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Working remotely is hard

moishelettvin.com

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Re: Working remotely is hard

#121

Post by buf »

workitout wrote: post #117
buf wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a point. If someone does not enjoy remote work, then they should not get a remote job. I'm not a very good country music singer. When I sing country music, I feel shame, discomfort, and general depression. Therefore, I don't sing country music.

I was with you even though I've not used most of the tools you mentioned which must have been first released in the past 6 months for the hipsters. Why describe country music using terms like "discomfort", "shame" and "depression"? I can't think of any music that should make anyone feel that way. It almost seems to suggest a narrative, if you don't know what the new group of hot new tools are that were released yeste…

Not sure what you're suggesting.

We're all over 30.

Re: Working remotely is hard

#122

Post by buf »

samhoggnz wrote: post #63
buf wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were just purchased by Slack as well.

I think you're thinking of Screenhero - https://slack.com/screenhero

Woops! Yes, you're right. Speak was originally Sqwiggle, but then pivoted. Got my S-companies confused.

Re: Working remotely is hard

#123

Post by ytjohn »

I spent 7 years working 2.5 hours away from home, spending half of every week at work or in an apartment near work. I went to lunch quite often with coworkers, or we would go for a few drinks after work. I didn't realize it, but my circle of friends were all in Virginia, while my family was in PA (including my fiancee, now wife, and later my son when he was born).

Two years ago, I took a job that let me work from home. And it's pretty awesome. I have my office in a detached building from the house, all my colleagues are also remote, so I don't have that disconnect where everyone else is planning things in person and I'm catching up later. I get to spend more time with my family.

The downside is that I've been realizing that I don't have much in the way of friends locally. None of my coworker friends, past or present live near me. I have some friends in my radio club, but most of them are over twice my age and retired. I don't know how to make new friends. The way I made friends when I was younger was through people I worked with, people at college, and then people they knew. I don't think I ever hung out at a bar and made a friend that way, I don't think that would work today.

My situation may be atypical, but I could imagine others in such situations. Lots of people commute to work and would jump at an opportunity to work remotely. Some people will move "out of the city" when they get a remote job.

Re: Working remotely is hard

#125

Post by will_pseudonym »

bunderbunder wrote: post #114
foobarian wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a fan of people interrupting either, but I've come to realize it does help the team run more efficiently. If I get 3 legitimate interruptions a day where 5 minutes of my time saves the other developer an hour, overall it means my team just accomplished 3 hours of work in 15 minutes. Or say some error or urgent request comes up, it's been my experience at our office that the point person can look around, grab…

I switched from remote back to in-person about 2 months ago, and to be honest I'd completely forgotten how much easier it is to get some things done in a co-located environment. There were a lot of great things about working from home, but getting things done at anything above a "banging out the actual code" scale was not one of them. I wish I could take back all my prior invocations of the complaint that someone int…

When I'm onsite with my team, it's so enjoyable because we can laugh and joke and mull over problems together. It's got a real sort of in the trenches feel to it. It's hard for me to think of those distractions as negative.

I think that the interruptions thing is definitely true, but the things that interrupt us are our devices, not our people. You can tell a colleague that you've got to get more uninterrupted time, but your device continually beckons.

Another thing that interrupts me is slow system access. I'm trying to develop on a test database that's abhorrently slow. Each time I'm forced to wait, I quickly pick up my phone, or load up a Hacker News tab.

Re: Working remotely is hard

#126

Post by peteretep »

ytjohn wrote: post #123

I spent 7 years working 2.5 hours away from home, spending half of every week at work or in an apartment near work. I went to lunch quite often with coworkers, or we would go for a few drinks after work. I didn't realize it, but my circle of friends were all in Virginia, while my family was in PA (including my fiancee, now wife, and later my son when he was born). Two years ago, I took a job that let me work from hom…

    > I don't know how to make new friends
Meetup groups, Facebook, take up frisbee golf, etc.

It's hard if you're an introvert, but the reliable way to make new friends is to keep meeting new people until some stick.

Re: Working remotely is hard

#128

Post by darrmit »

I work from home most of the time since I'm about an hour from the office best case and usually double that with traffic. I'm much more efficient at home because it's more comfortable and far less distracting.

I think if people have a hard time getting motivated at home that's a symptom of a larger or unrelated problem.

Re: Working remotely is hard

#129

Post by sarciszewski »

DrScump wrote: post #115
sarciszewski wrote: post #109

At the risk of sounding totally ridiculous or trolly, the toughest challenge I've faced when adjusting to working remotely is answering the question, "When should I shower?" It's easy when you're working in an office job: Shave and shower before you go into work in the morning. When no one will see your face, you're suddenly left with the curse of too many options. In the morning? But what if your roommate needs the…

That part is easy. Shower after you work out, whenever that is.

I don't work out.

Re: Working remotely is hard

#130

Post by cxseven »

byoung2 wrote: post #92
cxseven wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microwaving cooks food without generating as much carcinogenic char as other methods, so it can actually be healthier. Relatedly, freezing is the healthiest way to preserve and transport fruits and vegetables. It also allows them to be harvested when naturally ripe, rather than artificially ripened.

Microwaving cooks food without generating as much carcinogenic char as other methods, so it can actually be healthier. Since the microwave is often used for reheating food that was cooked with these other methods, there's often no advantage.

Sure, and it's often used to heat up things like Hot Pockets. For this reason and scary radiation, the microwave is heaped with undeserved disrepute. This is unfortunate for another big reason: it's one of the most convenient ways for a single person to cook a small amount of healthy food. Many people are under the impression that healthy cooking requires warming up the stove/oven and dirtying pans, so they give up and eat processed food.

There ought to be more awareness of recipes for the microwave. Many restaurants are using them to good effect.

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