

Ask HN: Who works from home? - djahng

As a followup to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2250526, I was wondering how many HNers work from home.  And for those that do, how did you begin that arrangement?
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cfinke
I've worked from home every single day since I graduated from college 6 years
ago.

My first job was as a one-man team managing a webapp for a local insurance
adjusting company. I lucked into working remotely, as they didn't have a
central office, so working from home was required.

My second job was working for AOL/Netscape under Jason Calacanis, and due to
his experience with hiring remote employees for Weblogs, Inc., the idea of
working remotely was not foreign to him or his other employees, who all worked
remotely as well.

The same situation applied to my third job - Mahalo, working for Jason again,
although since I left there a few years ago, they've transitioned to having
all of the developers work on-site.

Now I'm back at AOL again, hired by someone I worked with the last time
around, who himself was working remotely in the Orlando area until AOL opened
an office there.

At this point, the ability to work from home is #1 or #2 on my list of
qualifications for a job - I gain all of the time that would be lost
commuting, my job market is much bigger than people who have to work on-site,
and I greatly enjoy working in the office that I custom-built for myself
(seend here <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2146210>).

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BenSS
I've worked from home 100% of the time for the last 6 years and haven't even
met most of the people I work with in person. Your company culture really has
to support it, and it's going to be tough if other people are not already
doing it.

Most likely you won't start 100%, or even be able to get 100%. Get one or two
days in the middle of the week to avoid the impression you're trying to get
long weekends. Promote the extra time from not commuting, energy/green
savings, etc.. There are lots of suggestions out there on convincing your
boss.

Finally, remember that it doesn't work well for everyone. Some people don't
self-direct well without the office environment, miss the social aspect and so
forth.

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djahng
At my last job we were allowed to spend the occasional day at home, but we
were generally expected to be in the office. I have a few friends that work
exclusively remotely, but they didn't begin that way. They worked for a few
years at a company, and for one reason or another moved to a new city. Their
employers decided to keep them, so they let them work remotely.

Inc magazine had an article a while ago about working remotely
([http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100401/the-case-and-the-
plan-f...](http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100401/the-case-and-the-plan-for-the-
virtual-company.html)). Thought it was interesting. I'm curious as to whether
or not more people are starting new jobs exclusively as a remote employee.

~~~
aDemoUzer
Applies to me "llowed to spend the occasional day at home, but we were
generally expected to be in the office"

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bnycum
I work from home as well, ~1.25 years now. One of our bigger clients allows us
to use one of their rooms as an office if any of us need to meet up, luckily
it's like half a mile from my house. I like it and would have a hard time
going back to working in an office. Though I do have a kid on the way and a
wife soon to be home, we will see how much longer I say that :-p.

My two dogs keep me company and when I need a break I can just go outside and
throw the tennis ball with them in the backyard, no more spending my breaks
still thinking about a problem. Huge collection of music to keep me happy.
Plus I now have a corner office with plenty of sunlight.

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amathew
I graduated from grad school about four months ago and started working at home
as a data consultant. It's important to find a comfortable space where you can
still get work done. Having a nice chair to sit on is also very important.

I've never had a professional full time job, as I started working for myself
straight out of grad school. I have had numerous retail jobs that I had as a
teen and during college, but that's a different story. So i'm not sure about
'how to begin that arrangement.'

~~~
gawker
How did you manage to set yourself up with a consultancy gig?

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sagacity
That would be me, too. For the last decade or so. Beginning the arrangement
was not a problem for the reasons that 1) I own the company and 2) I relocated
the offices literally a stone's throw away from home.

I chose to do this for lifestyle reasons, to spend more time with the family
and to be able to do my own thing at my own pace, without employees (strength
peaking upto 50) harassing me :-) with issues every now and then.

Has worked extremely well for me; no complaints.

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frankus
I've been working at home for two and a half months, and switched jobs to do
it. Or more accurately, I work from home as a consequence of switching to a
job that was more in-line with my interests.

This comic pretty well sums it up how it's gone:

<http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home>

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petervandijck
Me. I started when I started consulting. I've had 1 office job after that,
didn't like it. When I take a job (as an employee) now, it's with that
condition. If not, I consult, and then I set my own rules of course.

