People love working remotely

I love remote work too. But I strongly believe it's not for everyone. Not even 50% of the population. It would be a mistake to assume that it's easy for everyone. For me, going in the office means putting my headset on and doing my work till I need to leave, while having as few interactions as possible; so there are pretty much only perks on working from home. Most people crave engagement without even realizing it.

It also really depends on the job and the company. If remote working means never going off, I think it's a company culture problem rather than a problem of remote working itself. It might be true that since remote work is relatively new the boundaries and the culture might not be fully formed yet for many companies but I think everyone that works remotely should realize this and set expectations and boundaries accordingly.

I am astounded that the only mention of pants is a tweet regarding "working in lululemon pants" as being a perk. I thought one of the chief benefits of remote work was that pants were entirely optional!

> "91% of remote workers said working remotely is a good fit for them."

Right, and 97% of current ferret owners say that ferrets make great pets [0]. I'd like the survey to include people who worked remotely in the past and no longer do. Count me in that group. I worked remotely for a six months at a remote-friendly but not remote-first company and here were my findings:

* It was lonely being at home. And I wasn't as productive. After a month, I rented space at a WeWork, which helped with both problems. But it requires that you be outgoing to meet people who work in your space but aren't your coworkers.

* I didn't like being physically separated from my colleagues. It meant that I wasn't privy to many of the important conversations in the company.

* I was always afraid that come a round of layoffs that it's easier to fire the folks who work 1000 miles away.

* In a company that isn't remote first, it limits your career growth (most of the time).

* Maybe it's just me, but I find it much easier to explain difficult technical things in person. Yes, screenshares are very helpful, but sometimes a hard problem involves going back and forth between monitors, for example. I also like being able to use a whiteboard [1].

* As a software engineer, it's easy to get siloed into only communicating with people on your team and remote work only increases this tendency. If you work in an office, you meet people from other parts of the business in the cafeteria/break room/etc. and that allows you to have a more full understanding of the company. And it's my belief that if you don't understand the business, then you don't understand what your software should be doing.

Overall, I didn't hate working remotely but it wasn't great either. I would do it again for a short period of time (e.g. a year while my wife is on sabbatical) without hesitation, but I personally didn't like it for the long term. That said, the ability to work remotely on occasion is something that's very important to me.

I personally wouldn't apply to jobs at remote-only companies, but I definitely think this is the way to go if you want to make a career out of working remote as it solves a few of the problems above.

[0] Not saying that they don't, for some people. Just saying that asking people who currently own ferrets means your sample is biased.

[1] Sometimes old fashioned is best. One of my companies moved to a new office and was thinking of installing "smart boards" at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars, thinking that the engineers would love them. To their surprise, the engineers protested and asked for good quality "dumb" boards instead.

I don't believe people love remote work as much as the article suggests, but this does match my own experience.

I absolutely love it. I used to work at a very chatty office before they let me work remotely. My productivity and ability to think deeply about problems has skyrocketed.

Remote work isn't a catch all solution but it can be really effective if you match it to the right job.