
Home office produces hardest workers - nreece
http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/business-it/home-office-produces-hardest-workers-20130223-2ey2d.html
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brandon272
In this local vs. remote work debate I find that the truth, as it often does,
lies somewhere in the middle. There are pros and cons to both environments and
what matters is what each environment offers how an employee chooses to deal
with the challenges associated with each.

Some people are more equipped than others to deal with work distractions and
some people are more equipped than others to deal with loneliness or isolation
when working in a home office environment.

I like the debate but can see both sides and don't feel there is one clear
"right way".

~~~
aantix
Agree.

I like "studies" such as this, not because I think a survey based study really
validates my position but because I can point to this article to progress my
own agenda with the hiring managers of the world.. Just being honest (or
honest about dishonesty I guess..)

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joedev
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.

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gte910h
"I can't come into the office and goof off with you guys" has always been my
feeling for people who want fewer WFH days

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inerte
Link to full study? News are notoriously bad at interpreting researches.

First of all, 25 people is a small sample. It could be that the study luckly
found enough people to make the data sing this song.

Second, work more/harder doesn't mean "better than those in the office".

~~~
eksith
I'm guessing this is the actual article :
<http://tja.org.au/index.php/tja/article/view/390>

Full text requires subscription, though.

Yeah, 25 is no sample at all. I mean, I work from home, but that's only
because that works for my current situation and the type of work I do. There
are a million other factors that can affect productivity either way.

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danshapiro
The source of this article that claims teleworking is great is a survey of
teleworkers, making the result - I'll be generous - "unsurprising".

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owksley
That's what Marissa Mayer said too :p

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aaron695
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.

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paddy_m
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.

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jacques_chester
You may also have snacked more. Being at home makes that much easier.

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kevining
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.

~~~
stdbrouw
> 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.

~~~
kevining
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.

~~~
justanother
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 anticipate that) via sailboat in the Florida Keys.

~~~
jdotjdot
I often aspire to a life like the one you have. What type of telework do you
do?

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justanother
I do whatever gets thrown my way by my 'boots on the ground' partners in LA in
San Francisco (without whom I'd get a lot less work). Primarily Rails and
Node, sometimes even PHP (with Zend or other MVC frameworks at least though).
I'll even write Java plugins for your Wowza Media Server, if that's what you
need. After taxes, the paycheck isn't quite as good as a senior developer in
San Francisco, despite the work being hard and engaging. But hey, the nights
and weekends are beyond comparison.

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eitally
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 _that_ information to biz execs and hiring
managers.

Anecdote: only 4 of the top 10 tech staff at my company are based in offices.
Just a few months after our CEO made some backhanded comments about that
statistic, he hired an EVP who also works from home (and who brought 3 VPs
with him, all of whom are also WFHers). ymmv.

~~~
mrbgty
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

~~~
randomdata
The individuals also make the same choice when they select the company they
want to work with. I assume this was meant to be implied. All business
relationships require at least two parties.

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kamaal
Just like how working at a office has its time drains(Meetings/Travel/chit
chat etc), Working from home too has its time drains(lack of self discipline,
distractions from family members etc).

Working from home looks horrible if the person is not disciplined, you can end
up the whole day watching TV or reading articles on the net since no one is
watching you. In many cases WFH is synonymous with taking leave for a day,
without actually having to take leave.

Currently you see the most discipline people working from home, hence you
always hear good news about it. Wait for a while, when your ordinary guy
begins to work from home and see how its not all milk and honey.

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bw2
Working from home makes it so that work time is worth nothing and work results
are worth everything. With that, it makes sense that working towards driving
results rather than chair-hours is more productive.

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donnfelker
Been working remotely 100% of the time for over two years and my productivity
is through the roof. In the office? Show up at 8 leave at 5? I'd get annoyed,
burned out, not want to do anything and I has become a total clock watcher.
5pm, I'm out. But, I noticed ... work from home ... I get a ton of work done,
dont watch the clock and get my 8 hours (or more usually ) in very easily
without issue.

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ollysb
I work remotely but also have space in a shared office about 10 minutes walk
from my house. There's some great benefits to this setup, if I want some
social contact I head down to the office and if I want to really focus for the
day I can stay at home. When I am in the office it's easier to focus than if I
was at my company office because I'm not getting bugged by people about work,
it's just general chat, lunch etc. when I want it. Because I'm so close it's
very easy to pick and choose as well, I'll work at home in the morning then
head in for lunch with the guys and maybe finish up in the office for the
afternoon. You still have to make some extra effort for team building but with
regular nights out and a couple of days here and there in the company office
it works out pretty well.

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mwsherman
It may also be that productive people are over-represented among those that
work from home. Or, those for whom working from home increases
productivity…tend to work from home. (Another commenter mentions survivorship
bias, similar idea.)

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orangethirty
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.

~~~
kamaal
70+ hours of real work per week is amazingly high levels of productivity. You
are like a four weeks ahead of an ordinary office goer for every he week
spends working at office. by this definition your quarterly work equals his
yearly work.

You can conquer the world with such a effort.

Curious to know, how do you do it?

~~~
orangethirty
@mctx && @kamaal,

1\. I spend a lot of time planning my day, week, month, trimester. I don't go
longer than that because plans change so much that its not useful. Planning is
crucial, and real hard work. If you are not planning, then you are just
wasting resources away.

I do plan differently than other people. I don't use TODO lists. Mine are more
scribbles on a notebook. Each day I set a goal of completing _n_ amount tasks
and focus on getting them done. They can be for something from the present, or
for something one month away. Having such flixibility allows me to buy myself
time.

2\. I track my momentum. The more I do the more I want to do. I have this neat
little calendar that I created myself called "The Snowball Calendar", where I
keep track of every productive day I've had. Just imagine a printed calendar
and each day is crossed with a big red X. I put this in a place where its
visible. Gets me amped up to keep working towards my goals by just seeing how
much Ive done already.

3\. I allow myself to just get up and leave at almost any time (unless Im with
a client or doing some specific work). Sometimes I get on my truck and get a
table at Chilli's. Then spend about 2-3 hours working from there. Other times
I simply go to the backyard with my laptop. :)

4\. I meditate. But not any Zen-style meditation. I do what I call _work
mediation_. In it I see what I want to accomplish already done, then trace
back the steps needed to complete it. I really like doing this because it
really eases a lot of pains that come up during projects. A great example is
that I use this technique to first write the programs in my head, and then
onto the computer. I can really cut down coding time if I just write the whole
thing in my mind.

5\. I dont have a strict schedule, say from 9-5. Doesnt work for me. I do
things in blocks of time. Length varies by task. Sometimes Im a complete night
owl, and sometimes I wake up early in the morning and work. My sleep is not
deprived because I take nap breaks.

6\. I don't surf the web from any of my workstations. I only do it from my
iPod. Netflix, Pandora, Youtube, HN, reddit, etc., they are only accessed from
the iPod. The workstations are for work only. I have one for code, one for
writing, and two servers that power Nuuton's crawler.

7\. I make sure to work while doing other things. Not multi-tasking, though.
Say I'm cleaning around the house. I keep a pen and notebook at hand. While
cleaning my mind wanders off. Every few minutes I get a burst of data coming
in. I stop and write those things down. Every thought.

8\. I exercise well. Exercise keeps me in top shape. Plus my best ideas and
solutions always come when Im running on the track.

9\. I dont follow a particular diet, but I make sure to count calories and eat
well. Eating fast food is just detrimental to productivity because my body
shuts down. I feel sleepy and tired from all the junk in it.

10\. I take mini vacations where I just dont do anything at all. Nothing. Just
sleep, watch netflix, and eat. This past weekend was one of such. After
working hard for a month and a half (average 80 hours a week because I also
worked on Sundays), I had to take a break. So I took it.

11\. I dont waste time picking my clothes. I have a standard attire that I use
every day (like an uniform).

I'm basically working or thinking about things during the whole day. But I
have always been like this. And Im not sure if this is something that anyone
can copy or do (or even learn). Its just the way I am. I know of people who
are very productive working much less than I do. So it just differs from
person to person.

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heurist
Or those who have been given the permission to work from home happen to be the
most responsible workers.

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rglover
Yep. I can attribute a lot of my progress as a designer/developer coming from
switching to working at home (and for myself). I can safely say that by
removing the daily updates on silly things cats did the night before, I picked
up a good three to four hours of work per week.

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milanello1
working from home is great and all but I currently work in an environment
where 'working from home' is the norm and it is not good for team-building at
all. I've been here for months and still don't know what people look like or
actually do even though I might send them reports or talk with them on lync.

Also, I guess this boils down to personality but I much rather work in the
office where it is much harder to get distracted whereas at home you can just
turn on the tv, watch movies, cook etc.

~~~
warren_s
This is where regular company or team-wide meetups are worthwhile. GitHub do
this semi-annually I think, I know Engine Yard do it with their remote support
staff, and the company I work with does a monthly hack day.

Distractions can be overcome if you're willing to work on them. I find with
daily standups, it's pretty hard to hide from a lack of progress, but if you
don't have these then teaming up with a few colleagues to keep each other
accountable is one option.

I stay away from TV, movies, etc during work hours, but I do tend to prepare
proper meals in my lunch hour, rather than just grabbing whatever junk I can
find. It's a good way to combat the extra weight you can gain when you start
working from home too.

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sumit_psp
If you want to build just workers who get your job done, I am sure Home office
might produce better results. But if you want creativity in the office, come
up with new features/products and be more than just a normal worker who gets
his job done, home might not be the ideal place.

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steveplace
Survivorship bias?

