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My experiences of working remote for a year

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Re: My experiences of working remote for a year

#31

Post by ensignavenger »

maratd wrote: post #7
wiremine wrote: post #3

I've worked 100% remote for 7+ years, and it is awesome. - I've had the opportunity to see my kids grow up (they're 6 and 9 now). - I get to see my wife for lunch and a coffee break every single day (she also works from home) - As a developer, the amount of focus I'm able to achieve in my home office is incredible. It isn't for everyone, though. Here's some things I've learned: - If you're any sort of extrovert, you'…

> You absolutely need to set yourself up for success. I have a home office in the basement, and it is _the_ office, not another room. This is the most important piece of advice. You need to have a space that is for work and for work only. When you enter that space, it puts you in a work mindset. If you work wherever, you will never be able to focus. > it is critical you jump on the phone a few times a week to touch b…

Why phone? What is it that the phone offers that IM doesn't?

Re: My experiences of working remote for a year

#32

Post by randlet »

eloycoto wrote: post #22
wiremine wrote: post #3

I've worked 100% remote for 7+ years, and it is awesome. - I've had the opportunity to see my kids grow up (they're 6 and 9 now). - I get to see my wife for lunch and a coffee break every single day (she also works from home) - As a developer, the amount of focus I'm able to achieve in my home office is incredible. It isn't for everyone, though. Here's some things I've learned: - If you're any sort of extrovert, you'…

I'm working from home for 3 years and I'm happy too. I share the lunch + coffee breaks with my wife, best thing ever. But with 2 kids in home, Can you say to them that you're working? they respect you? I spoke with some people that had success working from home, but when kids born they couldn't follow working from home. I may add make any sport when you working from home. Sport help me a lot to get fresh air and idea…

I work from home with a 3 year old and ~6 month old (and my wife) in the house. It's not a problem. The three year old knows that when I'm in basement it's off limits and she respects that. It's great to be able to go up and have lunch/coffee break with them!

A nice set of headphones is mandatory though ;)

Re: My experiences of working remote for a year

#33

Post by matwood »

yoz-y wrote: post #10
UserRights wrote: post #4

This shows the real problems with remote workers - they spread your company information to all kind of online platforms. The author here, of course, goes to the extreme with storing company passwords in a closed source password app and uploading them to dropbox! Remote workers must have some sense for privacy and security, this is more important than anything else.

A classic company nowadays will have their code in Github, their e-mail and documents over at Google, even more documents in office 365 cloud, critical company files in Dropbox etc. All for the sake of convenience. For me the important thing is to keep a work machine which is solely dedicated to work, which is only connected to the necessary services.

> For me the important thing is to keep a work machine which is solely dedicated to work, which is only connected to the necessary services.

VMs do wonders for this. A work VM with only work things makes it easy to keep work and life separate, but at the same time way more convenient than two computers.

Re: My experiences of working remote for a year

#34

Post by kryptiskt »

rizzin wrote: post #29
maratd wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You absolutely need to set yourself up for success. I have a home office in the basement, and it is _the_ office, not another room. This is the most important piece of advice. You need to have a space that is for work and for work only. When you enter that space, it puts you in a work mindset. If you work wherever, you will never be able to focus. > it is critical you jump on the phone a few times a week to touch b…

And what can be done if there's no easy way to separate "work" and "home" environments? Pretty soon (in less than a month) I'm going to have the following working conditions: I'm gonna have a room to myself and a powerful tower pc. I need it both to work and to do non-work related stuff like videogames. Of course I can drag it to kitchen every day to work and move it back to my room afterwards but that seems absurd t…

Maybe you can at least separate them virtually by dual booting home and work setups?

Re: My experiences of working remote for a year

#35

Post by wiremine »

eloycoto wrote: post #22
wiremine wrote: post #3

I've worked 100% remote for 7+ years, and it is awesome. - I've had the opportunity to see my kids grow up (they're 6 and 9 now). - I get to see my wife for lunch and a coffee break every single day (she also works from home) - As a developer, the amount of focus I'm able to achieve in my home office is incredible. It isn't for everyone, though. Here's some things I've learned: - If you're any sort of extrovert, you'…

I'm working from home for 3 years and I'm happy too. I share the lunch + coffee breaks with my wife, best thing ever. But with 2 kids in home, Can you say to them that you're working? they respect you? I spoke with some people that had success working from home, but when kids born they couldn't follow working from home. I may add make any sport when you working from home. Sport help me a lot to get fresh air and idea…

> But with 2 kids in home, Can you say to them that you're working? they respect you? I spoke with some people that had success working from home, but when kids born they couldn't follow working from home.

My kids grew up with it, so it was relatively easy to handle it: they always understood that when dad was in the office he was working and wasn't to be disturbed.

And there are consequences for them if they come into the office just to chat. Nothing major, but it is enough to create a difference between "the house is on fire" (good to know) and "I want to show you this awesome new lego creation I made (also good, but now is not the time).

Re: My experiences of working remote for a year

#36

Post by wiremine »

ensignavenger wrote: post #31
maratd wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You absolutely need to set yourself up for success. I have a home office in the basement, and it is _the_ office, not another room. This is the most important piece of advice. You need to have a space that is for work and for work only. When you enter that space, it puts you in a work mindset. If you work wherever, you will never be able to focus. > it is critical you jump on the phone a few times a week to touch b…

Why phone? What is it that the phone offers that IM doesn't?

> Why phone? What is it that the phone offers that IM doesn't?

We're on IM almost constantly for a few hours, but we then mostly go into our caves to get stuff done.

I've found the phone (and video calls) are critical for feeling connected to your teammates.

Re: My experiences of working remote for a year

#37

Post by [deleted] »

ensignavenger wrote: post #31
maratd wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You absolutely need to set yourself up for success. I have a home office in the basement, and it is _the_ office, not another room. This is the most important piece of advice. You need to have a space that is for work and for work only. When you enter that space, it puts you in a work mindset. If you work wherever, you will never be able to focus. > it is critical you jump on the phone a few times a week to touch b…

Why phone? What is it that the phone offers that IM doesn't?

[deleted]

Re: My experiences of working remote for a year

#38

Post by unoti »

ensignavenger wrote: post #31
maratd wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You absolutely need to set yourself up for success. I have a home office in the basement, and it is _the_ office, not another room. This is the most important piece of advice. You need to have a space that is for work and for work only. When you enter that space, it puts you in a work mindset. If you work wherever, you will never be able to focus. > it is critical you jump on the phone a few times a week to touch b…

Why phone? What is it that the phone offers that IM doesn't?

> Why phone? What is it that the phone offers that IM doesn't?

Phone is better than text because phone gives you more information in the discussion. You can judge the other person's mood to some extent, get a feel for their energy level, their enthusiasm. Also quite often when someone says something in text, it can be interpreted multiple ways, and emotion in voice gives cues which way is intended. If they have mixed feelings on a topic, you're more likely to sense that. It's also easier to talk, so it's easier to quickly relate a funny story and generally bond.

It's also worth nothing that a Skype call is generally higher sound quality, so it conveys this additional information much better than a phone call these days, since phonecalls tend to be way over-compressed and muddy. It's also worth noting that a video call does all of the above better as well, because video offers an additional channel of information for reading people's emotions.

Re: My experiences of working remote for a year

#39

Post by TheCondor »

wiremine wrote: post #3

I've worked 100% remote for 7+ years, and it is awesome. - I've had the opportunity to see my kids grow up (they're 6 and 9 now). - I get to see my wife for lunch and a coffee break every single day (she also works from home) - As a developer, the amount of focus I'm able to achieve in my home office is incredible. It isn't for everyone, though. Here's some things I've learned: - If you're any sort of extrovert, you'…

I've done so for over four years, the life stuff rocks. It's simply not a big deal getting home stuff done, dealing with sick kids, etc..

I'd flip it though, no matter how introverted you are, you probably need some social interaction. At the very least get outside, walk, exercise, etc... Working from can let you fall into some bad habits if you arent careful. In addition to an office, I shower, get dressed and have some "work" house shoes I put on and then go to work.

As a worker, you have to be proactive too, you have to work to forge friendships and a strong team feeling; that can be harder than you think and it does take work. It's great when you figure it all out, it can be lonely and miserable you you don't or can't.

I also will assert that if you have a couple of very effective remotes, it lifts the whole company. More people will feel free to do personal stuff when they need to and generally they'll do stuff in evenings and weekends when needed. I've seen a few places where "work at home" means work at night, weekends and when you're sick. Remotes sort of force that issue and they help promote the use of tools to facilitate it.

Re: My experiences of working remote for a year

#40

Post by imjoshholloway »

rizzin wrote: post #29
maratd wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You absolutely need to set yourself up for success. I have a home office in the basement, and it is _the_ office, not another room. This is the most important piece of advice. You need to have a space that is for work and for work only. When you enter that space, it puts you in a work mindset. If you work wherever, you will never be able to focus. > it is critical you jump on the phone a few times a week to touch b…

And what can be done if there's no easy way to separate "work" and "home" environments? Pretty soon (in less than a month) I'm going to have the following working conditions: I'm gonna have a room to myself and a powerful tower pc. I need it both to work and to do non-work related stuff like videogames. Of course I can drag it to kitchen every day to work and move it back to my room afterwards but that seems absurd t…

Different keyboard & mouse? That could give the "feeling" of a different PC.
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