31–40 of 44 posts
When I compare my 15 years in the office to my 7 years full-time telecommute, I can say without a doubt that I get a lot more work done working form home. Anyone who hasn't experienced the huge amount of time wasted in big-corp office environments hasn't worked in big-corp offices.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
True, but I find that the most effective workers can be effective anywhere. At home: I can't get work done because I get distracted by my couch/play video games. At the office: I'm not getting work done because I'm reading HN all day long. Knowing yourself and how to create the proper processes/workplace is important, and something everyone should discover about themselves.
This. If you're determined to pound-out a good 8 hour day for a client, and do a fine job that shows fine results, it doesn't matter what your surroundings are. Unfortunately thi s debate is showing up daily in HN lately, and I don't anticipate swaying any minds. Disclosure: Teleworker for 10 years, often for Californians (who themselves often assume I'm in the same state or timezone as them, and I'm set up to antici…
I work from home 5 days a week. I love the ability of having a flexible work environment , so I drive myself to remain focused during the day and produce the most that I can. This doesn't work for everyone, a lot of people will say they get distracted, or don't have motivation to make it work. In my mind it's generally because they haven't setup the proper home office atmosphere and/or processes.
> In my mind it's generally because they haven't setup the proper home office atmosphere and/or processes. True as that may be, it's fairly easy to stay focused in a work environment and fairly hard not to go insane at home. Setting up the proper home office atmosphere and processes, experimenting with different ways of working, that in itself is part of the ordeal.
You have to chitchat plenty, and you have to do lunches out a couple times a week, etc, and have social interaction in the evenings.
Talking to my partner who's in OH&S and she was saying there is a growing body of evidence working from home is bad for your mental health. Not saying that's absolutely everyone in all situations but like most mental health issues you can't really self diagnose.
Talking to my partner who's in OH&S and she was saying there is a growing body of evidence working from home is bad for your mental health. Not saying that's absolutely everyone in all situations but like most mental health issues you can't really self diagnose.
I agree. I actively try to get out. I also more acutely notice when I'm not working when working from home compared to an office. Since starting one job working from home in NYC I put on 20 pounds in 6 months because I wasn't walking to and from work as much.
I work from a home office (separate from the house but still part of it) and on average work around 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. It doesn't bother me because I'm in a great environment without distractions. When I had an office job, the most I could do we're around 4 hours of real work.
I work from home 5 days a week. I love the ability of having a flexible work environment , so I drive myself to remain focused during the day and produce the most that I can. This doesn't work for everyone, a lot of people will say they get distracted, or don't have motivation to make it work. In my mind it's generally because they haven't setup the proper home office atmosphere and/or processes.
> In my mind it's generally because they haven't setup the proper home office atmosphere and/or processes. True as that may be, it's fairly easy to stay focused in a work environment and fairly hard not to go insane at home. Setting up the proper home office atmosphere and processes, experimenting with different ways of working, that in itself is part of the ordeal.
That depends entirely on the person. I've spent years working totally in an office, totally at home, and various combinations of the two.
I get a lot less done in the office precisely because I can't concentrate with people moving and talking all around me. Just the thought of the open floorplan setups a lot of companies have makes me shudder. Putting headphones on and listening to music is just as distracting to me.
Working from home, it's quiet and I can focus on what I need to. I don't have any issue with lack of social contact; between IMs, telephone, Skype, and the occasional trip to the office it just never seems to be an issue.
Overall, I think the best setup (for me) is being able to work from home as often as I want (2-4 days a week), with the opportunity to go into an office whenever I want for meetings and general discussion.
I don't see why common sense hasn't prevailed on this topic after being beaten to death for years. The only ones who can decide whether telecommuting or remote working makes sense are the managers of each company asking themselves that question. There are too many variables, and no obvious answer. The best researchers should strive for is to identify the common variables with their inputs & outputs, and publicize tha…
Why is it the managers that have to figure it out rather than individual employees figuring out for themselves what makes the most sense? To be fair it the individual, their team and manager should know when working remotely is and isn't working on a case by case basis