
Reasons Employees Prefer to Work Remotely - vkriss
https://www.sitepen.com/blog/8-reasons-employees-prefer-to-work-remotely/
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honkycat
Full time remote here: I love it.

Big pot of coffee I brewed ONCE in the morning and will drink from a thermos
the rest of the day? Check.

Timer cube that sounds ever 25 minutes for pomodoros? Check.

Food in fridge ready to be cooked? Check.

Absolute golden silence? Check.

Adorable black cat sitting in lap? Check.

Yep. Can confirm. It's pretty nice.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Downsides:

* No adult interaction daily unless you make an active effort on your breaks or work from a coworking space

* Possibly limited mobility and networking opportunities in your org (as someone else mentioned in thread, lack of casual interactions besides those you interact with on a daily basis)

* Wage compression due to larger candidate pool for remote roles

* Harder to disconnect/unplug from work comms, especially if your org "follows the sun" and is global

* Politics still exist (there is no such thing as "no politics" in an org)

* Video chat is not a replacement for in person body language interpretation

TLDR Contractor style employment without contractor style pay bump

I highly recommend remote work if it enables you to live somewhere without the
role locally you're suited for, _and_ you have a network of colleagues to fall
back on for other remote work in the event your role doesn't work out or
disappears, _and_ you have a solid emergency fund. I do not recommend remote
work if the compensation delta vs an in person role available to you is not
substantial, or if you value daily socialization.

~~~
honkycat
You have a lot of really great points here.

I think you are right. I will have to move on once I want a raise or
promotion, but it's nice for now. I'm basically taking it as a chance to clock
in, do a great job at work, clock out, and study for my next career move.

I feel like a contractor would be expected to work much harder / have a higher
accountability than a salaried worker, no?

~~~
toomuchtodo
My observation is contractors have similar accountability to FTEs, but
contractors get paid for every hour they work (compared to the free time
expected of FTEs).

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grownseed
A few other advantages of working remotely, at least in my view:

\- less office politics

\- no forced socialization, sorry but I have absolutely no interest in your
private life _while_ I'm working, I want to get work done and be done at 5,
not pretend to be a busy body for the sake of it while having chats all
throughout the day

\- re. saving money, tax breaks are also a good incentive

\- less personal but in my view as important: road decongestion/less
pollution/etc.

As the author notes however, working remotely is not for everybody. Routine
and self-discipline are extremely important, and a lot of people can't do that
without being on site.

~~~
globe1337
Agree so hard about forced socialization. My work life and my social life
should be two very separate things.

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gaspoweredcat
for me theres one reason and i know there are people who will screw their
noses up at it.

i smoke, a lot, especially when im trying to concentrate, when working in an
office its quite an annoyance when i have to go outside every 30 mins.

before anyone starts no i dont want to quit, i have done before and found it
made me less productive and a generally less pleasant person to be around (not
just in the early stages, i quit for three rather unpleasant years) im happy
to trade the potential physical issues for the sake of my mental state

other reasons: i can listen to my own music, wear whatever im comfortable in,
drink my own decent quality coffee and i dont have to deal with other people
(its not possible to work somewhere and not interact with others, id rather
not engage their pointless smalltalk but its unavoidable in a workplace
scenario)

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rafaelvasco
In IT particularly there's absolutely no reason to go five times a week to a
place and sit there coding for 8 hours every day. Surely an Alien would say :
Why do you do that to yourselves humans ?

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jfengel
Which are pretty much exactly what you think they are: more flexible, more
comfortable. Without addressing or acknowledging any of the difficulties (a
whole new set of distractions, lack of casual interactions with coworkers,
narrower communication channels, pressure to never disconnect).

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luisehk
Yep, working remote is awesome. Just consider not everyone is a good remote
worker, so you need to filter out a lot of people who want to work remote but
don't have the skills (yet).

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i_phish_cats
what kind of MBA brain washing are managers receiving that make them think
most people wouldn't prefer working from home, if given the chance?

