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Why are some people better at working from home than others?

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Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#51

Post by bostonpete »

pier25 wrote: post #48

I've been working from home for the past 10 years and I don't think I could go back to a regular office. - I can work at my own natural pace whenever I want. Some days I work 4 hours. Some days I work 12 hours until 1-2 am. - If I need to buy something I just do it. I can go to the supermarket at the best times. - I can eat home made food and follow any schedule I wish. My SO also works at home and we're doing interm…

The question was asking why some people are better at working at home than others. You seemed to answer the question "how awesome is working at home?". ;-)

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#52

Post by lucb1e »

theonemind wrote: post #45

I don’t get how some people work different hours at home. Generally, I have to have Slack availability and then the meetings all get scheduled around the standard 9-5 times. So I have to work the same times anyway, or else I will just look like I don’t work. Work from office seems like a lose-lose situation however. I have to commute, and at work, I just waste more time because showing up counts as work. I sort of wi…

> I have to work the same times anyway, or else I will just look like I don’t work.

Especially when working from home, doesn't one have to judge performance by the work output rather than physical presence? I understand that this ideal is not the reality everywhere, especially in the office if people don't know you started at 7am that they they'll look weird if you leave at 15h instead of 17h, but from home you can slack off anyway so you really have to look at the output and not presence. If not done already, you might want to look at tracking work time to make everyone feel confident that the others are doing their part, and bosses should notice when time worked does not match output.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#53

Post by ydb »

Some people are more motivated than others.

Just like some people are more intelligent than others, or more athletic than others... some are more self-motivated and can work through their own initiative rather than relying on external input (such as managers).

That's not a bad thing, either! We should encourage those self-motivated people to work however makes them the most productive members of our economy. That is incredibly crucial for the times that we live in.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#54

Post by analog31 »

radicalbyte wrote: post #4

If you have a baby and two young children around who you also have to homeschool for 8 hours a day then you're not going to be "productive" working at home. People who slack at work by hide it by having lots of meetings / playing politics are useless whilst working-from home because they don't know how operate when their productivity is more visible.

I first experienced this roughly a year ago when I was having a discussion with a colleague in China, and she happened to be at home because of the time zone difference. All of a sudden, a baby started screaming and all hell broke loose. She was so embarrassed, but we all just laughed it off and she realized that we weren't annoyed at all.

When we all went on lockdown recently, I noticed that at first people were careful to create a "proper" workspace that was not only silent but also photogenic for their camera. Naturally, a kid sees a closed door with the most interesting new thing in the house happening on the other side. The only proper recourse is to bang on the door.

Even within just a few weeks, things have relaxed considerably. Now, I rarely attend a meeting, even when there are higher-ups in attendance, where there are not kid noises in the background, folks going on "mute" to deal with a meltdown, even just letting the kids play in the same room. Going shopping during the work day, when the stores are less crowded, is completely normal now.

When all of this started, some folks said: "Finally this will normalize working from home." Maybe it will go even further, and normalize folks having a real life.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#55

Post by gerdesj »

pier25 wrote: post #48

I've been working from home for the past 10 years and I don't think I could go back to a regular office. - I can work at my own natural pace whenever I want. Some days I work 4 hours. Some days I work 12 hours until 1-2 am. - If I need to buy something I just do it. I can go to the supermarket at the best times. - I can eat home made food and follow any schedule I wish. My SO also works at home and we're doing interm…

My job title is Managing Director. I am learning quite quickly about working from home.

Espresso - I don't roll my own but I love 85% Aribica with 15% Rombusta. I gather that is the Italian default brew and I concur. We do bean to cup rather than tree to cup.

We used to look after other people's dogs. Wifey now walks me! We live next to a park and see many of our customers daily from afar. I could not give a shit about the money but we miss our friends. Even now I smile thinking about Cwtch (not a typo) and co. running madly around the meadow down hill from my house.

Anyway, I am now seriously thinking about how we properly integrate home working in the future. There is a massive win-win if we all do it.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#56

Post by lucb1e »

pier25 wrote: post #48

I've been working from home for the past 10 years and I don't think I could go back to a regular office. - I can work at my own natural pace whenever I want. Some days I work 4 hours. Some days I work 12 hours until 1-2 am. - If I need to buy something I just do it. I can go to the supermarket at the best times. - I can eat home made food and follow any schedule I wish. My SO also works at home and we're doing interm…

> Some days I work 4 hours. Some days I work 12 hours until 1-2 am.

Do you track those hours to make sure you don't think you worked enough but in fact consistently work too little or too much? Wondering because I had that problem (working slightly too much every week).

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#57

Post by Xcelerate »

amrrs wrote: post #24
Ductapemaster wrote: post #20

One really positive thing I have found for myself in the WFH life is that I am taking MUCH better care of myself. So far I have lost weight, started a bodyweight workout routine, which I do in between meetings/calls/other work, and have gained back 2 hours of my day by not taking transit into the city. That's 2 more hours every day that I get to relax, work on a personal project, hang out with my SO, or even crush ou…

Actually it's the opposite for me, I've started taking so much junk snacks (which wasn't available at Office), Less Walks and No proper schedule. Sleeps off the time. Many a days just getting up and jumping into calls. On the positive side, it's more quality time with family but I'm still wondering how to fix the health part.

> I've started taking so much junk snacks (which wasn't available at Office)

What I've found helps is to not buy snacks. I eat junk if it's available, but if nothing is nearby, then I can't be bothered to go out and purchase it, so I'll eat a grapefruit instead.

Another thing that I have found helps is to order a community supported agriculture (CSA) produce box. A lot of farmers that supply restaurants are losing a lot of business lately, and at least in the Bay Area, many are starting to sell directly to consumers. I'm on a weekly schedule now where every Wednesday I pick up a box of restaurant quality vegetables in SF, and it's pretty fun because a lot of these vegetables are ones I've never even heard of before. It has become a hobby to come up with new types of meals, and it also gives my wife and I a nice break from the monotony to go for our vegetable pickup excursion.

Re: Why are some people better at working from home than others?

#60

Post by Fr0styMatt88 »

opportune wrote: post #49
ergothus wrote: post #19

As of this writing, a lot of comments are sharing their varied personal experiences in WFH. Which is good, because they are all more interesting and valuable than the article, which skips the "varied" part and basically lumps everything in to "if you have troubles working from home, you need more willpower" (paraphrase). I found it insulting and was a bit surprised to see what I assumed to be American work-fetish fro…

I think willpower is an important factor, but not the only one. The bigger issue is viewing lack of willpower as a personal moral failing rather than something that can be fixed with practice and attention. I really buy into the fact that willpower is like a muscle that you can exercise and that there are real practical ways to improve it. I've seen huge increases in my own focus and working ability in the last five…

Can you give any tips on where to start? Any particular books or anything you found helpful in giving you practical ways to exercise your willpower?
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