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

People love working remotely

usefyi.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 369 posts

Re: People love working remotely

#321

Post by hinkley »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #240
jofer wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know it seems crazy, but I've been in several offices that had this. It most cases it worked well and I never noticed it until it would occasionally quit working. The offices where it's worked best were not open, though. They had thin doors/walls and a small speaker (also doubled for the fire alarm/etc) in the ceiling of each office. The white noise was unnoticeable until it was off or you really looked for it. The…

Our ventilation system seems like it's purposely loud enough that you can't hear someone clipping their nails. I like it a lto. It's not white noise and easy to ignore.

I interviewed at a place with open offices and their ventilation system was so loud that it made it hard to hear myself think.

Everybody seemed to like me except the PM who was either a little Kruger Dunning or straight up Peter Principle. He wanted very much for me to know how smart he (thought he) was. Pessimism != smart (something I have to remind myself of regularly). In an interview I'm supposed to be convincing you how smart I am, not comparing dick sizes.

I have no doubts that particular brand of insecurity that looks an awful lot like ageism cost me that job. But dealing with a boss who is uncomfortable around anyone who has more experience than them, especially with that tin roof of an office space would have been torture. Bad fit all around.

But it's rare that I find a place whose business model is terribly engaging. The hazard of experience is that a lot of problems start to look similar, a lot of verticals sound more meaningful than they really are, and you won't devote the rest of your life to making up for how you got the money in the first place. If you even get the money (I've skipped step 1 and gone onto step 2), which statistically you will not.

Re: People love working remotely

#322

Post by viraptor »

eikenberry wrote: post #237
alexhutcheson wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't found any mode of communication that's as effective for building trust as face-to-face interaction. Video conferencing, email, tickets, etc. all work well for the "Let's make a decision on this issue" or "Let's get this specific thing done" use-case, but it's much harder to actually get to know someone and build trust over those mediums. That's unfortunate, because trust between people on a team is a huge f…

And this is why you have occasional gatherings. To help establish trust and a better sense of community. Every remote position I've held has had at least a yearly get-together for just this reason.

Also you can have small remote social gatherings. Have a lunch together from time to time (video, online) and chat about non-work things. Have an unlisted #team-offtopic channel. Things like that work in my experience if they're just available and not forced.

Re: People love working remotely

#323

Post by marc_abonce »

saganus wrote: post #274
davidw wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Order high-quality materials which are hard to get. If you don't get them argue about it. Warn that inferior materials will mean inferior work." Memories work in funny ways. The first thing that jumped to my mind was the Asterix book where the Romans capture the druid (Getafix, in the English versions) and want him to make the magic potion. He insists that he must have fresh strawberries to make it, which are out…

Off-topic, but, it's very interesting how they translate the Asterix and Obelix character names across languages. In Spanish the druid is called Panoramix for whatever reason :)

It's also Panoramix in the original French, isn't it?

Re: People love working remotely

#324

Post by Relys »

ilaksh wrote: post #229
chad_strategic wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well played! In the TV show "What we do in the shadows" this is called an energy vampire. (you suck out other energy) Also a great show.

Wow I only knew about the movie. Now I have a new TV show I have to watch.

The TV show is pretty recent. Which reminds me I need to catch up on it (only watched the pilot when it aired).

Re: People love working remotely

#325

Post by donretag »

flavor8 wrote: post #311
donretag wrote: post #270

I have been working remotely for 3-4 years, and I am currently job hunting. I did not like working remotely honestly. As an extrovert, I did not like the isolation. However, the major drawback was not being able to steer any of the tech/political discussion because I was remote. I had poor managers/CTO that needed a good smack to the head because they were too scatterbrained, but I was not there to do it. Impossible…

It sounds like your team is mixed between on-site and remote. I've never seen that work well - you need to at minimum have a remote-first team or department for effective communication processes to be engrained. Otherwise, the co-located team ends up having a lot of watercooler conversations that exclude remote, and that throws off the balance.

I definitely agree with your analysis, which is why I mentioned I was only interested in this company because they already have a bigger remote presence. Still small percentage wise, but still better than being that one remote person. I specialize in a niche, so I had employers willing to let me work remote because they cannot find a local resource specializing in this niche. Ironically, this latest remote role has nothing to do with it.

Re: People love working remotely

#326

Post by donretag »

ken wrote: post #19

Elephant in the room: how many of these people would prefer it to having a private office ? Strangely, this article/survey/infographic never mentions that option. I'd prefer remote work, too, over sitting in an open floorplan office, but I'd much prefer an actual office to either one. The easy "why" is: despite all the drawbacks, a lot of us will do pretty much anything to get out of an open floorplan.

Shared team office is my favorite setup. As much as I derided working remotely in another post, anything, ANYTHING, beats an open-office plan.

Re: People love working remotely

#327

Post by davidw »

marc_abonce wrote: post #323
saganus wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-topic, but, it's very interesting how they translate the Asterix and Obelix character names across languages. In Spanish the druid is called Panoramix for whatever reason :)

It's also Panoramix in the original French, isn't it?

Yes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asterix_characters#Get...

Re: People love working remotely

#328

Post by rightbyte »

LeonM wrote: post #165
nostalgk wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, agreed. Even places I've worked with wonderful internal IT still have problem users who can't figure videoconferencing, or have damaged/misconfigured their device in a way that prevents it. It often comes down to the one person who actually knows the specific flavor of videoconferencing walking around and fixing everything for everyone, and everyone remote just mumbling and leaving the meeting. As I work at an…

Video conferencing is a problem that cannot be solved with software alone. I like to call it the 'last meter problem', as video conference issues are almost always caused by crappy consumer grade equipment. Wireless routers are the biggest culprit. Convince people to use a wired connection and be amazed how much better video conferencing suddenly becomes.

It's probably a software problem at heart though, if you include firmware level. Since VGA-connectors went out of fashion I'm still to use a projector that Just Works without having to use it 10 times before figuring out all its quirks.

Re: People love working remotely

#329

Post by TheGallopedHigh »

saganus wrote: post #274
davidw wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Order high-quality materials which are hard to get. If you don't get them argue about it. Warn that inferior materials will mean inferior work." Memories work in funny ways. The first thing that jumped to my mind was the Asterix book where the Romans capture the druid (Getafix, in the English versions) and want him to make the magic potion. He insists that he must have fresh strawberries to make it, which are out…

Off-topic, but, it's very interesting how they translate the Asterix and Obelix character names across languages. In Spanish the druid is called Panoramix for whatever reason :)

For those who are non native English speakers: Getafix can be read as Get A Fix, meaning getting drugs that you need if you’re addicted to something. Getafix deals in potions. Always thought that was amusing (coincidence or not).

Re: People love working remotely

#330

Post by davidw »

TheGallopedHigh wrote: post #329
saganus wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-topic, but, it's very interesting how they translate the Asterix and Obelix character names across languages. In Spanish the druid is called Panoramix for whatever reason :)

For those who are non native English speakers: Getafix can be read as Get A Fix, meaning getting drugs that you need if you’re addicted to something. Getafix deals in potions. Always thought that was amusing (coincidence or not).

Almost all the names are plays on words that relate to the character, like 'Geriatrix', the village elder. I posted a list of the names on wikipedia elsewhere
Post reply on HN