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Making Remote Work Work

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Re: Making Remote Work Work

#11

Post by whazzmaster »

randlet wrote: post #6

"If your office has a phone system that uses short extensions internally, have your IT department set one up to redirect to your cell phone. That way you can tell your coworkers to dial “5555”, instead of your whole number." Fantastic tip! Super simple but I really think this idea will make you feel more available to your co-workers.

My office also provides VPN phones for remote employees. Plug it into your network, login with your token and you have your full extension, vmail, etc. available anywhere.

Re: Making Remote Work Work

#12

Post by djim »

zrail wrote: post #3

This is all super valuable advice. The biggest thing that I've learned from working 100% remote for the last six months (which is also in the article) is to have a space that is just for work. Another thing that I've learned is to be crystal clear on when your normal working hours are, especially if the bulk of your team is in a different time zone. Don't be inflexible, of course, but establish normal working hours a…

eh. ive worked from home for 6+ years and i don't have a "space" designated for work. i work from bed, the desk, my couch, kitchen table, etc. all i need is a laptop and i'm at work.

Re: Making Remote Work Work

#13

Post by Touche »

zrail wrote: post #3

This is all super valuable advice. The biggest thing that I've learned from working 100% remote for the last six months (which is also in the article) is to have a space that is just for work. Another thing that I've learned is to be crystal clear on when your normal working hours are, especially if the bulk of your team is in a different time zone. Don't be inflexible, of course, but establish normal working hours a…

Excellent points. #2 is critical.

This is what I have to say about #1. It's important for your psyche. So you can feel like you are "leaving work" at the end of the day. But after a while it becomes less important. You get used to working from home and don't need the office as much. My routine is I get up ~7:30, make some coffee and work from the couch until 10, take a shower and then go back to work (could be any number of places around the house or outside) until lunch. Then I like to work in the office more during the afternoon.

For me the routine works because I am much more of a morning person. It's easy for me to have 2 pull requests ready in the first hour of working. The afternoon is tougher so I go to my office to concentrate. But absolutely, the first couple of months working from home there's a jarring sense of work/life imbalance and having an office is critical to bringing the balance. Eventually the need simply goes away.

Re: Making Remote Work Work

#14

Post by AJ007 »

zrail wrote: post #3

This is all super valuable advice. The biggest thing that I've learned from working 100% remote for the last six months (which is also in the article) is to have a space that is just for work. Another thing that I've learned is to be crystal clear on when your normal working hours are, especially if the bulk of your team is in a different time zone. Don't be inflexible, of course, but establish normal working hours a…

I really like the article. Numerous tiny things I've never considered, like the switch between headphones and speakers.

The weird thing is I started working in my bedroom a while back. Not only have I had the most productive year in my life (and I never had a computer in my bedroom, even as a child) I also have managed to completely eliminate my sleep disorders.

The most important things I tell people, including my own remote developers:

-Exercise and be active -Eat healthy -Control your light: flu.x, lightbulbs, tape all blue electronics lights -Be social; working from home in a remote area is really bad, in a city its great

If your smart, you can figure out the rest of the stuff because you won't have to worry about your health. I jump out of bed in the morning happy and ready to work.

Re: Making Remote Work Work

#15

Post by mason240 »

AJ007 wrote: post #14
zrail wrote: post #3

This is all super valuable advice. The biggest thing that I've learned from working 100% remote for the last six months (which is also in the article) is to have a space that is just for work. Another thing that I've learned is to be crystal clear on when your normal working hours are, especially if the bulk of your team is in a different time zone. Don't be inflexible, of course, but establish normal working hours a…

I really like the article. Numerous tiny things I've never considered, like the switch between headphones and speakers. The weird thing is I started working in my bedroom a while back. Not only have I had the most productive year in my life (and I never had a computer in my bedroom, even as a child) I also have managed to completely eliminate my sleep disorders. The most important things I tell people, including my o…

That runs counter to alot of advice I've seen. Working in the same room as your bed has helped you sleep better?

Re: Making Remote Work Work

#17

Post by barake »

randlet wrote: post #6

"If your office has a phone system that uses short extensions internally, have your IT department set one up to redirect to your cell phone. That way you can tell your coworkers to dial “5555”, instead of your whole number." Fantastic tip! Super simple but I really think this idea will make you feel more available to your co-workers.

The phone system where I work unfortunately doesn't support forwarding extensions like this. Instead I setup a Google Voice number that is a local call for everyone at the office.

Re: Making Remote Work Work

#18

Post by mbillie1 »

eweise wrote: post #16

Wow. "you should be pair programming". Terrible advice. Isn't effective in the office. Tons worse when remote.

I wish he had left that out, only because it was obviously going to lead to lots of reactions like this. Pair programming, at least on HN/reddit, is a fairly polarizing issue. I'm in favor of it, but plenty of folks aren't, and it's really an orthogonal issue with respect to working remotely.

(For the record: tmux/vim/skype has worked perfectly fine for me while remote pairing)

Re: Making Remote Work Work

#20

Post by mbillie1 »

skj wrote: post #7
pasbesoin wrote: post #4

A bit OT, but personally I've never found the need for a multi-zone clock or clocks. It's just a few offset quantities to remember, and the math is fairly instantaneous. Although it does get a bit hinky when shifts to and from daylight savings time don't align across differing regions.

My calendar lets me have a sidebar to list the time in other time zones, for when I want to schedule something with someone in California.

A super lazy, low-effort method is just googling "what time is it in..." and I'm ashamed to say I do that quite a bit :)
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