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Working alone sucks

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Re: Working alone sucks

#31

Post by forgottenpaswrd »

cmwelsh wrote: post #2

I have experienced feelings similar to these in the past as a freelancer working from home. My advice is to join a local coworking group where freelancers come together to share office space. I have found the social atmosphere helps everyone get more enthusiastic about their work and allows for easy collaboration between designers, developers, marketers and businesspeople.

Agreed, not only that but you will learn techniques from other people to constantly improve as a professional and as a person.

You will also be helping new comers and that will make you feel deep satisfaction.

Re: Working alone sucks

#32

Post by labaraka »

lo_fye wrote: post #28
midarraga wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's not about working alone. He obviously likes working alone, what he doesn't like is that lack of team work. As in his previous jobs, he had team interactions. His current job doesn't offer that same peer-level of interactions and that's what sucks. You may be working from home and loving because you may have interactions with peers at your same level but he doesn't have that. And the board, which should b…

I had this same problem recently. I thought co-working would fix it, but it didn't. Like you, the problem was deeper; I missed shared goals, successes, and even failures. How did I fix it? I quit. I loved my job and my boss and my work hours, compensation, benefits & vacation... but I quit anyway. In January I start work at a small highly collaborative company, and I feel SO good about it :)

Nice. Good luck!

Re: Working alone sucks

#34

Post by lsdafjklsd »

I have never had a real life developer friend or someone to talk to.

I got my BFA in illustration in 2010 and decided to get back into web development (I got an associates in digital media 3 years prior and was into web development in high school). So the landscape of development had changed a ton, I stumbled on to middleman and SASS.. so I was getting acquainted with modern tools and techniques. Then I was lucky enough that a marketing company in my town hired me to help out with html emails and photoshop collateral.

They had a VB .NET Webforms guy that they would outsource application-ish websites too. At this time I was watching the google python videos and reading books about django / rails. I learned about heroku and in my spare time I would build and deploy simple apps like questionnaires with an active admin backend. Basically, my company let me take a stab at one of these application-ish projects and it went really well so I got to do more and more. That was a year ago, and now I work solely on large Rails / backbone projects hosted on Heroku. In all of this personal growth I still have not met another developer who I can talk to or learn from, it's crazy. It makes me sad because I don't have someone to share the excitement with, or someone who I can learn with. We have had this AD out for another developer for months and get very few responses. If you're in NH and like this stuff send me a message :)

Re: Working alone sucks

#35

Post by trafficlight »

forgottenpaswrd wrote: post #29

Working alone sucks(if you are extroverted). I had the opposite problem, I started working in sales with tons of people. I had no time for myself, meditation, solitude or thinking, just meeting people or being interrupted on the phone constantly. People could not understand that I wanted time for myself(most of the human population is extroverted). It was great for some people, but not for me. Now I work(at home) in…

I'm definitely introverted, but sometimes I do find it helpful to be around other people while working. Which is why I'm starting a coworking space in my hometown.

Re: Working alone sucks

#36

Post by return0 »

marknutter wrote: post #3

Title should be "Working alone sucks for some people ". I've been working from home for years and love it, for instance.

But, based on the upvotes of the post, the OP seems to ring true for a significant number of people here.

Also, this is not a person who occasionally works from home, but works from home all the time.

PS. mandatory oatmeal: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home

Re: Working alone sucks

#37

Post by brandall10 »

marknutter wrote: post #3

Title should be "Working alone sucks for some people ". I've been working from home for years and love it, for instance.

I truly believe 'alone' is more a state of mind than anything else.

Having recently left a veritable 'Office-Space' like enterprise, with 500 people on my floor you'd think I wouldn't have been so lonely. But being lost in a sea of cubes and water cooler/misery loves company talk replete with excuses of why someone can't do something and something didn't get done at every corner can wear one down.

As a newly minted Rails consultant going on 6+ mos now, I have yet to meet any of my clients/designers face to face (there's 10 people involved in 2 separate long term projects). They live on the East Coast and I'm in southern California. But we're in regular communication... skype/google hangouts, phone, basecamp, email, pivotal tracker, github.

When it comes to my career I'm feeling amazingly whole when I'm 'virtually' surrounded with highly competent people who see eye-to-eye than when I had to grudgingly come into a mediocracy every day. I've never experienced this level of cohesive team work before... to me it just seems like the physical presence thing is icing on the cake.

If I get 'physically lonely' heck while working I'll go out to one of various local cafes I frequent and take my headphones out every once in awhile and chat up a stranger. Usually we have far more in common than I did with any of my former co-workers. To top it off I find myself more regularly hanging out with friends while not working... having a fluid schedule + getting rid of that time sink that is commuting really opens up one's options to be social.

Re: Working alone sucks

#38

Post by hansy »

labaraka wrote: post #10
marknutter wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for co-working. I occasionally work from a co-location workspace or a coffeeshop with local friends and hackers and it satisfies my need for human interaction without being too distracting.

There is a difference between general human interaction and specifically having a peer working with with you on a common goal.

You are definitely not alone. Being as "loneliness" in my business was a personal pain point for me as well as for my co-founder, we decided to create VocalTap to help connect business owners/entrepreneurs together in a private, meaningful way.

It certainly helps to have others support your business or at least empathize with your struggles.

Re: Working alone sucks

#39

Post by labaraka »

return0 wrote: post #36
marknutter wrote: post #3

Title should be "Working alone sucks for some people ". I've been working from home for years and love it, for instance.

But, based on the upvotes of the post, the OP seems to ring true for a significant number of people here. Also, this is not a person who occasionally works from home, but works from home all the time. PS. mandatory oatmeal: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home

Pure genius
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