Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

blog.doist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 213 posts

Re: What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

#131

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #27
vinbreau wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been remote for almost 8 years now. I love it and dread ever having to go back into an office. Faking productivity for show when the workload is low was the worst feeling, as if I was wasting my time and life. Plus I have social anxiety and the pressure to 'fit in' was overwhelming. Now I work from home where my wife and toddler are. Being home to educate her is worth more than just about anything. I don't have…

To each their own. I found that working remotely pigeonholes you into your role; its much harder to network in a remote org, to find other opportunities within the org when you're ready to explore a new role. My current org has offices around the world; I can work from any of them, or from home. I can apply for other internal roles, and keep my benefits and salary while changing up the work I'm working on. Working fr…

I agree, if you are working in a company that is not 100% remote and then remote seems to be more like "flex time."

I've risen from an L1 help desk support member to running the entire support team and reporting to the CEO, all remotely.

Re: What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

#132

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

larrik wrote: post #7

Remote work is dramatically different for different people. For me, it means I'm home with my family, and in 6+ years of doing it I've not once had the urge to go into an office for any reason, much less socialization.

I definitely think people that already have an existing social network and/or a family with kids will do better with remote work.

But I'm single, have worked remotely for most of my 15+ year career, and live alone and I really have no desire to commute in a car every morning and be distracted by co-workers. I also like that I can setup my office environment exactly as I want, or go to a co-working space when I want, or a coffee shop, or a friends house.

This is why I reject this premise that all remote workers are sipping drinks on the beach. Have people ever tried to use a laptop in the sun? It's awful :)

Re: What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

#133

Post by darkarmani »

armandososa wrote: post #70

Why is there so much pressure on Americans to leave their family's home as soon as possible? I lived with my parents and my two sisters in Mexico until I got married at 32 and I think that helped me avoid depression in my twenties. Had I've been alone in those years I think I would have killed myself. And apart for having moral support it was financially sound. When I was doing well with my freelance gigs I would con…

> Why is there so much pressure on Americans to leave their family's home as soon as possible?

It's purely cultural.

Re: What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

#134

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee »

goshx wrote: post #42

I did remote work for many years starting back in 2003. The worst time, when I almost lost my mind, was when I was living in a tiny apartment, having my work desk inside my bedroom. Although I had my mother and my sister living with me, I was supporting all of us and that pressure was strong, so we didn't interact much. I'd never leave the apartment. I'd wake up and jump on my work chair and start coding. I'd get stu…

I had a similar issue when I was in a studio apartment. My desk was right next to my living space and bed. I'll never do that again. Now I have the luxury of having an additional bedroom that I converted into my office and so when I'm done with work, I close the door.

Re: What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

#135

Post by emerged »

meowface wrote: post #5

I'm a natural recluse who loves living alone and loves working remotely. I've always been this way. This article didn't resonate with me; I don't get lonely and generally don't desire many social connections or interactions. My key issue when working from home is staying focused and avoiding distractions. Still haven't found a good solution (I only end up using website blockers a few times before my hedonistic side t…

My solution was to work fewer hours. I'm down to 4 per day, divided into separate slices. It's easy to hold focus for those individual time periods and the net result is as good or better as trying to focus for 8 hours.

I'm same as you, natural recluse who never feels lonely. I do get out and interact with people but have found that most are so overflowing with negative emotion that being alone is more enjoyable.

Re: What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

#136

Post by arwhatever »

I'm digital nomading with my wife, and we both agree that this is the happiest point in either of our lives.

No doubt it requires the people nomading to be very compatible with each other and both individually compatible with the lifestyle. I could see it being difficult without the company, unless you just settle in some place long enough to make friends, which is really really more like moving than nomading.

We have one suitcase each, with more clothes than we need, and one decent laptop, camera, and phone per person.

We definitely want to head home to visit family and friends about twice a year, evenly spaced.

But from my samples size of 1 (or, 2), I recommend it very highly.

Re: What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

#137

Post by Royalaid »

meowface wrote: post #90
corv wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found emotional wellbeing and mental state to be significant factors when dealing with procrastination. Of course our emotional state is a derivative of our daily experiences, so we cannot always affect it directly. Regular exercise, good sleep, healthy diet and taking a break every now and then go a long way however.

I've definitely noticed basic stuff like sleep, diet, and exercise help to keep me focused. Exposure to sunlight helps, too. But there are still many days where I don't get much done even when I've got everything else right.

I have a similar situation to yourself. Honestly I have found that working environments become "soiled" for me over time. I try to constantly mix up where I am working in my place or get out of the house to a coffee shop to work if I am not focusing. Keeping s good rotation of these work spaces has been a huge boon. Often times I work from the couch in the living room, take a break, move to the kitchen, then end the work day in bed without the TV on. Eventually I will probably move back to working in my office but since the new WoW expansion has come out my office is no good for productivity.

Re: What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

#138

Post by mattlondon »

androidgirl wrote: post #12

Sure, I imagine if someone isn't already lonely, being put into such circumstances could make them lonely. But loneliness exists in conventional workplaces too! I work in an open office every day, but I'm still extremely depressed, isolated, and alone. Culturally, I am very different from my coworkers. I do not fit into their social events cleanly, and do not socialize with them. There are many possible boundaries to…

+1

I am surrounded by people in an open plan office but I do not work with any of them - all of my team are remote and in different timezones by 5 or 8 hours so there is often only 1 working hour overlap. I can literally go an entire working day where all I physically say is "thanks" to someone holding a door open for me.

I'd much rather work from home than be surrounded by what are essentially strangers. Working on globally-distributed teams sucks big time. No chat or video calling can make up for that. Sometimes I am not even sure if anyone is even noticing/using the things I am working on - it's like I am just doing "busy work" and often wonder if anyone would realise if I just stopped working at all. It is a deeply depressing and lonely experience.

Luckily for me I am happily married and get a lot of energy from spending time with my wife in the mornings and evenings. I dont know what I'd do without that.

Re: What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

#139

Post by meowface »

01100011 wrote: post #130
meowface wrote: post #5

I'm a natural recluse who loves living alone and loves working remotely. I've always been this way. This article didn't resonate with me; I don't get lonely and generally don't desire many social connections or interactions. My key issue when working from home is staying focused and avoiding distractions. Still haven't found a good solution (I only end up using website blockers a few times before my hedonistic side t…

shoot, I surf the internet less when I work from home. I do take more breaks to stretch, exercise, or walk around, but those don't distract my mind. In an office, I feel somewhat caged and constrained by the presence of others. I end up trying to get my nervous energy out by surfing and end up distracted. Not to mention that I get a lot of good work done after the sun goes down, and it's a lot easier to do that when…

All I can say is I wish I could do the same. I feel caged in an office, too, and in theory I'm more productive at home. On my good days, I am definitely more productive at home than in an office, but I wish I had more of those good days. I'm just too distracted by the Internet.

Re: What Most Remote Companies Don’t Tell You About Remote Work

#140

Post by arwhatever »

erezyehuda wrote: post #43
meowface wrote: post #5

I'm a natural recluse who loves living alone and loves working remotely. I've always been this way. This article didn't resonate with me; I don't get lonely and generally don't desire many social connections or interactions. My key issue when working from home is staying focused and avoiding distractions. Still haven't found a good solution (I only end up using website blockers a few times before my hedonistic side t…

It's kind of funny- I assume other people will assume I'm not productive at home, so I end up hyper-focusing on getting things done when I'm working from home just to prove I'm not slacking off.

Wife and I see similar things while working remotely. Some people have a hard time not referring to what we're doing as "vacation."

Even wife's boss of her formerly in-person, now remote job praised her for how much time she spends online/connected, even though she's just strictly keeping a normal work schedule. We both view our jobs as having the exact same responsibilities as before, just with a flexible location, but I guess some folks might have a hard time not inferring some slacking off or other drop in productivity.

Post reply on HN