Widescreen-Calling-Rec...
TarpitCarnivore 12y ago
The part about "Substandard Treatment" hits home for me. When I first went remote the hardest that was the hardest thing for me to adjust too. Lunches and/or dinners being bought for them, weekend team trips, etc. It's a trivial thing in the grand scheme of things, but it can affect morale.
- VLM 12y ago
  "weekend team trips" Also jealousy issues... Realize that most people can't stand those things and it tends to turn into a test of personality, who will kiss up no matter how awful the experience, or who has the guts to admit the emperor has no clothes... In my wife's work at home experience there was some jealousy that she got to avoid teambuilding by default, while the office people were punished by having to attend. How come I have to go to the Christmas party on my day off and (VLM's wife) doesn't have to? Oh and another jealousy issue... in this day and age not so many people smoke, but the smokers did not like that my wife could theoretically smoke at her desk but they can not (thankfully she doesn't smoke) And discipline issues... "(VLM's wife) gets to pick up a sick kid at school without being formally written up for leaving work early because nobody notices, so why am I being written up?" and so forth. A lot of workplace BS exists so bosses can manufacture the reason to fire folks they can't just fire for no cause, and its going to collide with the obvious work at home differences. At medium size corporations you can also run into Dilbertian requirement problems. Small corporations ignore "corporatism" and big corporations already have remote training, but it can be a mystery how to check the checkbox for annual diversity training, or annual PCI/DSS compliance training, or however else HR tortures the employees. She usually combined this kind of stuff with the rare facility visit, so we'll all go to diversity class as a team in the morning and then hang out and talk about work (aka goof off) in the afternoon.
  - k__ 12y ago
    > Realize that most people can't stand those things THIS. I hated it...
famousactress 12y ago
OP (or other Etsy-ers) - is Etsy remote friendly as a rule? They've always been around the top of my employment-crush list but I'm pretty committed to staying remote after over four years working that way (and NYC is a visit-not-live location for me!). I thought when I'd looked in the past Etsy wasn't obviously remote friendly.
- ryanSrich 12y ago
  Looking at their site it seems that they are not remote friendly. My guess would be that OPs specific team and or specific office location is remote friendly. But Etsy as a whole does not promote remote work anywhere on their site.
wnm 12y ago
i love going to the office. i really do. it gets me out of the house, it gives my day structure, it clearly separates work and play. but i do like that more and more companies allow working remotely. I'm from a smallish city in Germany with not many jobs available. Having the opportunity to find interesting work in the US without moving there is awesome. Last month alone, I collected 700 job listings from various job boards for my remote work newsletter. (http://remoteworknewsletter.com http://remoteworknewsletter.com)
jasonkester 12y ago
Nice writeup. I've noticed that a lot of the negatives (which the author nails, by the way) go away if you move the entire company remote. I've been working for the last 4 years with a 150 person software company that has no office whatsoever. Everybody is remote. As such, we get to remove the biggest land mine, which is being the "remote guy" on an otherwise onsite team, missing out on communication and finding yourself sidelined. Instead, everybody is forced through all the bullet points on the author's "communication" section, and the playing field is leveled. It also kills off the "Sub Standard Treatment" and "Stopping Work" issues, since everybody is going through the same thing. I'm also 6+ hours ahead of most of my team, and there are only a handful of times a year when somebody forgets that and pings me at 10pm. And in those cases, since my work machine is out above the garage, I only find out about it the next morning. The upsides the author touches on are just plain amazing. I'll often "commute" to work via an hour or so of mountain biking and bouldering. In the winter, I'll often simply up sticks and take the family to go live on a beach in the Caribbean because hey, they have internet there and it's actually a better time zone for the team. (That's where I am now, and will be through March). In short, remote is the way forward. And Software is just ridiculously compatible with it. I'm amazed that there are any product companies left that force their employees to drive an hour each way to sit in a felt cube. It's the future. If you're not remote, find a way to fix that.
- eertami 12y ago
  >It's the future. If you're not remote, find a way to fix that. Would you suggest this even for new grads looking for a first job? I just know that commuting every day is going to be incredibly depressing but I haven't seen much in the way of remote opportunities for fresh grads.
  - wiremine 12y ago
    > Would you suggest this even for new grads looking for a first job? Nope. I've been a full-time remote worker for 6.5 years, and 1/2 time (2 days a week) for 4 years before that. During that time I've managed and hired remote workers. The reality is remote work is not for everyone, and I think that is even more so for new grads. There is a lot of mentoring that happens early in someone's career, and that is difficult to pick up in a remote environment. I think over time the need for having that on-site mentoring decreases, but it's critical in the first 12 to 24 months.
Someone1234 12y ago
I'm not one of these "I hate daylight savings time" people. But I will say it is a massive pain in the arse that DST starts and stops at different times in different places. So instead of you being for example 8 hours difference you might be 9, or 7, and so on. It is really super annoying and avoidable with a little cooperation.
mmattax 12y ago
Great Pros/Cons on remote working. I've definitely felt cabin fever. I find a balance by going to a co-working spot once or twice a week. Timezones can also be hard. We've struggled with getting our team together for daily standup meetings in the AM, which led us to build our own tool (http://heyflock.com http://heyflock.com).
scalesolved 12y ago
How does Esty pay you? Do they have a financial presence in the UK? Nice write up too!
- jonlives 12y ago
  we have a UK office (and company), so I get paid from there, tax is normal UK PAYE.
- k__ 12y ago
  Good question. I want to work remote too, but I'm from Germany and don't know anything about the financial implications.
jumby 12y ago
I lead a 100% distributed team for a subsidiary of NYSE:KAR [US-based] and have worked remotely for 5 years. I think this post is very accurate - although we don't have a fancy video-conferencing system, good communication and skype are paramount to remote success (along with VOIP phones, wikis, github enterprise, email and rest of the usual suspects). Additionally, it takes the right personality -- a self-starter who can work a dedicated day with minimal oversight. That means: not playing xbox in the middle of the day or running around taking your kids to soccer practice (though, a little of that is understood, just not blowing off 5 hours a day). For me personally, no commute (did the bay area thing for years) and raising my kids where I want to is ultra important. Hope that more companies will realize the benefits of remote engineers. I agree with a comment made here re: lamenting the lack of skilled engineers, but not hiring remote. Rings hollow to me too. (oh, and I'm hiring!)
- aantix 12y ago
  Email address?
  - jumby 12y ago
    edited my profile :)
    - sergiotapia 12y ago
      Sent! :)
serve_yay 12y ago
Good writeup, I experienced all of this working from home for about 4 years. I was living on the US west coast working for a company on the east coast, so I worked a pretty early schedule, but there's really nothing like being done with your day at 1:30-2:30pm. A few months back I got a new job where I work in the office, and the commute is hands-down the worst part. Second worst is the loss of privacy - I mean just think how much nicer it is to use your own bathroom than a public one. All in all, however, I think remote and in the office is a mixed bag, I don't think one is clearly better than the other. There is something to be said for being in a physical place with smart people, interacting in meatspace, having lunch together, etc. One thing rarely noted when discussing this issue: when you work in the office, your employer pays for the office space. When you work from home, you pay for it. You will probably want a bigger or more nicely-appointed place since you're going to be there basically all the time. You will pay for that. Another thing, if you're at a place where very few people are remote, you will be seen as having "lucked out" or having it easier than others. That perception can bite you.
bajsejohannes 12y ago
I worked remotely for around two years, and the most helpful tool was https://www.sqwiggle.com/ https://www.sqwiggle.com/ . You colleagues feel just a little closer that way. It even makes it easy to listen in to a conversation that happens in an office with multiple people. That said, quite a few people found it creepy, and we allowed anyone to opt out.
trustfundbaby 12y ago
I think the takeaway from this is that remote is harder than folks make it sound. Not just anybody can do it. Running a company that is fully remote is even more difficult especially when you're trying to establish things like a coherent company culture. Big remote-work fan but it should be clear to everyone that Colocating everyone to a physical space definitely has its benefits, especially when you're starting out.
espinchi 12y ago
Since we're talking about remote work. How is this handled at the administrative/legal level? Does the company (US based, in this case) have to create subsidiaries in all the countries where the employees are? Or do they have to register themselves as freelancers and have a contractor contract? I know, I know we're not lawyers here. But anyone has some pointers?
- tomislav 12y ago
  I have my own LLC where I'm employed and just send an invoice every month. I found its the easiest way to handle taxes, health insurance and business expenses.

145 points by duggan 12y ago

gii 12y ago

You've pretty much outlined all the pros and cons of working remotely. However working remotely is not so common in Europe than it is in US. Probably Europe is lacking behind with 5+ years, because most of the companies here are still on the "top-notch MBA consulting" staff. I still meet people who make their living from 2 excel files they copied from their Big4 internship :) You said you are the only guy outside US. Have you tries looking for something "nearby"?

whichdan 12y ago
I think you're hugely overestimating how many US companies support remote working.
jonlives 12y ago
Oh I don't mind being the only non-US person, I love my job :) I was more presenting it as a factor that plays into my views.

zedpm 12y ago

Excellent analysis of remote working. I worked for nine years remotely (full-time for the last three years) with an entirely remote team, and most of this article rings true. Flying team members in every so often for in-person meetings is hugely valuable. This subject is near and dear to me, as I live in a rural area and I'd like to find another full-time remote position. I'm frustrated by the opposition to remote devs from so many tech companies, who ought to be the last ones to resist this obvious solution. Many of the reasons ring hollow when the same companies lament the lack of qualified candidates to fill their positions -- they're essentially saying that they'd rather do without than deal with the potential downsides of remote workers.

gii 12y ago
This is due to mediocre middle/upper management. For them it is a huge difference if you are the building next to theirs or in some rural area, although in both cases you will communicate through the wire. The business is already global, soon or later they'll have to accept this.
jmccree 12y ago
This subject is interesting to me. I've worked remote my entire career, and mostly positive experiences. One negative experience was at a place struggling to fill positions and opened up to remote team members, but they did not change the company culture to support the remote members, and as a result all of the remote members were gone within a year or two and the experiment deemed "a failure". So I understand why some companies are reluctant to bring on remote members. It requires your entire company culture to change if you want a remote team member and not just someone used as basically contract labor. For a team used to making decisions and having conversations in person, it's a big change to have to move everything online to include the remote person/s. It can breed resentment on both sides. In my negative experience I would find out decisions had been made days ago while the on-site team was out to lunch together, and no one had informed those of us working remotely. Change is not easy. Companies that started with a remote workflow or commit fully to embracing a remote workflow can make teams located anywhere work. Adding on remote team members without a culture change to support it is a recipe for disaster.

percept 12y ago

I wouldn't recommend making office visits a requirement, however, as some companies appear to do. Like all things corporate-mandated, this can seem heavy-handed and present logistical challenges for remote workers. I believe I've seen some companies requiring quarterly travel, and this places a burden on devs with families, pets, etc. Even then, would those who opt-out be treated differently? ("Well Jon has no problem traveling to the office, why do you?")

jonlives 12y ago
Excellent point - it should be made easy, but not mandatory :)

virmundi 12y ago

On the "Substandard Treatment", my personal experience is the loss of power. I was the team lead for a government project. My wife took a job she always wanted; we move 900 miles away to Florida. Pretty much after that, while still team lead, the team lost cohesion. It was harder to drive changes and tasks at a distance than if I was in someone's cube.

gii 12y ago
You lost team spirit, but this is not because of the distance. It is either "team culture" or your personal skills.
yankeehue 12y ago
I'm in a similar boat: remote team lead on a government project living in FL :) Was the rest of the team local to each other? That can be difficult because the team may be accustom to conducting all communication verbally, where you need it to be electronic. I was a new-comer to the team when I became the remote lead, and one of the things I did was focus on getting folks to communicate electronically. Luckily for me, they were in individual offices spread around the building and two were in other buildings, so they were already using IM, chat, and email. I just needed to reinforce it. Also from the beginning, I've focused on team cohesion and team communication. The team was in a bad state when I joined, so again lucky for me, it was something I knew needed extra attention. As a team lead, it's an important factor that you need to pay attention to, but perhaps don't have to spend a lot of time on when everyone is local. As a remote team lead, you need to spend a non-trivial amount of time on it. And face time is still important. I travel twice a month for a day or two and try to meet with everyone during that time. I also conduct a daily standup where the rest of the team is in the room and I'm on the phone. It can be difficult to follow the conversations in the room from the phone, but really the goal is to make sure the team is talking to each other, and isn't about my control of the conversation or of the team. Where in FL are you?
- jmccree 12y ago
  Have you tried doing a daily standup where everyone calls in individually from their office? In my experience things work the best when everyone is operating remotely with the same "communication handicap".

quaffapint 12y ago

I've been working remotely for a big bank for the past 7 years. I don't go into an office and haven't seen my team in the past 4 years. The last time people got together for a project kickoff a few years back they just sat around a conference table all on webex. I stayed home. Unfortunately new management is taking away the remote option for new hires for the most part. Also some people based on where they live had to go back into the office. For myself, I never felt a difference in work, other than I didn't have to have headphones on all the time to try and get any work done in a cube and no tie. I did find that it can lead you to feel 'alone' during the day when wife is at work and kids at school I guess. Though after getting a dog who wants to play and go out it's not as bad :-). When I move on from this job, it will be VERY hard to not work at least some days remotely. There aren't a lot of jobs around here that offer that. That is a downside of doing this so long, it just becomes how you work and how your day is supposed to be. I've tuned my life around it.

stripe 12y ago
Do you know the reasons why management is moving away from working remotely? In an effort to attract and keep more talent the company for which I work allows working remotely more and more. Without that option the turn over rate for engineers would have doubled in the last year.
- quaffapint 12y ago
  The reason they went remote was to save money on real estate. They could sell buildings and get rid of leases. The specific reasons they no longer want to go remote has not been shared with us other than the usual 'we want more teamwork'. It's a shame. I tried to apply to other internal jobs, but they won't allow me to work remotely because of the new policy. So now they've severely limited their candidate pool and may have to look outside the bank and incur the costs that brings.
boothead 12y ago
Not seen that much remote work in banking. I work at an investment bank in London at the moment, and while I do have to option to work at home, it's only really supposed to be if you need to. With the state of public transport in London, it can't be long before they start looking at how much money they lose on a prticularly bad day of thier employees being stuch on a train somewhere!

karlb 12y ago

He mentions improved video conferencing. I recently discovered that a $90 Logitech webcam [1] hugely outperforms the one built into my Retina MacBook Pro. It has a wider angle, higher resolution, and—most importantly—makes the room look bright in a way that I never managed to achieve using lighting. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Webcam-Widescreen-Calling-Recording/dp/B006JH8T3S/ref=sr_1_1 http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Webcam-Widescreen-Calling-Rec...

TarpitCarnivore 12y ago

The part about "Substandard Treatment" hits home for me. When I first went remote the hardest that was the hardest thing for me to adjust too. Lunches and/or dinners being bought for them, weekend team trips, etc. It's a trivial thing in the grand scheme of things, but it can affect morale.

VLM 12y ago
"weekend team trips" Also jealousy issues... Realize that most people can't stand those things and it tends to turn into a test of personality, who will kiss up no matter how awful the experience, or who has the guts to admit the emperor has no clothes... In my wife's work at home experience there was some jealousy that she got to avoid teambuilding by default, while the office people were punished by having to attend. How come I have to go to the Christmas party on my day off and (VLM's wife) doesn't have to? Oh and another jealousy issue... in this day and age not so many people smoke, but the smokers did not like that my wife could theoretically smoke at her desk but they can not (thankfully she doesn't smoke) And discipline issues... "(VLM's wife) gets to pick up a sick kid at school without being formally written up for leaving work early because nobody notices, so why am I being written up?" and so forth. A lot of workplace BS exists so bosses can manufacture the reason to fire folks they can't just fire for no cause, and its going to collide with the obvious work at home differences. At medium size corporations you can also run into Dilbertian requirement problems. Small corporations ignore "corporatism" and big corporations already have remote training, but it can be a mystery how to check the checkbox for annual diversity training, or annual PCI/DSS compliance training, or however else HR tortures the employees. She usually combined this kind of stuff with the rare facility visit, so we'll all go to diversity class as a team in the morning and then hang out and talk about work (aka goof off) in the afternoon.
- k__ 12y ago
  > Realize that most people can't stand those things THIS. I hated it...

famousactress 12y ago

OP (or other Etsy-ers) - is Etsy remote friendly as a rule? They've always been around the top of my employment-crush list but I'm pretty committed to staying remote after over four years working that way (and NYC is a visit-not-live location for me!). I thought when I'd looked in the past Etsy wasn't obviously remote friendly.

ryanSrich 12y ago
Looking at their site it seems that they are not remote friendly. My guess would be that OPs specific team and or specific office location is remote friendly. But Etsy as a whole does not promote remote work anywhere on their site.

wnm 12y ago

i love going to the office. i really do. it gets me out of the house, it gives my day structure, it clearly separates work and play. but i do like that more and more companies allow working remotely. I'm from a smallish city in Germany with not many jobs available. Having the opportunity to find interesting work in the US without moving there is awesome. Last month alone, I collected 700 job listings from various job boards for my remote work newsletter. (http://remoteworknewsletter.com http://remoteworknewsletter.com)

jasonkester 12y ago

Nice writeup. I've noticed that a lot of the negatives (which the author nails, by the way) go away if you move the entire company remote. I've been working for the last 4 years with a 150 person software company that has no office whatsoever. Everybody is remote. As such, we get to remove the biggest land mine, which is being the "remote guy" on an otherwise onsite team, missing out on communication and finding yourself sidelined. Instead, everybody is forced through all the bullet points on the author's "communication" section, and the playing field is leveled. It also kills off the "Sub Standard Treatment" and "Stopping Work" issues, since everybody is going through the same thing. I'm also 6+ hours ahead of most of my team, and there are only a handful of times a year when somebody forgets that and pings me at 10pm. And in those cases, since my work machine is out above the garage, I only find out about it the next morning. The upsides the author touches on are just plain amazing. I'll often "commute" to work via an hour or so of mountain biking and bouldering. In the winter, I'll often simply up sticks and take the family to go live on a beach in the Caribbean because hey, they have internet there and it's actually a better time zone for the team. (That's where I am now, and will be through March). In short, remote is the way forward. And Software is just ridiculously compatible with it. I'm amazed that there are any product companies left that force their employees to drive an hour each way to sit in a felt cube. It's the future. If you're not remote, find a way to fix that.

eertami 12y ago
>It's the future. If you're not remote, find a way to fix that. Would you suggest this even for new grads looking for a first job? I just know that commuting every day is going to be incredibly depressing but I haven't seen much in the way of remote opportunities for fresh grads.
- wiremine 12y ago
  > Would you suggest this even for new grads looking for a first job? Nope. I've been a full-time remote worker for 6.5 years, and 1/2 time (2 days a week) for 4 years before that. During that time I've managed and hired remote workers. The reality is remote work is not for everyone, and I think that is even more so for new grads. There is a lot of mentoring that happens early in someone's career, and that is difficult to pick up in a remote environment. I think over time the need for having that on-site mentoring decreases, but it's critical in the first 12 to 24 months.

Someone1234 12y ago

I'm not one of these "I hate daylight savings time" people. But I will say it is a massive pain in the arse that DST starts and stops at different times in different places. So instead of you being for example 8 hours difference you might be 9, or 7, and so on. It is really super annoying and avoidable with a little cooperation.

mmattax 12y ago

Great Pros/Cons on remote working. I've definitely felt cabin fever. I find a balance by going to a co-working spot once or twice a week. Timezones can also be hard. We've struggled with getting our team together for daily standup meetings in the AM, which led us to build our own tool (http://heyflock.com http://heyflock.com).

scalesolved 12y ago

How does Esty pay you? Do they have a financial presence in the UK? Nice write up too!

jonlives 12y ago
we have a UK office (and company), so I get paid from there, tax is normal UK PAYE.
k__ 12y ago
Good question. I want to work remote too, but I'm from Germany and don't know anything about the financial implications.

jumby 12y ago

I lead a 100% distributed team for a subsidiary of NYSE:KAR [US-based] and have worked remotely for 5 years. I think this post is very accurate - although we don't have a fancy video-conferencing system, good communication and skype are paramount to remote success (along with VOIP phones, wikis, github enterprise, email and rest of the usual suspects). Additionally, it takes the right personality -- a self-starter who can work a dedicated day with minimal oversight. That means: not playing xbox in the middle of the day or running around taking your kids to soccer practice (though, a little of that is understood, just not blowing off 5 hours a day). For me personally, no commute (did the bay area thing for years) and raising my kids where I want to is ultra important. Hope that more companies will realize the benefits of remote engineers. I agree with a comment made here re: lamenting the lack of skilled engineers, but not hiring remote. Rings hollow to me too. (oh, and I'm hiring!)

aantix 12y ago
Email address?
- jumby 12y ago
  edited my profile :)
  - sergiotapia 12y ago
    Sent! :)

serve_yay 12y ago

Good writeup, I experienced all of this working from home for about 4 years. I was living on the US west coast working for a company on the east coast, so I worked a pretty early schedule, but there's really nothing like being done with your day at 1:30-2:30pm. A few months back I got a new job where I work in the office, and the commute is hands-down the worst part. Second worst is the loss of privacy - I mean just think how much nicer it is to use your own bathroom than a public one. All in all, however, I think remote and in the office is a mixed bag, I don't think one is clearly better than the other. There is something to be said for being in a physical place with smart people, interacting in meatspace, having lunch together, etc. One thing rarely noted when discussing this issue: when you work in the office, your employer pays for the office space. When you work from home, you pay for it. You will probably want a bigger or more nicely-appointed place since you're going to be there basically all the time. You will pay for that. Another thing, if you're at a place where very few people are remote, you will be seen as having "lucked out" or having it easier than others. That perception can bite you.

bajsejohannes 12y ago

I worked remotely for around two years, and the most helpful tool was https://www.sqwiggle.com/ https://www.sqwiggle.com/ . You colleagues feel just a little closer that way. It even makes it easy to listen in to a conversation that happens in an office with multiple people. That said, quite a few people found it creepy, and we allowed anyone to opt out.

trustfundbaby 12y ago

I think the takeaway from this is that remote is harder than folks make it sound. Not just anybody can do it. Running a company that is fully remote is even more difficult especially when you're trying to establish things like a coherent company culture. Big remote-work fan but it should be clear to everyone that Colocating everyone to a physical space definitely has its benefits, especially when you're starting out.

espinchi 12y ago

Since we're talking about remote work. How is this handled at the administrative/legal level? Does the company (US based, in this case) have to create subsidiaries in all the countries where the employees are? Or do they have to register themselves as freelancers and have a contractor contract? I know, I know we're not lawyers here. But anyone has some pointers?

tomislav 12y ago
I have my own LLC where I'm employed and just send an invoice every month. I found its the easiest way to handle taxes, health insurance and business expenses.