The Remote Manifesto • Hacker News Board

Re: The Remote Manifesto

#11

Post by ecmascript » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 6:48 AM UTC

I work 100% remotely, or has been working like that for the last couple of years until recently where I work 80% remotely.

One thing I've noticed is that going into the office that one day is incredible enjoyable. I think I've been a bit too isolated since I don't have that many friends either and work on side projects as well.

But, working 1-2 days in the office per week feels like the optimal experience. You get the social part with meetings and you get the work alone part where you may concentrate on tasks.

I really enjoy working remotely though, it has reduced my stress levels, increased my spare time and made it available to live in a cheaper place far away from the city centre.

Things like this I enjoy, even if you're not an remote advocate the option should exist for people who want to work remotely like me. Unfortunately, too few companies allows remote work to the degree I've been lucky to get. Maybe it's time to move some repos to Gitlab!

Re: The Remote Manifesto

#12

Post by baroffoos » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 6:52 AM UTC

mnm1 wrote: post #8

Working remotely has been the greatest thing for me. I'm more productive, less stressed, and generally happier. I can't see going back to an office even for way more money. It's just not worth it. I agree with all these points although I don't think video is necessary or should be used unless there's something to see other than people's faces. I do wonder how they manage payroll and taxes in fifty countries though. A…

>Also how they set salaries.

At the bottom of each job type on the handbook they have a formula and a calculator so you can see how much you would be paid and how they calculate it. Its a combination of the job title, your skill level, and your location.

Re: The Remote Manifesto

#13

Post by ngrilly » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:12 AM UTC

The manifesto mentions:

> Evolution of speech-to-text conversion software - more accurate and faster than typing

Last time I tried I wasn't convinced. Anyone here is really using that to program, write emails or write Markdown?

Re: The Remote Manifesto

#14

Post by lukaszkups » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:19 AM UTC

jypepin wrote: post #5

codegeek wrote: post #4

I feel like that whole Remote issue has become too binary. Either people advocate for complete remote option OR employers mostly don't provide any flexibility when it comes to work location or schedules. I personally believe that human interaction is a key to our well being since humans are not designed to stay in a remote room/office somewhere by themselves. I am not quite on the 100% remote thing to be honest and o…

I think the main issue is that if the company is not 100% committed to remote work, the extra effort it takes to have everything documented and written will probably not happen, and the remote part will not be successful. So it seems like it's just easier to make remote successful if everyone is remote. Kind of like quitting smoking cold turkey vs saying "I'll start by smoking less". I've been remote on a non-remote…

+1 to this.

I've been working as a remote contractor while whole team was on site (to make things more difficult, on different continent and different timezone - Europe vs US). I think I'll never do it again (working remotely while the rest of the team is onsite).

Now I work with a fully remote team, and it's great ;)

Re: The Remote Manifesto

#15

Post by shodan666 » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:21 AM UTC

tnolet wrote: post #7

However much I like Gitlab, the “disadvantages” section is a joke. Working alone with only video, chat and email is a huge fundamental change in how work is done and I’m pretty sure we as a society don’t really know yet what impact it has on social development, interpersonal skills, empathy, sympathy etc. they should at least acknowledge that.

Work is also great opportunity to get in love, or to party/dine with coworkers regullary (aka social life!).

Re: The Remote Manifesto

#16

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:22 AM UTC

codegeek wrote: post #4

I feel like that whole Remote issue has become too binary. Either people advocate for complete remote option OR employers mostly don't provide any flexibility when it comes to work location or schedules. I personally believe that human interaction is a key to our well being since humans are not designed to stay in a remote room/office somewhere by themselves. I am not quite on the 100% remote thing to be honest and o…

[deleted]

Re: The Remote Manifesto

#17

Post by arsenico » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:27 AM UTC

codegeek wrote: post #4

I feel like that whole Remote issue has become too binary. Either people advocate for complete remote option OR employers mostly don't provide any flexibility when it comes to work location or schedules. I personally believe that human interaction is a key to our well being since humans are not designed to stay in a remote room/office somewhere by themselves. I am not quite on the 100% remote thing to be honest and o…

The biggest challenge is implementation of Remote at scale. It is fine if you're running a remote company of 10, but with a remote company of 50 it becomes a very detailed and documented process. You're pretty much spending "overhead" on supporting the remote working norms, documentation and principles, and all of that is a similar effort to running an office, but with completely different skills and people required.

So maintaining both an office and proper remote working norms is expensive.

I think this is the biggest challenge, which companies have uncovered after trying to accommodate remote working employees in regular centralised or distributed companies, and seeing whether it is efficient or not.

Re: The Remote Manifesto

#18

Post by fyfy18 » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:28 AM UTC

tnolet wrote: post #7

However much I like Gitlab, the “disadvantages” section is a joke. Working alone with only video, chat and email is a huge fundamental change in how work is done and I’m pretty sure we as a society don’t really know yet what impact it has on social development, interpersonal skills, empathy, sympathy etc. they should at least acknowledge that.

There are plenty of existing jobs where people have to spend many hours by themselves. Think about truck drivers, they may spend weeks alone with nothing more than a few minutes chat to a fellow trucker they see at a truck stop.

Re: The Remote Manifesto

#19

Post by fyfy18 » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:31 AM UTC

ecmascript wrote: post #11

I work 100% remotely, or has been working like that for the last couple of years until recently where I work 80% remotely. One thing I've noticed is that going into the office that one day is incredible enjoyable. I think I've been a bit too isolated since I don't have that many friends either and work on side projects as well. But, working 1-2 days in the office per week feels like the optimal experience. You get th…

I've been working remotely on and off for the past 6 years, and I agree that having a peer group where you can casually chat about "tech stuff" is one thing you definitely miss out on by isolating yourself at home.

A couple of my remote-peers work from co-working spaces which seems like a good way to avoid home distractions (my first-born is on the way shortly) and still have this connection to like minded people, so I plan to start doing that too.

Re: The Remote Manifesto

#20

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:35 AM UTC

baroffoos wrote: post #9

jypepin wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the main issue is that if the company is not 100% committed to remote work, the extra effort it takes to have everything documented and written will probably not happen, and the remote part will not be successful. So it seems like it's just easier to make remote successful if everyone is remote. Kind of like quitting smoking cold turkey vs saying "I'll start by smoking less". I've been remote on a non-remote…

Exactly, from what I have seen gitlab seems to have this figured out very well. From what I remember they have slack groups and video calls where employees can have casual talk about non work things so they can get to know each other better. I can't see this happening at my company if one person went remote. The most I can see happening is someone doing remote once a week so they catch up on the rest of the days and…

At my previous job, I worked 3 days in, 2 days out, as the only remote person on the floor. I didn't have any project-related problems because of that, and while we already used in-room group chat for some percentage of conversations (both work and non-work), this was never 100%, so I felt incredibly out-of-the-loop on office banter. Not the worst thing in life, but it made me feel a bit like an outsider. Now I'm contracting and collaborating with other remote people, so things are much better.