Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely • Hacker News Board

Re: Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely

#71

Post by orangethirty » Sat, Feb 02, 2013, 2:29 AM UTC

VonGuard wrote: post #58

orangethirty wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! I work three times as hard from home, and love it. I'm much more productive, to the point of doing projects that would take 2-3 people alone myself. I'm currently looking for a remote full-time position (email in profile).

The best code in the world is usually written faster and better by a single dood in a basement working non-stop for a couple days than it is by teams working for months.

Yes, so true. I'm also working on 99% of the Nuuton code by myself. Front to back end, including the web crawlers. Its strange, but I can definitely get a lot done like this. I sometimes even get bored and started building my own life-size robot. It will act as my administrative assistant.

Re: Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely

#72

Post by AaronBBrown » Sat, Feb 02, 2013, 2:34 AM UTC

Shog9 wrote: post #39

AaronBBrown wrote: post #30

Here's my big secret about remote working... I sit at my desk a lot less, but work a lot more. I'm one of those people that simply cannot solve complex problems while sitting at a desk. Because I'm not beholden to butt-in-the-chair syndrome, I am free to spend an hour or more going for a walk, visiting a local coffee shop, or taking a bath so I can think and problem solve before typing into a console. As a result, my…

Amen, brother. Heck, I use a wireless headset so that even when I'm in a hangout I can walk around, go outside, etc. Don't ask me to think about something and then sit still while doing so; you'll get whatever lazy answer I can come up with quickest - or no answer at all.

Recommendations for a good wireless headset that has decent range?

Re: Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely

#73

Post by matwood » Sat, Feb 02, 2013, 2:38 AM UTC

jmspring wrote: post #21

I currently work at home 3-4 days a week with the others being in the office, usually for meetings and collaborating on things. The office is an open floor plan with very poor noise reduction. When not in meetings in that environment, it is hard to get work done even with headphones. Visual and audio distractions persist. That said, there are times where getting together is helpful. When contacted by companies, I ask…

Time spent in the car/traffic is productivity lost.

Not necessarily. Thinking is still the number one thing we as software people need to do. A 20 minute commute is a great forced time to not do anything else but drive and think. Even when I worked from home for 2+ years, I still drove somewhere else nearly everyday to work in addition to going to the gym.

I'm happy to be working in an office again. My current floor plan is much different than your though. I share an office with my teammate, and it's almost too quite through the day.

Re: Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely

#74

Post by spatten » Sat, Feb 02, 2013, 2:58 AM UTC

df07 wrote: post #66

spatten wrote: post #62

The hint about a persistent Google Hangout is very interesting. It sounds like you just create a Google+ event, attach a hangout to it and the URL is persistent forever[1]. Is it really that easy? https://plus.google.com/+CheeChew/posts/RmPerogdhrB

Yes, that is exactly what we do. Create an event far in the future and attach a hangout to it. We then use a URL shortener to give it an easier URL.

Cool, thanks! I'm going to set that up for us at Leanpub.

Re: Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely

#75

Post by ww520 » Sat, Feb 02, 2013, 3:17 AM UTC

Remote working is all great. One downside I notice is the blurring of work and home life, especially the working hours. I've drifted slowly to work later and later into the night. At one point I've shift working until 6am in the morning. That's time I decided to reset the clock and do regular hours again.

Re: Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely

#76

Post by supervillain » Sat, Feb 02, 2013, 3:41 AM UTC

I cannot express how happy am I working remotely, I am more productive, I can be with my dogs, I can think much more clearly.

But unfortunately, I get terminated for working remotely in the past 3 jobs I have as a programmer.

I live and work in the Philippines, and I always opted for an office job that takes care of my government securities and taxes, which I cannot get from working remotely on a virtual staff company or freelance website.

So I always end up working on a traditional office, but every once in a while I take up my vacation leave or sick leave and do excuses just to be at my house and _continue_ working, because I love programming and I always love to do it at home.

But it always turned out badly for me, and always get terminated for being 'AWOL' or work abandonment, just because I'm not at the office.

Re: Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely

#77

Post by jacques_chester » Sat, Feb 02, 2013, 3:47 AM UTC

kintamanimatt wrote: post #2

I wonder what the legal issues are for an American company having cross-border employees. How do they take care of national insurance and income taxes etc for their UK-based employee when (presumably) they have no legal presence there? How does this work for them?

This is when you call a payroll company and let them sort it out for you.

Re: Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely

#78

Post by mylittlepony » Sat, Feb 02, 2013, 5:39 AM UTC

I wish I knew how to get hired remotely. I'm an experienced programmer, but I happen to also be a security paranoid, so not only I have not bothered building an online persona, I have also removed every trace of myself on the internet. I can prove my experience, but not to an HR guy. I also think I have good written English, and yet I haven't even had a response to any emails I've sent for remote work in other countries (I don't want to work for my country, for several reasons). Any thoughts?

Re: Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely

#79

Post by winter_blue » Sat, Feb 02, 2013, 5:57 AM UTC

> #1a: You don’t lose people to silly things like their significant other going to medical school.

I really don't like the attitude here. Your significant other moving, is _not a silly thing_.

> I’ll let you in on a secret: most of our remote developers work longer hours than our in-office devs.

Yet another reason not to work remotely -- to maintain your work-life balance. Home is a place you spend with family and/or significant other, and doing non-work related stuff.

> it forces me to look at what they’ve done

This is something you should always look at. Measuring someone's performance by the number of hours they've spent in the office is _never_ a good idea; some people are just productive than others.

I stopped reading at this point. The author is quite selfish/insensitive to employee needs (since your significant other moving is "silly"), and he objectifies employees and doesn't treat them humanely (anyone who is happy with their employees working like 14 hours a day truly doesn't care about the employees' holistic well-being.)

Re: Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely

#80

Post by Shog9 » Sat, Feb 02, 2013, 6:18 AM UTC

AaronBBrown wrote: post #72

Shog9 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amen, brother. Heck, I use a wireless headset so that even when I'm in a hangout I can walk around, go outside, etc. Don't ask me to think about something and then sit still while doing so; you'll get whatever lazy answer I can come up with quickest - or no answer at all.

Recommendations for a good wireless headset that has decent range?

I'm using this one: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/8391

The range ain't great, but it's enough. Combine it with a laptop and good wifi, and I can go quite a ways.