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Working remotely, 4 years in

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Re: Working remotely, 4 years in

#111

Post by 52-6F-62 »

ibz wrote: post #67

5+ years here. Definitely not looking back to go to an office. After doing the DN thing in Asia for a year, I bought a farm house in my home country in Europe and moved over here. Being able to live in nature instead of in a city is an amazing, life changing experience. I often have people over visiting me - either friends or couch surfers. Planning to AirBnB the barn as well, which I converted into a nice big loft.…

You just described a large part of my dream lifestyle. Coming from a rural setting, the city life gets a little old after a while. I love the city and love visiting and the convenience of everything, but other opportunities for sport and exercise can be limited. And god do I miss being able to bike 5 minutes and ending up in the countryside. If I can get myself further north or toward the mountains comfortably, I will.

Please do share how you managed all of that—it helps to have insight!

Re: Working remotely, 4 years in

#112

Post by randomdata »

masklinn wrote: post #39
randomdata wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While you are not strictly wrong, "he" carries multiple meanings (see below). The original commenter is clearly using one of the latter definitions. 1. used to refer to a man, boy, or male animal previously mentioned or easily identified. 2. used to refer to a person or animal of unspecified sex 3. any person "They" is more modern, if a little awkward in some cases, but the english language is fluid and thus "he", al…

> "They" is more modern The singular "they" dates back to at least middle english and Chaucer, its proscription is the recent event (~18th century) and went mostly ignored by informal speakers: https://books.google.be/books?id=Lijcg3vt9yAC&pg=PA93&redir_...

Precisely. The common usage of "they" is more modern than "he". "He" is considered quite outdated as it has fallen out of fashion. However, english doesn't care about fashion. "He" and "they" remain correct in this scenario. English allows you to use any combination of letters/sounds that you want as long as the message is conveyed, and, as shown in your original comment, "he" perfectly conveyed to you exactly who the original commenter was referring to.

Re: Working remotely, 4 years in

#113

Post by blunte »

Most career stories are unique and driven by the circumstances and the person involved. So one's experiences may be very different from another's.

My experience working remotely for 10 of the last 13 years is that it suits me very well and leaves me feeling _differently_ than when I worked in an office.

I don't know if I can say I'm happier, but I'm generally more satisfied. I work MUCH harder and I work MANY more hours. Both of these are sort of my choice, but my behavior is driven by my goals to succeed with whatever project I am on or have defined. Thus, I don't know if I'm overall happier; but I feel less like I am just wasting my life compared to when I burned hours in an office at a much lower productivity.

Another difference (for me) is that the kind of projects I work on and the clients I work for give me a greater chance of financial success at this point in life compared to a more typical job. It may not be a greater pay-per-hour result when you factor in the hours I work, but I have much more opportunity to be part of a winning ($$$) outcome than I did in the corporate world.

And finally, one of my favorite perks is that I can work from anywhere in the world. It's not always easy to work for a month from a Caribbean island while squeezing in scuba certifications, but it makes life a lot more interesting than walking into the same building every day.

I doubt I'll ever walk into an office again for anything more than a week or two at a time. Finances aside, that gives me the feeling that I have _won_ the rat race.

Re: Working remotely, 4 years in

#115

Post by jimmaswell »

ganzolo wrote: post #91
sotojuan wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being in the same place where you live and work makes it very challenging to not think of job in your private time or vice-versa. Can you expand on this? I do not work remotely right now but as programmers, we're problem solvers. Often times I leave the office after 8 hours but the problem I was solving is still in my head through the night. However, I do not open work stuff over the weekend or in the evening unles…

I have a work computer that I, on purpose, never bring home. It also happen to me now, to think about job problems from home but it's very rare. While I was working from home, just seeing this desk / chair make me think of job. The temptation to look on mails / slack outside of your working hour is also much higher.

I just use two different windows accounts on a laptop. Works fine for me.

Re: Working remotely, 4 years in

#116

Post by allsunny »

ibz wrote: post #67

5+ years here. Definitely not looking back to go to an office. After doing the DN thing in Asia for a year, I bought a farm house in my home country in Europe and moved over here. Being able to live in nature instead of in a city is an amazing, life changing experience. I often have people over visiting me - either friends or couch surfers. Planning to AirBnB the barn as well, which I converted into a nice big loft.…

help me out, what's DN?

Re: Working remotely, 4 years in

#117

Post by yAnonymous »

blunte wrote: post #113

Most career stories are unique and driven by the circumstances and the person involved. So one's experiences may be very different from another's. My experience working remotely for 10 of the last 13 years is that it suits me very well and leaves me feeling _differently_ than when I worked in an office. I don't know if I can say I'm happier, but I'm generally more satisfied. I work MUCH harder and I work MANY more ho…

>It's not always easy to work for a month from a Caribbean island while squeezing in scuba certifications

(ง'-')ง

Re: Working remotely, 4 years in

#118

Post by heartbreak »

allsunny wrote: post #116
ibz wrote: post #67

5+ years here. Definitely not looking back to go to an office. After doing the DN thing in Asia for a year, I bought a farm house in my home country in Europe and moved over here. Being able to live in nature instead of in a city is an amazing, life changing experience. I often have people over visiting me - either friends or couch surfers. Planning to AirBnB the barn as well, which I converted into a nice big loft.…

help me out, what's DN?

Digital Nomad.

Re: Working remotely, 4 years in

#119

Post by emilecantin »

ganzolo wrote: post #78

I had a totally different experience from the author of this article. Maybe, this was due to the fact that I was working remotely for 4 years with different startups maniacs. Biggest issues were : - Nobody sees how much you are invested into your day to day work. They just see bunch of commits / builds and the little gray or green presence indicator on your messenger app. But if you are struggling for 3 days x 10 hou…

> unless you have an office space and you dedicate yourself to go there on a daily basis (which is at the end equivalent of having an in-house job...).

I'm in this situation, and it really does feel like an in-house job. It's not as "free" as people would think it is, because while I can technically work from anywhere, I have a very comfortable setup at home (multiple screens), and I don't really like to leave it. I still do it from time to time, and it's pretty handy.

One thing everyone talks about when talking about remote work is loneliness, but I think it doesn't always apply. If you have a family and / or volunteer somewhere at least weekly, it's very easy to avoid feeling lonely.

Re: Working remotely, 4 years in

#120

Post by brightball »

ganzolo wrote: post #78

I had a totally different experience from the author of this article. Maybe, this was due to the fact that I was working remotely for 4 years with different startups maniacs. Biggest issues were : - Nobody sees how much you are invested into your day to day work. They just see bunch of commits / builds and the little gray or green presence indicator on your messenger app. But if you are struggling for 3 days x 10 hou…

> Nobody sees how much you are invested into your day to day work. They just see bunch of commits / builds and the little gray or green presence indicator on your messenger app. But if you are struggling for 3 days x 10 hours per day to fix a bug, chances are high that nobody will realize this.

What you just described is why it’s so important to have daily standups and an assumption that when people on a team finish a story they will pair with somebody who has not. It has to be a standard mode of operation because there are so many people who are too proud to ask for help or think it will make them look bad. Sometimes, you just need another set of eyes.

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