

How remote work changed my life - amplification
http://justinjackson.ca/remote/

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AndyParkinson
Great review/post.

Remote work is the way of the future. A recent study from of IBM employees
showed that if employees have a modest commute then they only need to work 38
hours/week before they start to have work/life balance issues.

If employees work for a company that allows them to telecommute, they can work
almost 60 hours per week before running in to work/life balance issues. That's
a big deal.

(That's not to say you should put in 60 hour weeks if you can help it, but it
highlights the negative effects a commute has on people and their happiness in
life.)

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amplification
I can identify with that completely.

The commute just killed me - added so much stress and load. It affected me at
work (I'd come into the office feeling burnt out), and it affected me at home
(I'd often arrive home deflated).

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AH4oFVbPT4f8
Is it the commute or the interruptions at work? I find that my commute is only
22km on 2 roads which takes about 35 minutes to drive, but it's the constant
interruptions that slow me down so much. Working remotely frees me from those
allowing me more time to concentration on the current task or project.

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thirsteh
As someone who worked from home for a while but now work in NYC and program
for a living: definitely both. Somewhat physically draining and (very) time-
wasting commute, and lots of interruptions when in the zone.

However, many tasks are tens of times easier to complete when you can walk
over to somebody and get an answer to your problem. I don't care how many
Basecamp, VoIP installs and standups you have--trying to do the same remotely
doesn't compare.

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jason_wang
5 years ago I had an opportunity to work from home for 6 months and it drove
me nuts! I guess I'm built in a way that I thrive on human-to-human
interaction. Limiting myself to just digital communication actually made me
sad.

Company should optimize for happiness. So for people like me, have an office.
For people who thrive on working remotely, it should do everything it can to
make them comfortable. I don't think there's a right or wrong approach. Just
optimize for your workforce.

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amplification
Absolutely. Jason and DHH talk about that quite a bit in the book.

If you read the book, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

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jason_wang
Yeah, if I recall correctly, 37Signals does have an office and a handful of
employees do work out of the office. 37Signals clearly knows how to optimize
for happiness and efficiency.

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ssharp
I don't really relate to the "soul sucking" idea of a commute.

I work about a little over an hour away from my office and work from home
several days a week. It's a nice trade-off between being in the office, where
interaction happens, and being remote, where remote interaction happens, but
also where I can hit substantially higher levels of productivity.

While I could do without my evening commute, I generally ENJOY the morning
commute. I have Spotify to dig into albums and discover new music, audiobooks,
a lot of podcasts I like, organize my day and think through problems at work.
Even on the return home when I want to decompress and NOT think about work, I
still have stuff I can listen to and enjoy.

I don't think commuting is any sort of great way to spend time, but "soul-
sucking", even in horrible traffic when you're having a bad day and just want
to be at home, is a bit dramatic. Inconvenience != soul sucking and such
statements remind me of the Louis C.K. bits on American whining.

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dmm
If you lived a mile away from work you could always choose to just drive
around in circles for an hour every morning and listen to audiobooks.

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ssharp
I did say it wasn't a "great" way to spend time. Lots of shades between that
and "soul sucking".

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hcarvalhoalves
I've started working remotely and I've never achieved so much work as in the
past two months. Being ahead of schedule also opened up some hours to work on
personal projects, which is great.

Previously, I would endure on a 4-hour daily commute by bus/metro, work on a
noisy office, and for a lower pay to boot. No way I go back to that life.

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Segmentation
Question about incomes and San Francisco start ups that offer full-time remote
work:

If X programmer would make 100k/yr working at your location in San Francisco,
does X programmer make 100k/yr if they are full-time remote in another city?

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nolite
Depends on what you negotiate, of course

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jk211e
nice post. Having worked remotely, I definitely prefer that to office even if
there is a short commute but this took some time. When I initially started
working remotely, I was hard to stay on track. But having a separate "work"
place did wonders.

