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What I don’t like about working at a remote job

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Re: What I don’t like about working at a remote job

#131

Post by wokwokwok »

freeone3000 wrote: post #73
wokwokwok wrote: post #47

It’s not an unfair set of points and this one rings true harder than most: > It’s extremely hard to be friends with your co-workers. You have to go out of your way to reach out and be available. Friendships don’t happen “organically” like they do in the office …because, most people seem to think they can just on their asses all day, don’t post on slack, don’t talk to anyone other than on standup and just get work don…

>> It’s extremely hard to be friends with your co-workers. You have to go out of your way to reach out and be available. Friendships don’t happen “organically” like they do in the office >…because, most people seem to think they can just on their asses all day, don’t post on slack, don’t talk to anyone other than on standup and just get work done. >So many tickets done. >So totally miserable. Oh no, people being prod…

I’m not saying it makes everyone miserable.

I’m saying I’ve seen it make lots of people miserable.

…and you won’t make friends or build relationships with your work mates if you don’t put effort into it.

You may not care; that’s fine.

If you’re a happy and don’t care what coworkers think of you, do whatever makes you happy.

I was responding to the OP which was about things they struggled with about remote working.

What are you responding to, other than “lol that’s not me”?

Good for you. If you’re happy, why did you bother to respond?

What’s your advice? How do you deal with the issues the OP mentioned?

I tend to get responses like this from people who are being defensive about putting no effort into their professional relationships.

It’s fine. If that’s a thing you place no value in, don’t do it.

Re: What I don’t like about working at a remote job

#132

Post by mechanical_bear »

tjr225 wrote: post #113
Blahah wrote: post #100

I've been working remotely on and off for 20 years, and consistently for the last 10 years. A few suggestions: - Choose to not make every day the same. You're free! Once or twice a week, take a train or bus to a different place for the day, somewhere with good cell signal. Work from a national park, or a beach, a café, pub, museum, library, take a river cruise... whatever. There's nowhere in the world that has nothin…

> Remote work is freedom to choose your environment. Choose it. Sort of. First your employer needs to approve of where you’re going to live assuming it is out of state or country. There are a variety of legal and tax implications. The first remote company I worked for had a list of approved states, for instance. I assume this is common.

Employer doesn’t have to approve shit. They probably won’t even know, I’ll leave my address the same as what it is, and just forward my mail. It isn’t really their business.

Re: What I don’t like about working at a remote job

#133

Post by Karrot_Kream »

Blahah wrote: post #100

I've been working remotely on and off for 20 years, and consistently for the last 10 years. A few suggestions: - Choose to not make every day the same. You're free! Once or twice a week, take a train or bus to a different place for the day, somewhere with good cell signal. Work from a national park, or a beach, a café, pub, museum, library, take a river cruise... whatever. There's nowhere in the world that has nothin…

> Choose to not make every day the same. You're free!

For us, once we all went remote, the day just started earlier. Whereas we used to start at 10 we begun starting meetings at 8. The assumption being that nobody is commuting, so why not start the day earlier? This also helped accommodate others in non-Pacific Americas timezones. This means you have to jump straight into meetings and each day can't be materially different, unless you make your after work life different.

> Be deliberate about arranging calls with coworkers, friends, family. Just hang out on a call.

We tried this but it wasn't the same. Eventually, everyone ended up on their phones while on the call and slowly nobody started showing up to social Zooms. Zoom calls are fine for work but just don't allow the same sense of presence that being in the same space in real life would offer.

> If you don't already have hobbies, you want to discover some that you enjoy. Do something that creates nice memories with your spare time, and that isn't the same as your work, or just relaxing.

But my coworkers and I have so much shared context. We spend 8 hours+ together. It feels like a waste to pretend that we just don't have anything in common despite the time.

Don't get me wrong I love how easy it is to start my day and how little time is wasted commuting. I love the coffee I make at home and I love being able to eat my home cooking or talk with my partner over lunch. Being able to use my home bathroom is majestic. But there's definitely things lost working remote. Maybe if you're a remote worker at a hybrid or in-office company where expectations around most employees are in the office, the above works, but at a full remote company I'm not so sure.

Re: What I don’t like about working at a remote job

#134

Post by nostrebored »

IncRnd wrote: post #125

> I have solutions to a lot of these problems. I just don’t always have the mental strength to actually use the solutions. And the weeks when I slip feel like I'm falling. People who compete in the Olympics had to work very hard to get there. People who manage their time needed to learn how to do so, and then actually do it. Like Nike said, "Just Do It." There is no secret. Nothing you learn will make this magically…

There is a secret: setting your life up to make “just doing it” more likely to happen.

I live by work to make sure I have no excuse to not start my day. I find someone at an office to go to the gym with me at lunch, and people at the gym who are there at the same time. I grab food with other people who I know are healthy. I pick up my son, who I also make sure goes to school near work and home, and put down my phone when I’m with him.

Work from home makes only one of those things simple and self reinforcing. Without a standard office I often feel like my life is falling apart.

And I’m not the only one! I fully expect sentiment on wfh to come full circle within the next two years.

Re: What I don’t like about working at a remote job

#135

Post by Xcelerate »

Everyone talks about losing focus at home, oversleeping, and doing other activities during the work day. For some reason I've had the opposite problem. I used to get into the office around 8 AM, take a lunch break, go grab dessert or take a walk in the garden later, etc. Then I'd leave around 4:30 PM and forget about work until the next day.

Now I wake up at 5:00 AM and basically work non-stop in the same spot (sometimes a coffee shop in the morning) until 6:30 PM. I skip breakfast and lunch altogether, because I've found that without walking around the office campus I gain weight too quickly.

It's like the saying about hard drives: however much more space they get, people still find a way to fill them up. Same thing with my time apparently.

Re: What I don’t like about working at a remote job

#136

Post by felipellrocha »

Sparkle-san wrote: post #116
Blahah wrote: post #100

I've been working remotely on and off for 20 years, and consistently for the last 10 years. A few suggestions: - Choose to not make every day the same. You're free! Once or twice a week, take a train or bus to a different place for the day, somewhere with good cell signal. Work from a national park, or a beach, a café, pub, museum, library, take a river cruise... whatever. There's nowhere in the world that has nothin…

> Be deliberate about arranging calls with coworkers, friends, family. Just hang out on a call. Go for a walk while you take these calls, or do something other than sit in a chair. I'll second this. I started a new remote job recently where we're encouraged to regularly schedule virtual coffee time with coworkers where we don't talk about work. It goes a long way towards fostering relationships.

You're telling me your solution is to do the same thing we used to do with forced birthday party celebrations, but more frequently? UGH!

Re: What I don’t like about working at a remote job

#137

Post by bigDinosaur »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #133
Blahah wrote: post #100

I've been working remotely on and off for 20 years, and consistently for the last 10 years. A few suggestions: - Choose to not make every day the same. You're free! Once or twice a week, take a train or bus to a different place for the day, somewhere with good cell signal. Work from a national park, or a beach, a café, pub, museum, library, take a river cruise... whatever. There's nowhere in the world that has nothin…

> Choose to not make every day the same. You're free! For us, once we all went remote, the day just started earlier. Whereas we used to start at 10 we begun starting meetings at 8. The assumption being that nobody is commuting, so why not start the day earlier? This also helped accommodate others in non-Pacific Americas timezones. This means you have to jump straight into meetings and each day can't be materially dif…

Honestly, how can you all be so unwilling to push back that you tolerate starting at 8 instead of 10 because the commute vanished? I'd walk if the longer day was enforced rigidly (e.g. by constant monitoring or meetings).

Re: What I don’t like about working at a remote job

#138

Post by bee_rider »

dheera wrote: post #126
Blahah wrote: post #100

I've been working remotely on and off for 20 years, and consistently for the last 10 years. A few suggestions: - Choose to not make every day the same. You're free! Once or twice a week, take a train or bus to a different place for the day, somewhere with good cell signal. Work from a national park, or a beach, a café, pub, museum, library, take a river cruise... whatever. There's nowhere in the world that has nothin…

> national park I've been trying to keep track of park locations near me that have - restrooms - tables with shade, if shade comes from tree there must not be lots of birds shitting from tree - 4G/5G signal - not hot mid-day It's hard to actually get work done without all of the above. Separately, an EV makes an excellent mobile office. You can use the car's power and air conditioning all day without "idling" an engi…

I had found a perfect work-from-cafe-outdoors spot

Until a bird shit on my head

My quest continues

Re: What I don’t like about working at a remote job

#139

Post by travbrack »

IncRnd wrote: post #125

> I have solutions to a lot of these problems. I just don’t always have the mental strength to actually use the solutions. And the weeks when I slip feel like I'm falling. People who compete in the Olympics had to work very hard to get there. People who manage their time needed to learn how to do so, and then actually do it. Like Nike said, "Just Do It." There is no secret. Nothing you learn will make this magically…

Took me about 5 years to build good work from home habits.

Re: What I don’t like about working at a remote job

#140

Post by Karrot_Kream »

bigDinosaur wrote: post #137
Karrot_Kream wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Choose to not make every day the same. You're free! For us, once we all went remote, the day just started earlier. Whereas we used to start at 10 we begun starting meetings at 8. The assumption being that nobody is commuting, so why not start the day earlier? This also helped accommodate others in non-Pacific Americas timezones. This means you have to jump straight into meetings and each day can't be materially dif…

Honestly, how can you all be so unwilling to push back that you tolerate starting at 8 instead of 10 because the commute vanished? I'd walk if the longer day was enforced rigidly (e.g. by constant monitoring or meetings).

Because it's easier on the non-Pacific time folks. Instead of Eastern time folks starting at 1300, they start at 1100. It also helps coworkers who want to move to other parts of the US, at the expense of those of us still in Pacific timezones. This way Eastern time folks can sign off at 1900 instead of 2100, which makes it easier for us to work synchronously if needed across the US. Before we went all remote we tended to hire in the same time zone but now we hire across the US. Pacific time workers have to take the early bird hit. If we operated the same as before then we'd have extra morning time, but going remote means we now hire many more coworker in other timezones. It's a double edged sword.

We do also tend to end earlier. I don't care because I'm a night owl, but early bird coworkers seem to enjoy the extra time. And yes I've considered walking but haven't yet because I'm not so sure it's that different in other companies I'm interested in at my level.

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