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Remote

robertgreiner.com

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11–20 of 57 posts

Re: Remote

#11

Post by abraxasz »

One thing I've found is that the effectiveness of remote work depends somehow on the type of work being done. I'm a currently a grad student, and my advisor is not in town very often. We have frequent skype meetings, but I don't get as much out of it as I do from real meetings. On the other end, I also work on startup projects on the week-ends, with people in different countries and I don't feel the same miscommunication problems in this context.

It is possible that remote working in an academic context is indeed possible, but that the highly technical type of communication required to make it work effectively is beyond my current skill. But my point remains that some types of work are harder to carry out remotely.

Re: Remote

#13

Post by eterm »

rg81 wrote: post #3
Keats wrote: post #2

The main problem is finding companies allowing remote (and by remote I mean "outside of the US" type of remote, there are not THAT many.

Yeah, Keats. You are 100% right. Remote covered this briefly, I think in the "Beware the dragons" chapter. I don't understand the legal side of the situation completely, but if you have enough people working out of a given international city, it could create a Nexus and require you to set up an office, etc. Remote's advice here is to hire international workers as contractors, but to treat them like full-time employee…

"hire ... as contractors, but to treat them like full-time employees"

In UK employment law at least this isn't legal, or rather the law simply treats them as employees.

Re: Remote

#14

Post by flippyhead »

rg81 wrote: post #9
flippyhead wrote: post #8

I should probably read this book but also, I wonder if I could have written it. We've fully embraced remote working and it's fantastic. It has allowed us to hire above our weight class as a small startup, finding and keeping some truly fantastic developers. I agree completely that communication is key. You really have to over communicate, to the point almost of being annoying to avoid very simple but costly mistakes.…

That's really great. I'm glad to hear of another company that has benefited from an all-in approach to remote workers. I think reading the book would be time well spent. You can knock it out in a single day.

And I should say I doubt I'd write it well ;)

Re: Remote

#15

Post by rwhitman »

I'm in this bummer of a situation where I can work remote from pretty much anywhere I like, but my wife is bound to her 9 to 5 that won't allow her to work remotely for more than a few days at a stretch. She does knowledge work as well, and if she had been with the company for a long time and was super essential to the business they might let her work remotely for the long term, but because she's somewhat replaceable if she goes anywhere too long, she loses the job.

Its a real problem because we need to be back on the other side of the country for family at the moment and she's trapped here by the company HR policy.

Really hoping that this stuff starts to break into mainstream corporate acceptance soon. These older companies are pretty sluggish to adopt remote worker policies, especially for jobs that they can just as easily fill with people on-site.

Re: Remote

#16

Post by rg81 »

eterm wrote: post #13
rg81 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, Keats. You are 100% right. Remote covered this briefly, I think in the "Beware the dragons" chapter. I don't understand the legal side of the situation completely, but if you have enough people working out of a given international city, it could create a Nexus and require you to set up an office, etc. Remote's advice here is to hire international workers as contractors, but to treat them like full-time employee…

"hire ... as contractors, but to treat them like full-time employees" In UK employment law at least this isn't legal, or rather the law simply treats them as employees.

I think they were referring to the liabilities from the perspective or running a company. Not, how it affects the individual employee/contractor.

Re: Remote

#17

Post by rg81 »

rwhitman wrote: post #15

I'm in this bummer of a situation where I can work remote from pretty much anywhere I like, but my wife is bound to her 9 to 5 that won't allow her to work remotely for more than a few days at a stretch. She does knowledge work as well, and if she had been with the company for a long time and was super essential to the business they might let her work remotely for the long term, but because she's somewhat replaceable…

Bummer. Hopefully your wife's remote working situation will improve over the next couple of years. Your gig sounds pretty great though, congrats.

Re: Remote

#18

Post by tnorthcutt »

eterm wrote: post #13
rg81 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, Keats. You are 100% right. Remote covered this briefly, I think in the "Beware the dragons" chapter. I don't understand the legal side of the situation completely, but if you have enough people working out of a given international city, it could create a Nexus and require you to set up an office, etc. Remote's advice here is to hire international workers as contractors, but to treat them like full-time employee…

"hire ... as contractors, but to treat them like full-time employees" In UK employment law at least this isn't legal, or rather the law simply treats them as employees.

Same thing in the US. There are major tax implications.

Re: Remote

#20

Post by Spooky23 »

rg81 wrote: post #3
Keats wrote: post #2

The main problem is finding companies allowing remote (and by remote I mean "outside of the US" type of remote, there are not THAT many.

Yeah, Keats. You are 100% right. Remote covered this briefly, I think in the "Beware the dragons" chapter. I don't understand the legal side of the situation completely, but if you have enough people working out of a given international city, it could create a Nexus and require you to set up an office, etc. Remote's advice here is to hire international workers as contractors, but to treat them like full-time employee…

If you hire contractors, treat them like contractors.
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