
The 2020 State of Remote Work - donbox
https://lp.buffer.com/state-of-remote-work-2020
======
plafl
One of the main benefits for me (I would consider it in the "Ability to work
from home" category mentioned in the article) is how much better is the
environment at home: I don't need to use headphones to avoid getting
distracted and distracting other people with remote calls, I can stream some
relaxing music from my computer, my chair is great, I have a huge L-shaped
table, I have ilumination the way I like it, temperature.

I agree also with most of the other points in the article, both positive and
negatives. Right now I work from home about 50% of the time, which I think is
great. Most of the team also works remote part time, and anyway we are split
between two cities (Madrid and Barcelona) so we must coordinate remotely even
if we are at the office.

~~~
cs02rm0
100%.

The last 10 days I've been in an open plan office instead of my home office
I've used for 8 years.

I've had to trade a 5k ultrawide monitor for 1080p, an Aeron for a cheap chair
the company bought secondhand, desk at a height that's comfortable for one
that isn't (I'm 6'5), natural light for fluorescent and 500ppm of CO2 for
1200ppm+. And a 10 second walk for a 45 minute drive each way commute.

I don't even think CO2 is on anyone's radar, but some complain of headaches
and many seem really lethargic by late morning.

And everyone in the office uses cloud software, but there's a distrust of
remote working. I was hoping this battle would be won by now, I'm almost at
the point of thinking it should be encouraged by legislation.

~~~
awb
I started a fully remote company in 2008 and thought it was a matter of time
until all new startups were fully remote.

It's a win for the environment, productivity and much less overhead which
means higher wages. Your hiring pool also increases substantially.

We were successful but I'm surprised how many startups today still want to
hire within a small radius of a physical office.

~~~
quicksilver03
I'm not sure about higher wages following my admittedly limited experience.

I applied to some remote-only companies based in France, but I was quickly out
of the competition because the companies could hire other people at much lower
wages than what I (living in the most expensive city in the country) was
looking for.

I think that hiring remotely will lead to lower compensation on average,
because all else being equal companies will prefer those with lower salary
expectations.

~~~
blaser-waffle
That's explicitly the point -- target qualified or mostly qualified
individuals in lower COL areas. You may not be the best qualified remote
worker but we can shave your salary by 80K if you live in rural Kentucky and
still get a good enough IT worker in ~6 months.

Companies also make office overhead costs into an externalized problem, in
that the employee is responsible for desks/tables/chairs/heating/cooling, plus
bandwidth and even computers. I see big advantages and downsides to this, but
it is useful from a cost cutting perspective.

The tradeoff is the difficulty of hiring, managing, and communicating
remotely. Plus I don't think everyone is cut out for remote work -- after 5
years remote I'm starting to think I'm not...

------
JMTQp8lwXL
I was really skeptical of remote work before I took my first and current
remote job, which surprisingly paid better than my former non-remote job.
Conceptually, It was totally outside my Overton window. But having experienced
it, my perspective completely changed. I don't mind doing a good job, but I
underestimated how valuable the autonomy of my time would be, it's such a
blessing. An occasional hour or two mid-day break really suits me. Those days,
I am stretching my work day, but more relaxed and less stressed. My output is
higher than working in an office.

~~~
ebg13
> _An occasional hour or two mid-day break really suits me._

What...like lunch? I don't know any software engineer who doesn't regularly
take more than an hour for lunch.

~~~
JMTQp8lwXL
When I worked at the office, "lunch" was available onsite from 11:30 to 1:30
and onsite was 30-90 minutes from my house, depending on a very wide range of
traffic conditions. It can be food, it can be laundry, it can be errands.
Things I couldn't squeeze in before.

~~~
blaser-waffle
I've made a habit of using "lunch" to make dinner, via a crockpot or
slowcooker. As in, I work remote and use my "lunch break" to throw stew (or
curry, or soup, or a roast, etc.) together and have that cook for the rest of
the afternoon.

------
dglass
Glad to see this data coming out. My company builds tools for remote workers
so naturally, I speak with a lot of people who work remotely. I'd say most of
the pain points I hear from remote workers line up fairly well with the data
in this survey (and also my own pain points since I've worked remote for over
a year now).

I'm not surprised to see that 97% of people would recommend working remote to
others. Almost everyone I speak with says they would never go back to working
in an office. While I can see myself going back to an office at some point in
my career, right now the flexibility in my day far outweighs working in an
office.

I hear a lot of similar downsides as well. I'm a bit surprised that only 20%
of people responded that they struggled with loneliness while working remote.
In my experience this number seems to be higher. My coworkers and I work out
of coffee shops quite a bit and almost everyone who goes to work in a coffee
shop is doing so in order to break out of the loneliness of their home and be
around other people (next time you're in a coffee shop, take note of how many
people have laptops out). The problem though is that no one really interacts
with people at coffee shops because everyone is at their own table on their
laptops.

We heard this feedback so much that we started holding Work Clubs[0] at coffee
shops where people can sit down with us at the same table and work together
for a few hours. It's not networking but it's a way to meet other people
during the workday while getting your work done. We've had people from many
different industries, ages, and walks of life working together and forming
business connections. It's beneficial to the coffee shops too because when we
all sit at the same table, order food and drinks, and it frees up other tables
for more customers.

Our communities are growing in Portland, San Diego, and the SF Bay Area right
now, so come work with us if you're ever feeling lonely and need some IRL
human interaction in your day! Mental health is an important factor for remote
workers, and we're hoping to alleviate some of those struggles for the remote
community.

[0]: [https://outofoffice.app/](https://outofoffice.app/)

~~~
mikmeh
Neat idea, I don't fit the demographic but maybe there is a stronger
representation of the family man in remote working and why that loneliness
stat is so low in your experience. My family keeps me plenty of company
throughout the day and myself and coworkers have great communication. I have
never felt lonely. It's not being with other people I miss though, it's the in
person random collaboration sessions I miss. Reddit and this site fill in some
of that gap.

~~~
sedgjh23
My coworkers and I will have productivity, creativity, or brainstorming
sessions at each other’s homes every two or three months (sometimes less
frequently) to help fulfill the desire for in-person collaboration. Work is
willing to reimburse for travel time because we’re lucky enough to have an
owner that sees the value in it. Also, we all live in the same region, so it’s
a 3 hour drive at most for any one of us, depending on where we decide to
meet.

You should consider something similar and propose it to management if you
think it would benefit the team.

------
jborichevskiy
The parts that stood out to me:

(my team and I are currently seeing each other in person two full days every
two weeks and the rest is remote)

> 3\. Not having to commute is a top benefit to remote workers

Makes sense. Financial, health, and psychological benefits.

> 4\. Communication, collaboration, and loneliness continue to be top
> challenges for remote workers and remote organizations

100% agree. I typically have automatic transcriptions enabled (Google Meet) +
a full resolution version of whatever document the person is talking
presenting is editing.

As for the loneliness aspect, while I don’t feel like I socialize that much
during work, I have enough energy to go out and socialize after. This is a
byproduct of a lot of things and not purely remote/not remote.

> 5\. The majority of organizations with remote workers don’t pay for monthly
> expenses associated with remote work

Not sure about this one. I think part of the incentive for a company to go
remote is savings. On the other hand, a standing desk and a good chair do
wonders. Perhaps the savings from rent are enough to cover all of this- I’m
not sure. Travel and expenses should be 100% reimbursed, no question.

~~~
noahtallen
I mean, it’s the recurring costs that aren’t usually covered, like internet.

My company is fully remote and I’m reimbursed for my home office equipment
(computer, desk, chair, router, etc) and for all travel. Even for working from
a coffee shop. But not for home internet.

~~~
sunilkumarc
Great! Where do you work? If you don't mind me asking.

------
Areading314
Meetings are MORE seamless when done fully remotely, because everyone is
responsible for their own setup. In my experience, the biggest friction is
always getting a "room" in the office for people to sit, which often has
issues.

~~~
montroser
Yes, it's often the people in the big conference room that are actually much
harder to hear, because you have many people trying to jam all of their audio
and video through a single mic and camera. Each remote person has their own
dedicated mic and camera, so you can see and hear all of the nuance when they
speak. But it is not reciprocal -- in return, the remote people get to see a
single grainy feed of the tops of their colleagues heads in the office, and
variable/muffled audio because the mic can't be close to everyone at once.

We have been trying a different approach at work where everybody always just
uses their own laptop camera and mic, whether they're in the office or remote.
Sometimes it can seem a little silly talking into your laptop to the person
sitting next to you also talking into their laptop. But the upside is
everybody's dedicated audio and video is crystal clear; and when we share
screens we can all see all of the detail up close rather than having to squint
at a tv at the other end of a conference room.

Curious to know if anyone else has tried working this way? We've also been
trying out [https://team.video](https://team.video), which has some cool
collaborative features that only really work if each person is joining from
their own device.

~~~
chasedehan
One screen. One face.

The only way to do it. Remote people will love it but there will probably be
push back from in office people.

In order to enforce it there needs to be a champion at higher levels.

~~~
leppr
There are technological ways to get the benefits of this approach without
changing the office workers' habits.

I don't remember the name of the solution, but working with a big SF company
which has both many office and remote workers, they had a camera mounted atop
a TV in the meeting room. The camera would focus on and follow the current
speaker even if they moved around the room, and the audio was clear as long as
only one person talked at a time. It worked surprisingly well.

~~~
skgoa
There are a lot of products like this available and every corporation's
offices I have been to have had one of them.

------
distantaidenn
Tokyo salaryman reporting in.

This is definitely the next career move for me if I stay corporate. I waste
about 3 hours of potentially productive time each day -- not to mention the
wind-up time necessary when sitting down to work.

1 hour morning prep to go out, 1 hour commute each way on central Toyko
trains, and 30 odd minutes settling in at the office. Only to do exactly what
I could be doing at home...At this point, I think telling developers the
benefits of remote work is preaching to the choir.

~~~
pinkfoot
> 1 hour morning prep to go out

What on earth are you doing?

~~~
hnzix
Business clobber is a lot more hassle than throwing on jeans and a t-shirt. In
a formal office environment it's best to look sharp and that takes some prep
time.

------
datingscientist
Not commuting is huge. That adds about 3 hours a day to my availability, when
you consider the prep time and various other incidentals.

One way to pitch it to the boss: savings on relo and the ability to tap into a
much broader hiring pool. I'm seeing this now with a private equity group,
where they've decided it is cheaper to hire operating talent nationally in
major metro areas and let them commute / remote work vs. relocating everyone
for a two or three year gig. (After which point, you're laid off in a small
town where you're brand new... not a good thing; absolutely no way I would
relo for this gig)

------
phaedrus
The place I worked at before my current employer had a bizarre attitude to
remote work. Our manager was strongly skeptical of work from home, but half of
our team was distributed in branch offices which were effectively remote work!
I worked in one of these satellite offices, so I had all of the collaboration
difficulties and none of the upsides (still had to come in. To an open plan
office.)

After a bunch of people left I got promoted to lead developer, but I was the
only one left in the branch office. The rest of my team was concentrated in HQ
a couple hours' drive away. The manager and software architect (his right-hand
man) still micromanaged technical decisions. _I_ couldn't get ahold of them
for weeks at a time as they were so overbooked, but my team members could
occasionally corner them for hallway conversations. So I'd get asked
something, have to make a best guess judgement since I couldn't ask them,
someone else would corner them and they'd tell them the opposite of what I
decided. But I wouldn't find out about this until we went to integrate
something and found the two halves had been implemented to different
directions.

------
RickJWagner
I've been working remote 10 years now. I love it.

I am surprised, though. One major downfall wasn't listed-- the remote worker
is not 'completely plugged in' with the rest of the team (if they are co-
located). That little bit of drag brings some inefficiencies. But for me,
remote work is now a 'must have'.

------
dmontero
In my previous job in Germany I could work remotely as much as I wanted. I
would usually work from Spain, since is where I come from.

It was close to ideal: having lunch in 30min and spending the other 30min at
the pool or going for a short break to the beach (just 5min away).

However I discovered that when I spent more than 1 or 2 weeks working remotely
in a row I would start feeling detached from my job. It became increasingly
difficult to be motivated and concentrated in certain tasks.

In my current job employees can work remotely 1 day a week by default with
possibility to extend it occasionally. I find this to work better for me
personally. It allows me to be flexible and productive while working remotely
and at the same time it keeps me engaged and connected with the challenges and
goals at work.

~~~
ChuckNorris89
May I ask hod did you find remote work in Germany? I noticed in my time there
German companies were highly conservative and didn't want to hear about their
employees not being present in the office.

~~~
dmontero
I was working for a small startup. Since they did not have many developers,
each of us were quite key to their product.

Knowing that, I could convince them to work remotely every now and then.

------
BrandoElFollito
I think that to some point larger companies who do not have a good time
management are the most scared by remote work.

The idea of someone slacking off freely at home is probably less bearable than
slacking off at the office.

------
jameslk
> Communication, collaboration, and loneliness continue to be top challenges
> for remote workers and remote organizations

While probably years off and slightly dystopian, I'm interested to see how VR
may change the remote communication and collaboration aspect. Stuff like
ImmersedVR for the Quest (no affiliation) that allows you to be in the same
virtual room as someone else, being able to glance over at their (virtual)
screens by turning your head and having access to a digital whiteboard seems
pretty scifi but are novel solutions to these problems.

~~~
mnm1
I think video is mostly useless and VR will be even more so if only for the
simple fact that many people cannot use it due to motion sickness. Better tech
is unlikely to ever change that. (I can't even do 3d movies). I think chat and
voice are plenty good and don't have all the drawbacks of a visual solution. I
find not having to see people in real life, on video, or in VR to be one of
the main advantages of remote work.

------
sdiw
Interesting results. I am also a remote worker and glad to see this trend is
picking up. Everything has upsides and downsides but upsides of working
remotely outweigh downsides buy quite a margin. Not only working remotely
gives peace of mind (little flexibility on working hours.); working in a
familiar/comfortable environment increases productivity, especially for people
like me who are a little uncomfortable when surrounded by other people. (bonus
you can sit awkwardly in you PJs)

------
znq
I've shared this a lot recently, sorry for doing it again, but usually the
feedback we get is extremely positive:

We've turned our internal wiki with processes and experiences from running a
fully remote company for over 8 years in a nice digestible PDF:
[https://mobilejazz.com/company-handbook-pdf/](https://mobilejazz.com/company-
handbook-pdf/)

~~~
suigetsusake
Thanks a lot for this reading its a lot of insight since il currently
preparing to launch my own remote company and my vision of it align a lot with
yours.

Do you have any resources or tips for how to handle the financial and
paperworks of having people from different countries ? Thats the thing im
having the more trouble finding info about

~~~
znq
Unfortunately that is a very difficult question to answer as it is very
specific to your company's tax and legal residency and those of every single
team member.

In our case we offer proper employment where we have a legal entity and thus
actually can employ team members. For people with tax residency in other
countries the only somewhat non-bureaucratic and sustainable solution is for
them to go self-employed and have a "consulting contract" with us. That said,
regardless of the legal technicalities, we treat everyone the same.

------
iamthepieman
I have worked 100% remote at two different jobs for the past 8 years.

I gave upon remote work this week.

I slowly entered a phase of resenting work and resenting my family and home
life. They each slowly encroached on each other until I was not sleeping, not
being productive at work, not engaged with my kids and generally hating life.
I felt like I was a husk of a person, a cipher or automaton.

Fortunately my company has an office 40 minutes away so I have the option to
commute without changing jobs.

Admittedly, I have some unique circumstances that probably put me in a tiny
minority. I still think remote work is a great idea, it's just not for me
anymore and I wish I had realized that 3 years ago.

~~~
sedgjh23
A lot of people use work to get away from their families. Just be aware It can
be an indicator of other problems in your life. In all of my relationships
(friends, family, romantic) I’ve observed that people usually severely
undervalue personal time and are unwilling to commit to taking care of
themselves.

Good luck and I hope the office life brings you some happiness. I sometimes
find myself jealous of those with commutes that get to chip away at their
podcast queues daily.

------
tyoma
Glad this covers the good _and_ bad aspects of remote work. One thing is
missing though: the cost of an extra bedroom to use as an office.

In many real estate markets, going from N to N+1 bedrooms is a considerable
price increase.

~~~
JMTQp8lwXL
Some people set up desks in their living room / common areas. I haven't seen
anybody pass judgment for not maintaining a separate, dedicated room for
remote work.

~~~
kingludite
I could see a room outfitted to spec become a standard some day. Starting with
a working microphone.

------
claudiulodro
Is the average remote job paid significantly less than the average local job?
Is the HN trope that every developer should be making $150k+ simply wrong?
Curious how to reconcile this data with the giganto salaries everyone here is
always talking about getting. I like the remote lifestyle OK, but am I
shooting myself in the (salary) foot by working remotely?

> Below is the breakdown of salary ranges for respondents in USD.

> 18.6% $50,001 to $75,000

> 16.8% $75,001 to $100,000

> 14.2% $25,001 to $50,000

> 12.1% up to $25,000

> 12% $100,000 to $125,000

> 10.8% $125,001 to $150,000

> 9.7% $150,001 to $200,000

> 5.9% Over $200,000

~~~
sheepybloke
One thing that's come up with remote work is missing out on promotion, since
you aren't as naturally visible to your manager or boss. So, if you are
working remotely, you might not want to be full time to make sure to get some
of that visibility. (I know this isn't directly related to the question, but
it's something to consider)

------
apercu
I have worked remotely for 5 years, and for 3 years previously. Let's say I
have been working for 25 years. That means 32% of my career has been spent
working remotely. And it's been the most productive and personally satisfying
part of my career.

But, note when I say remote it's "work from home most of the time" remote. Not
work in some other country on the other side of the world remote. I do in
person meetings with clients and partners a couple times a month.

------
sunilkumarc
I'm currently working as a Senior Software Developer at a startup. I have been
wanting to work remotely from my next job change.

I'm from India where engineers generally get paid less compared to engineers
in the United States and many European Countries. Although I'm not looking for
the same salary as that of an US engineer, I'm looking for a pay something
close to that amount. Is this the reality today? How many companies pay remote
workers regardless of their location?

~~~
aws_ls
> Although I'm not looking for the same salary as that of an US engineer, I'm
> looking for a pay something close to that amount. Is this the reality today?

You can get close to that money in two ways, in my knowledge and experience.

1) Work for a FANG company (Only Amazon, Google are there, but there are
others which pay well e.g. VMWare comes to mind now).

2) You join a good netork for freelancers. I currently work for one, and I
make the amount, which fits your description of 'near US salary'. Since cost
of living is low, it does feel like a high paying job.

~~~
sunilkumarc
You mean you work a company? Or you work as a freelancer on platforms like
Toptal, freelancer.in etc ?

~~~
aws_ls
I work for a Bay area Startup client via Toptal.

PS: I didn't mention the name earlier, to avoid being taken as marketing for a
platform. Now that you asked... :)

~~~
sunilkumarc
Haha okay. Toptal is great! How is your experience so far? How many hours do
you need to work per week?

~~~
aws_ls
My experience has been good. For about an year I worked full time. And then
later on, because of wanting to work on my own projects, switched to part
time.

But, of course, any platform is not perfect, and mileage varies. One of the
problems, I have seen other people face and say is difficulty in getting the
first client. But in some of those cases, I also found, that their experience
was in a narrow domain (e.g. Wordpress developer in one case). If a person is
skilled in a breadth of technologies, then I think, its relatively easier to
bag a client.

Also another valid criticism of it is, the selection process is very tedious.
Personally, I like solving algorithmic problems (and had spent time learning
and solving DP/etc based problems), so I didn't have much issue at that
stage++. But often several good developers, don't find that stage to be
useful. And I agree, as some friends I referred, struggled with that, and
those people I had worked in the same team for long, and know them to be very
good developers.

But despite some issues, I still think, it has value. As for me, it solves the
problem of being in India and work for SV client, and get good rates. Also no
commute. And use that time for exercise instead. Also of late, the ability to
work part time, and work on my own projects.

Ask me any other question you have, I will try to answer it in a generic way
(not ready to reveal my specific instance details)

++ Edit: I too had difficulty at the mock project stage. Where I found it too
cumbersome. Especially the UI part, in React, and was almost ready to give up.
It was also partly due to over-committing at that stage, and promising them a
demo in 10-12 days, as I was eager to finish the process fast. May be in hind
sight I should have taken 16-18 days. As I was not fresh with Reach and was
learning on the job (as we all sometimes do)

~~~
sunilkumarc
Great! This really helps. Thanks a lot! I would love to discuss more about how
the interview process was like. How do you think we can connect?

------
foreigner
This data is interesting but I'd love to see a similar survey done from the
perspective of companies that employ remote workers.

------
gingerlime
Interesting results and well written casual but sensical analysis.

One thing that bothered me a bit though was the “product placements”. Were
there any (financial or otherwise) incentives to publish those? If so, and
even more so if there _weren’t_ , I feel like this should have been more
explicitly disclosed. Apologies if I skipped any disclosure inadvertently.

------
downerending
I'd love to work remotely. To date, though, there seems to be a very strong
bias from employers in not doing so. Simply being in the office looks "busy",
while not being in the office looks like slacking, regardless of what's
actually getting done.

Quoting Allen, 80% of life really is just showing up. For better or worse.

~~~
xtracto
Tell me about it... as a technical leader at the startup I work on, I would
love to be remote and for my team to be remote (we are kind of remote as we
are collocated in 2 offices in different countries). But the CEO and HR
department do not believe in remote teams. It is the one thing that I struggle
with and will change in a heartbeat.

~~~
downerending
I've learned to look at the bright side. Any day I drag my ass in I'm scoring
an 80% right out of the box. I'd feel guilty not much getting done on a day
remotely, but for some reason I don't feel it much when I'm at my desk.

