The Stress of Remote Working
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The Stress of Remote Working
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Re: The Stress of Remote Working
#2IMO, still much better than the stress of driving in rush hour traffic 2x a day to go to an office where everyone is looking over your shoulder all the time and won't hesitate to interrupt you, or the guy right next to you, or anyone in the room, for a quick, disruptive chat that everyone can hear.
Re: The Stress of Remote Working
#3> To summarize, the main problem for me is to feel like a text processing machine, receiving mails, Jira tickets and chat messages as input and writing code as output, without the human interactions needed to make it more meaningful. I do not like becoming a kind of a remote developer black box.
This sounds fantastic, where can I get such a gig? There's really nothing better than being given a more-or-less defined task, and being free to just go get shit done, without interruptions, or waffling, or hemming and hawing about whether it should be done this way or that way, by people who have no understanding of the technical realities.
Thank god it's a work-from-home Friday. I predict I will get far more accomplished in four hours today than I did in the 40+ I was in the office Monday-Thursday.
Re: The Stress of Remote Working
#4> To summarize, the main problem for me is to feel like a text processing machine, receiving mails, Jira tickets and chat messages as input and writing code as output, without the human interactions needed to make it more meaningful. I do not like becoming a kind of a remote developer black box. This sounds fantastic, where can I get such a gig? There's really nothing better than being given a more-or-less defined ta…
> about whether it should be done this way or that way, by people who have no understanding of the technical realities.
This will most likely still happen, just over Jira, chat, and code review comments, making it more painful (as the bandwidth is lower) than in real life.
Re: The Stress of Remote Working
#5> To summarize, the main problem for me is to feel like a text processing machine, receiving mails, Jira tickets and chat messages as input and writing code as output, without the human interactions needed to make it more meaningful. I do not like becoming a kind of a remote developer black box. This sounds fantastic, where can I get such a gig? There's really nothing better than being given a more-or-less defined ta…
> about whether it should be done this way or that way, by people who have no understanding of the technical realities. This will most likely still happen, just over Jira, chat, and code review comments, making it more painful (as the bandwidth is lower) than in real life.
Those are much easier to ignore though.
Re: The Stress of Remote Working
#6> To summarize, the main problem for me is to feel like a text processing machine, receiving mails, Jira tickets and chat messages as input and writing code as output, without the human interactions needed to make it more meaningful. I do not like becoming a kind of a remote developer black box. This sounds fantastic, where can I get such a gig? There's really nothing better than being given a more-or-less defined ta…
It seems to me that one reason you are able to sit down and just get shit done on Friday is because you've been in the office Monday - Thursday to get context, discuss implementation strategies, understand the business goals, and ask/answer any questions. Then by the time Friday comes around you're ready to sit down and bang out code.
But whether you're in the office or not while writing that code is completely orthogonal to whether you have the context & requirements to do it. A good organization that's built for remote workers can communicate all of that without people having to be together in person. Likewise, a bad organization will have bad development & requirements practices whether you're in the office in person or remote.
The big difference is that it's easier to ignore distractions when you're remote so once you have your work (mostly) defined then it's easier to get into flow when you're by yourself.
Re: The Stress of Remote Working
#7IMO, still much better than the stress of driving in rush hour traffic 2x a day to go to an office where everyone is looking over your shoulder all the time and won't hesitate to interrupt you, or the guy right next to you, or anyone in the room, for a quick, disruptive chat that everyone can hear.
eating, fiddling with things, kicking the back of their desks, typing too percussively, sniffing...
Re: The Stress of Remote Working
#8> To summarize, the main problem for me is to feel like a text processing machine, receiving mails, Jira tickets and chat messages as input and writing code as output, without the human interactions needed to make it more meaningful. I do not like becoming a kind of a remote developer black box. This sounds fantastic, where can I get such a gig? There's really nothing better than being given a more-or-less defined ta…
It seems to me that one reason you are able to sit down and just get shit done on Friday is because you've been in the office Monday - Thursday to get context, discuss implementation strategies, understand the business goals, and ask/answer any questions. Then by the time Friday comes around you're ready to sit down and bang out code. But whether you're in the office or not while writing that code is completely ortho…
Ah, gotta have the requirements to get things done - right, I’m with you on that one. Where would all software dev be if we didn’t have requirements? ideally printed out and distributed in neatly packed binders.
Seriously, do you really think that something that cannot be worked out over slack/confluence/phone call can be worked out in person sitting in the busy office with all kinds of distractions and stress caused by commute in/out....
Re: The Stress of Remote Working
#9I've worked remotely for a company in another state for the past 5 years, I can relate to many of these issues.
On socialization, I can understand the feeling there, but for me the solution was to find social circles beyond work. For me I have my church community and also meetup groups with other developers in a similar field. If you don't have those already you will definitely be feeling the loneliness.
Other things I do is have a dedicated office space that I only use for work, to create at least a semblance of home/work separation. I also have a pretty disciplined morning routine that involves working out (at the very least, taking a walk), reading and actually getting dressed. I've found just jumping out of bed onto a call is a recipe for disaster especially if it becomes ingrained as a habit.
I also work partial days from coffee shops (I also feel bad if I spend 3+ hours in a seat after just buying a bagel and an americano.) I'll often go there in the morning to also promote the work/home separation.
The other thing is that I work for a relatively small company and they bring me up to the office every few months for a few days, so there is a time to connect with people in the office. If you are 100% remote and never meet people in person I feel it could be a bit more difficult to make connections with people.
Overall, I really enjoy it, I do wish I could go into the office more often. Having a 2 office/3 remote weekly schedule would be my ideal situation - do meetings and socialization in person then have the distraction free time provide via remote work. I'm not sure how many companies would be into that idea.
Re: The Stress of Remote Working
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems to me that one reason you are able to sit down and just get shit done on Friday is because you've been in the office Monday - Thursday to get context, discuss implementation strategies, understand the business goals, and ask/answer any questions. Then by the time Friday comes around you're ready to sit down and bang out code. But whether you're in the office or not while writing that code is completely ortho…
Ah, gotta have the requirements to get things done - right, I’m with you on that one. Where would all software dev be if we didn’t have requirements? ideally printed out and distributed in neatly packed binders. Seriously, do you really think that something that cannot be worked out over slack/confluence/phone call can be worked out in person sitting in the busy office with all kinds of distractions and stress caused…
Yes. Get a meeting a room and do a proper meeting. The thought of having a 1 hour long meeting makes me sick. The thought of having a 1.5-2 hours long phone call (adjusted for inefficiency of the phone call) makes me want to kill myself. I will not get anything done ever after that.