

The Unexplained Fear Of Remote Employees - kirillzubovsky
http://ramenapp.net/post/53b191df6231390002000000

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jpgvm
Remote work has it's ups and downs. I have been remote for about 18 months now
as a senior software engineer.

On the plus side you are way more productive. Working from home also means no
time is lost in commute and depending on your team you can generally work
whatever hours work well for you.

However there are some downsides.. specifically it can be a little lonely at
times if there is no-one else at home. This isn't a problem short term but it
can become one. Physically it can not be good as if you work from home there
suddenly is very few reasons to leave, resulting in less exercise if you are
not careful. etc.

That being said, I think overall it's important to be flexible , remote
employees can be many times more productive than their 9-5 counterparts.

~~~
ggchappell
> However there are some downsides.. specifically it can be a little lonely at
> times if there is no-one else at home.

I imagine so. But note that this isn't really a problem with remote work _per
se_ ; it's a problem with working in a way that is different from what the
vast majority of people do.

Once upon a time (before the Industrial Revolution) most people worked at
home. The kind of loneliness you describe was rare, because home and its
environs were where the people were.

Maybe there is a societal "hump" we need to get over. If more people worked
remotely, then working remotely would become a more pleasant thing.

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mswen
I have worked primarily remotely over the past 15 years as consultant,
industry analyst, developer, statistician and writer. The settings have ranged
from me being in about a 5% minority of a corporate workforce, to a small
start-up that was formed as 100% remote, To solo freelance where physical
presence at clients is largely my call.

While it has been a clear benefit on the productivity and family life balance
side of the equation, I do feel that I have sometimes lost out to
opportunities. Opportunities for career advancement, or interesting projects
that would have been nurtured by the more subtle communication patterns and
interpersonal bonds formed by extended in-person interaction with co-workers
and higher level executives.

Life is full of trade-offs.

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bjchrist
I find this to be a very delicate balance, and it of course are heavily
dependent on the tasks at hand. On one side you want peace and quiet, in order
to concentrate, on the other hand you want close communication with your
colleagues.

I think 37signals from lot of good answers to these concerns. I highly
recommend reading from 37signals, Remote.

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nautical
There is one I work for colearnr.com ; the company is in London , UK . Awesome
work environment . The best part of remote job is certainly the freedom ,
because you are most productive in environment which suits you the best . In a
closed cabin offices you are put into a different environment which may or may
not help you . We are also looking for people to join our company . So please
feel free to contact ;)

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contingencies
_Rule of Diversity: Distrust all claims for "one true way"._ \- Eric S.
Raymond, The Art of Unix Programming (2003)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy)

