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I worked remotely from Tahiti for a few months. It was an amazing experience that I'll always cherish. Now I just need to convince my new boss to let me do this

I worked remotely from Tahiti for a few months. It was an amazing experience that I'll always cherish. Now I just need to convince my new boss to let me do this again somewhere else. For those of you in the pacific time zone (sf bay). If you're interested in doing this, I recommend Tahiti or Hawaii. It's three hours off from pacific time during the summer months but only 2 hours off during winter. You can easily work a local time of 6-3 which would be 8-5 in PT. This gives you the rest of the day to enjoy paradise. A tip on how to convince your boss to let you do this: Plan to go on a two week vacation somewhere. When asking for time off, ask your boss if they mind you working remotely for a couple weeks following your vacation. It might just work--and like in my case I found out that my boss didn't care if I stayed longer.

iolothebard 12y ago
Lol, 8am Pacific Time. If the developers I worked with were in by 10am scrum I was surprised. I called it CA time. Roll in at 10am, 1.5-2 hour lunch, surprisingly most everyone gone at 5pm because kids or something else. My coworkers would ask me how many hours I was working, to which I'd reply 40. How many are you working?
- eyeareque 12y ago
  I worked 40 a week during my trip. I'm not a developer though, and my coworkers worked similar schedules.
- anonu 12y ago
  I was recently on vacation in Fiji for 2 weeks. I visited a couple islands - even some that were quite tiny by island standards. What impressed me was that there was fast 4G wireless service everywhere. Would definitely think about working remotely from Fiji with that high internet quality.
  - jmccree 12y ago
    Fiji lucks out by being a midway point on many of the fiber cables from Australia to Hawaii.
- slayed0 12y ago
  I am a developer in SF and work in finance. We are all in the office before 6am PT to be ready for the market-open at 6:30am. No one leaves for lunch as the market is still open. These things change quite a bit industry to industry, shop to shop. It's not necessarily a developer thing, just a business culture thing.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    That actually sounds terrible :/ Quality of life and all that jazz.
    - slayed0 12y ago
      Well I get off work at about 2:45pm which leaves ~5 hours of daylight after work. I go to bed at about 9pm and feel much better than I ever have energy-wise. You can argue that these were not choices I got to make, and maybe I just have stocklholm syndrome, but I sure do not miss browsing the internet until late into the night and waking up groggy every day. Plus on the weekends I wake up with the sunrise, which actually is sleeping in for me, and get much more out of the day. If you have flexible working hours I highly recommend forcing a schedule like this on yourself for a few months. I think most people would find they feel much happier and energetic.
      - getsat 12y ago
        Where do you work, if I may ask? This kind of arrangement would actually make living near and working in SF tolerable. No traffic getting into/out of the city at those times.
        slayed0 12y ago
        Because of the way financial institutions like ours are regulated, it would actually be a SEC violation to mention the name here (silly I know but it can technically be considered a form of marketing and we are very restricted in the ways we can market). I put my email address on my profile page if you would like to discuss further.
- jon-wood 12y ago
  Did they get the work done? If so, why do you care how long they took for lunch and when they got out of bed?
  - iolothebard 12y ago
    Nope, I cared because I was a consultant and was trying to make sure things got done. I care because when you're working as a team and people are gone, it kills productivity across the team. Not everyone works in silos.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
namenotrequired 12y ago
I have a similar story. My contact was about to run out, and they offered me a better one. I said, I'd love to stay but I've already booked two months in Brazil. I knew they didn't like having remote workers, but for a contract extension they were willing to do it. So I spent two months working from beautiful Brazil and had a raise waiting for me when I came back. Moral of the story - there might be a way to work from a distance for a while after all even with employers that don't normally allow it.
igonvalue 12y ago
This sounds great! Would you mind writing up some of the logistics of working in Tahiti? (For example, visas, accommodation, internet access, meeting people?)

iolothebard 12y ago

Lol, 8am Pacific Time. If the developers I worked with were in by 10am scrum I was surprised. I called it CA time. Roll in at 10am, 1.5-2 hour lunch, surprisingly most everyone gone at 5pm because kids or something else. My coworkers would ask me how many hours I was working, to which I'd reply 40. How many are you working?

eyeareque 12y ago
I worked 40 a week during my trip. I'm not a developer though, and my coworkers worked similar schedules.
anonu 12y ago
I was recently on vacation in Fiji for 2 weeks. I visited a couple islands - even some that were quite tiny by island standards. What impressed me was that there was fast 4G wireless service everywhere. Would definitely think about working remotely from Fiji with that high internet quality.
- jmccree 12y ago
  Fiji lucks out by being a midway point on many of the fiber cables from Australia to Hawaii.
slayed0 12y ago
I am a developer in SF and work in finance. We are all in the office before 6am PT to be ready for the market-open at 6:30am. No one leaves for lunch as the market is still open. These things change quite a bit industry to industry, shop to shop. It's not necessarily a developer thing, just a business culture thing.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  That actually sounds terrible :/ Quality of life and all that jazz.
  - slayed0 12y ago
    Well I get off work at about 2:45pm which leaves ~5 hours of daylight after work. I go to bed at about 9pm and feel much better than I ever have energy-wise. You can argue that these were not choices I got to make, and maybe I just have stocklholm syndrome, but I sure do not miss browsing the internet until late into the night and waking up groggy every day. Plus on the weekends I wake up with the sunrise, which actually is sleeping in for me, and get much more out of the day. If you have flexible working hours I highly recommend forcing a schedule like this on yourself for a few months. I think most people would find they feel much happier and energetic.
    - getsat 12y ago
      Where do you work, if I may ask? This kind of arrangement would actually make living near and working in SF tolerable. No traffic getting into/out of the city at those times.
      - slayed0 12y ago
        Because of the way financial institutions like ours are regulated, it would actually be a SEC violation to mention the name here (silly I know but it can technically be considered a form of marketing and we are very restricted in the ways we can market). I put my email address on my profile page if you would like to discuss further.
jon-wood 12y ago
Did they get the work done? If so, why do you care how long they took for lunch and when they got out of bed?
- iolothebard 12y ago
  Nope, I cared because I was a consultant and was trying to make sure things got done. I care because when you're working as a team and people are gone, it kills productivity across the team. Not everyone works in silos.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

namenotrequired 12y ago

I have a similar story. My contact was about to run out, and they offered me a better one. I said, I'd love to stay but I've already booked two months in Brazil. I knew they didn't like having remote workers, but for a contract extension they were willing to do it. So I spent two months working from beautiful Brazil and had a raise waiting for me when I came back. Moral of the story - there might be a way to work from a distance for a while after all even with employers that don't normally allow it.

igonvalue 12y ago

This sounds great! Would you mind writing up some of the logistics of working in Tahiti? (For example, visas, accommodation, internet access, meeting people?)