I've been working remote now for 5 years. All from home (sometimes from a car or a cabin). It takes discipline and limits. In my case - limiting my urges to finish out a project or get a bit further at 2am. It can be a blessing and a curse. I'm getting ready to 'venture out' - spend time at coffee shop or coworking. For the record, I've been 'remote' in many roles; employee and consultant. Overall, for me, I find routine an absolute necessecity to get work done. By routine, I mean 'get dressed as if going into the office' - it's about mindset.
Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
41–50 of 129 posts
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#42As a remote worker, I would really enjoy a coworking space at least 1-2 times per week, but the hour commute and the expense just are not worth it for me. I've been working remotely for two years and absolutely go stir crazy, and even into fits of depression, when I'm not really pro-active about getting out. I've been volunteering with a community theatre this year, which gets me out of the house after work most week…
I am in the same situation. People tell me all the time how lucky I am to work remotely, and I was excited when it started. But it definitely has some drawbacks that I didn't expect, especially in the mental health department. Webex/Hangouts/GTM is fine for 90% of the banal, communication meetings. But it really fails for any design meetings that need a whiteboard. I have tried getting my team to use some alternative…
It doesn't help that the majority of our team is onsite, so any alternative is 100% for my benefit.
You can even mix on a day-to-day basis, as long as you follow the same schedule. One office had a general practice of everyone in the office Mon-Thur, and then everyone teleworked on Friday. It was great.
The office I'm in now, though, has some people teleworking one day a week, and working four 10s so they're off completely on Friday, and some others working five 8's, in the office every day. It's murder to schedule a time when everyone has access to the same interaction tools.
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#43For the last 2.5 years I've been working at DigitalOcean as a remote employee. DO has more than 50% of the staff remote. I think it's important that a large chunk of a company & team be remote, to be successful in the exercise, so that there be a forcing function to use asynchronous communications. It's been really life changing for me. We have a bunch of style of remotees; work from home, work from coffeeshop, work…
What qualifications does DO look for in an employee? I applied there but was rejected outright.
Well, probably because you are a fucking ass?
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#44For the last 2.5 years I've been working at DigitalOcean as a remote employee. DO has more than 50% of the staff remote. I think it's important that a large chunk of a company & team be remote, to be successful in the exercise, so that there be a forcing function to use asynchronous communications. It's been really life changing for me. We have a bunch of style of remotees; work from home, work from coffeeshop, work…
What qualifications does DO look for in an employee? I applied there but was rejected outright.
It really depends on the time and what projects we had running, and the needs we had in term of experience and background at the time! It doesn't mean anything about your adequacy. Try again, things change every month!
In general for remote positions, we look for people who've done it successfully before (or some shape of something like that - for instance I had experience as a research assistant for a prof from afar), or that have a lot of experience in their field of expertise.
(note: I'm an engineer, I'm not really involved in hiring stuff, so take what I say with a grain of "needs to be confirmed by competent authorities")
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#45Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#46[deleted]
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#47It's great to see a lot of agreement on this.
I agree with most of it.
Short commutes + some privacy at work would probably entice most people in.
Having 1-2 days a week at the office would be grand.
Being able to focus for long periods without interruption is quite important, frankly, I have no idea how software gets written in those cramped open workspaces with all the noise etc..
Granted, different types of software for different types of things.
I can imagine a deeply technical problem requiring more thought than say a lot of dev-ops, scripting, code reviews, bug fixing, etc. etc..
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
What qualifications does DO look for in an employee? I applied there but was rejected outright.
It really depends on the time and what projects we had running, and the needs we had in term of experience and background at the time! It doesn't mean anything about your adequacy. Try again, things change every month! In general for remote positions, we look for people who've done it successfully before (or some shape of something like that - for instance I had experience as a research assistant for a prof from afar…
Is DO actually only hiring people with 7+ years experience? I ask because if not, I'd be interested in knowing how the decision to not put any entry/3-5 years experience positions affects the pipeline of candidates.
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#49For the last 2.5 years I've been working at DigitalOcean as a remote employee. DO has more than 50% of the staff remote. I think it's important that a large chunk of a company & team be remote, to be successful in the exercise, so that there be a forcing function to use asynchronous communications. It's been really life changing for me. We have a bunch of style of remotees; work from home, work from coffeeshop, work…
I feel like your experience is germane. You're relating your experience with remote work directly. If anything, what's really coming across the loudest is your drive to be productive to the point of being conscious of problems arising from work conditions.
Re: Working remotely, coworking spaces, and mental health
#50For the last 2.5 years I've been working at DigitalOcean as a remote employee. DO has more than 50% of the staff remote. I think it's important that a large chunk of a company & team be remote, to be successful in the exercise, so that there be a forcing function to use asynchronous communications. It's been really life changing for me. We have a bunch of style of remotees; work from home, work from coffeeshop, work…
Is this REAL remote (I can apply from any country) or "just within the US" remote? I checked the link you provided but this was not detailed.