Working From Home Megathread

My favorite is how kindles were going to lead to the death of books, in fact the exact opposite happened.

Work from home about 80% of the time, the other 20% I am travelling around Europe to client meetings.

It works for me as a famine/feast, when I'm at home, I am really at home, but then I'm completely removed from my family when I travel. Absolutely agree with other posters if you are wfh permanently:
that you need a proper office space,
other people in house need to understand you are at work,
and you need to remember to clock off at a regular time.

I also find that I need to schedule some time out of the house most days, e.g. lunch out with someone, morning/evening run...

My job is basically sales, and my internal team is based throughout Europe so being based in an office is impossible. So I'm not sure my job will be sent to India anytime soon.

I eat too much when I work from home. Snack all day.

I work from Home almost entirely since I took a new job last May.

Most of what is said on the thread rings true for me. It can entirely depend on your character and discipline as to whether it will work for you.

I have two kids for example. But them being loud does not distract me if they are being loud in a positive fashion. If they start arguing or kicking off or getting hurt or whatever then I am distracted easily as I go into "dad mode". But if they are just playing and being happy then they can be screaming up and down the halls and I barely notice. Others might not be the same. They might find the slight noise of play even too much.

I do struggle a little with the self-discipline. But usually only when the work load is low and hard to focus on. If I am busy I am focused. If I am finding myself unchallenged, or frustrated and held up waiting for responses from coworkers, it is hard not to switch a Computer game on.

Quite often in my last job I would commute home, which cost time. Then at home I would have to do something that took up time. Go back out shopping. Go for my run. What I find now is that I step away from the computer at 12 and I do that thing then as part of my lunch break. When you add commute times and lunch times together therefore, I find I have a good chunk of time 1-2 hours more for myself or my family in the evening.

Hardest part for me is communicating with others. Sure email and skype works but as programming and user support is a part of what I do.... there are sometimes when you feel you could really just do with sitting down with the user to understand their issue, or explain your fix/solution that you can not do remotely. So I do try to spend a week here and there in the office/hotel to pack in workshops and software releases in person.

Was meant to be doing that this week in fact, but only because the government has been asking for a reduction in non-essential travel I decided to call it off and stay at home for now.

zweton wrote: »

Yeah same, not good for the mind.

You really need to have a balance. I don't think it's great if you're home all day. I work from home but I'd have a school drop if it's raining and some shopping done before 9am. Then kids in at lunch, back to work and then it's on to dinner, chat with the kids and husband, head out for exercise, activity or whatever.

If I wasn't in and out of the house like a jack in the box I couldn't work from home all day every day.

Also, I'm not sure if working at home does much for career progression in some instances, something to bear in mind. I'm settled in my job and happy at my level, I have family responsibilities and priorities so happy to plateau.

i try to work from home on a set day - sometimes when I maybe have a private appointment locally (i.e. visit to gp/physio/ - around lunch time).

I also make visits to clients premises for meetings (though not so much right now!) and find it better to go directly from home to the meetings. If I go to the office first, one can get distracted and then end up rushing to the appointment with the client.

A balance in all things.

I don't get this feeling of isolation / lonelyness - I would have just as much meaningful interaction when I am remote working as I do in the office. Most offices these days have people wearing headphones to avoid interaction / concentrate.

Also - when you are remote working you can interact with other people - not just work colleagues. I would go for coffee with a friend or the wife every day. Lunch out every second day. I do the school run, get to the gym do errands all before most commuters have even gotten on to the M50.

The reality is that people are about 70% efficient during work hours (i remember hearing about that before) so if you factor in a 9-5 working day, take out 1h30m for sanctioned breaks .. that gives a realistic working day of 6h30m - factor in your 70% efficiencies ... if you are productive for 4h30m a day at home you are on a level playing field. Giving much more scope for daily interaction and family time.

With technology the way it is - many applications in the cloud, secure communications etc you don't even need to be at a desk to be productive - I would have my iPad with me most of the time and can do about 90% of my work on it - so I can be waiting in the carpark of the school at 3pm and working away.

The biggest limitation is people - trust and employers !

Used to do it at a previous job sometimes, usually just because I was too hungover to get on a train. I didn't like it at all. Cabin fever all day and your day ends and you're still there.

I've worked from home for about 3 years, most of which have been with my own company but I had the option of working remotely a few days per week in my last job. I'd echo the sentiments of others that you need to be a certain type of person. A couple of observations I've had:

- People assume that because you are at home then you are not working, so you can look like a right arse when you say you can't talk or make it to something in the middle of the day. Conversely, people try to juggle a social life when they are supposed to be working.

- You need MEGA discipline in terms of getting up, ready and working. Most people can't do this. They stay in the PJs and sweats and rock the laptop on the couch.

- You need a designated workspace. A few days per week at the kitchen table will not only wreck your back, but you'll learn to hate your living space. Your 'home' and work merge as you can never escape them. Don't underestimate the impact of this.

- Co-working spaces are great but you may not like them. They are not like offices. You either never talk to anyone or you are constantly being talked to as they are filled, in my experience, with three types: a) Those that have a remote job but don't actually do anything, they are living the role as opposed to a job b) those with a legit job who are busy working c) those that need social contact and will do anything to have it, often at the detriment of their own and others work.

- Going to the gym and running errands does not replace the social aspect of an office. If you thrive on social interaction, you'll need to increase your after-work social circle. Remote working is lonely and if you have a significant other in the house with you, you'll run out of things to talk about by about lunch. Watch this, your relationships will suffer when you no longer catch up over dinner.

- Working in Starbucks and other cafes is not as great as it seems. They are noisy, you can't take a call and you can only sit there for an hour or two before you either lose the will to live or are kicked out. Ergonomically, they are not designed as workspaces.

- Anyone posting photos of them on a laptop by the beach is lying. This is a pipedream and completely for likes on the 'gram. No one seriously works like this so don't fall for that fallacy.

- I advise people starting out in their careers to avoid remote work. Stay in an office and learn off senior people. Develop soft skills and office politics. They are important and no remote role will teach them. High earning remote roles require experience, something you don't get by being remote all the time.

- You are actually working. Sounds straight forward right? But instead of being in a place that strictly confines your work, it is everywhere and 'always on'. You can't walk away from a remote job as easy as you can in an office.

My company trialed it yesterday and it went well, as expected seeing as we are a small tech company and everything we use is on the cloud.

Yet the CEO decides we should all still go into our small little office tomorrow and for the foreseeable future. Amazing to see his greed take precedence over the well being of his employees first hand. I'll be f*cking off outta there once this is all over.