Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What It's Like To Work Future Style

hoppycow.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 24 posts

Re: What It's Like To Work Future Style

#11

Post by rpicard »

nobody_nowhere wrote: post #6

Anyone have examples of a well-known, successful company which is fully virtual like this?

It's my understanding that at Mozilla you can choose to work remotely or in their office, so I imagine they shoot to make everything virtual to make that as seamless as possible. GitHub is largely distributed too [2].

I'd say that Automattic, the company that this poster works for, is pretty well-known and successful (makers of Wordpress, Gravatar, etc.).

Also, DuckDuckGo (where I'm an intern) is mostly distributed, though you might have to stretch your definition of well-known to include us. :)

[1] See around 1:30 in this video (I can't remember where I actually read about this): http://careers.mozilla.org/en-US/ [2] http://zachholman.com/posts/how-github-works-hours/ , http://zachholman.com/posts/how-github-works/

Re: What It's Like To Work Future Style

#15

Post by AaronBBrown »

bunkat wrote: post #9
jes5199 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She didn't say she worked on Thanksgiving - she said she stayed in St Louis longer than would be normally possible on a holiday. If I can work eight hour days at my in-law's house rather than having to rush back across the country to be in the office, then I get to stay longer. Best of both worlds.

But if she had gotten a phone call on Thanksgiving that something had broken and needed to be fixed, she would have worked on Thanksgiving (we've all been there). That was my point - since now we can be productive anywhere, we are always available.

I'm not sure that's exclusive to telecommuting. Having worked about half of my career remotely, and the other half in an office, I wouldn't say that the prevalence holiday/middle of the night calls is much different. Certainly, this is more true of Operations work than say, Accounting.

Re: What It's Like To Work Future Style

#16

Post by daleharvey »

rpicard wrote: post #11
nobody_nowhere wrote: post #6

Anyone have examples of a well-known, successful company which is fully virtual like this?

It's my understanding that at Mozilla you can choose to work remotely or in their office, so I imagine they shoot to make everything virtual to make that as seamless as possible. GitHub is largely distributed too [2]. I'd say that Automattic, the company that this poster works for, is pretty well-known and successful (makers of Wordpress, Gravatar, etc.). Also, DuckDuckGo (where I'm an intern) is mostly distributed,…

The OP pretty much sums up exactly my experience working remotely at mozilla (and previously couchbase).

I did write about it previously, not as well though - http://arandomurl.com/2011/09/03/working-remotely.html

Re: What It's Like To Work Future Style

#17

Post by Expez »

How is the salary at these remote-only places? Living just above the poverty line* would mean a salary of ~$45k in Norway.

I would love to work at such a company--preferably one with a flat organization structure--to get a glimpse of a possible future. But I'm not entirely sure how it would make sense financially for either party.

*Using the EUs definition of relative poverty at 60% of the country's median income.

Re: What It's Like To Work Future Style

#18

Post by cwp »

bunkat wrote: post #4

'During Thanksgiving, I spent the week in St. Louis, working from Jared’s parents’ kitchen counter for a few days.' I think this is the worst aspect of working 'future style'. Since you can work anywhere, there is no longer anyway to get away from work. Celebrating the holidays with the family - perfect time to get some work done!

Nonsense. If you don't want to work, then don't. Close your laptop, turn off your phone. If you can't do that, you need to learn to set boundaries (see #6 in the article).

Personally, I find this the best aspect of working future-style. Right now, I'm in the middle of a 6-week stay in Ecuador, visiting family, just like the OP. If I couldn't work remotely, I wouldn't be able to visit at all.

Re: What It's Like To Work Future Style

#19

Post by AaronBBrown »

iamtherockstar wrote: post #14

After working remotely for more than 5 years, I can say with confidence that one of the best things you can do is not wear pants with an elastic waistband more than once a week (i.e. stop working in your pajamas).

I'm a big fan of pajama working. Just make sure to remember to put pants on (or not stand up) during video conference calls.
Post reply on HN