
Why I only work remotely - charlieirish
https://medium.com/@yanismydj/why-i-only-work-remotely-2e5eb07ae28f#.485pp6c0d
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aban
Previous discussion (from 6 days ago):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13230508](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13230508)

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VLM
The most damning condemnation of the open office is its exclusively for trendy
paid corporate work. Nobody ever told a student to work on a term paper at a
singles bar. No open source guidelines book ever claimed open source software
can't be written unless the author sits at a table in the middle of a wild day
care center. No one teaching themselves anything ever heard they'll never
learn in a quiet room, they need to try and learn at a Katy Perry concert.

Another topic often missed is megacorporations work remotely all the time. In
fact I've never met most of the people I work with because they live all over
the country, and I work with hardware all over the country, in fact I'm
working on a (private) cloud image later today and I'm not even sure what
state its physically located in. If the corporation says you're going to work
remotely because that outside contractor is 1000 miles away or that director
lives 1000 miles the other way, its obviously inherently correct because the
corporation said it. But if a mere human being says something similar about
his work environment, its obviously wrong because only corporations can be
correct. If my boss says she's going to be 100 miles away thats great, if I
say my boss is going to be 100 miles away thats inherently evil and must be
suppressed.

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aqme28
> Nobody ever told a student to work on a term paper at a singles bar.

Counterexample: In college I did most of my work in our library, which was of
course an open layout.

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dasmoth
Libraries have slightly different rules to the average open plan office: in
particular, there's a fairly strong expectation of silence and if you _can_
hear people talking in the distance, it's relatively unlikely that the
conversation directly affects your project -- so less of an urge to tune in.

There are often (although, I know, not always) some kind of alcoves to hide if
you don't like open-back visibility, too.

(Some of the "positive" reports I've heard about open offices at, e.g.,
Facebook make it sound like they come with expectations of quiet that are as
strong as a typical library. ...)

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ewams
An article with sources!!! Love it.

I have been remote for about 7 years now. Was in the office for 2 weeks when I
moved for new hire training, that is it. Entertained a few positions at other
companies that paid about the same but wanted me to drive 10-15 miles one way
(about 30-45 minutes due to rush hour). No thanks! Surprised author did not
say anything about that lost productivity, not to mention I have always viewed
driving to/from work as a business expense yet Big Corp doesn't agree.

Glad author talked about how some people like the office, some people are good
at it, while others are best at home. Just like everything else, everyone is
different.

I will view the rest of my career as successful if:

1) I don't have to go to an office everyday

2) I never have to be on-call

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danpalmer
I agree with much of what the author says, but think it's worth mentioning:

1\. There are people who work better in an office than at home, I am one of
them, my home is a place to relax and not think about work, and my workplace
is a place to concentrate and not relax, the boundary helps me keep the right
work life balance.

2\. Open offices can be good. We have an open office for space reasons (not
enough space to have cubicles or separate rooms), but design it for software
engineers so it's very quiet for the majority of the time.

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VLM
Why is it good to make them sit in a quiet library as long as its a silent
quiet library not of their choice?

Cost of space is penny wise and pound foolish. If you're paying $200K all up
with bennies vs the dev is generating maybe $1M of revenue, if a better
working environment makes them 1% more productive or 1% less unproductive,
that means it makes sense financially as long as it costs less than $1K/month
for the extra space. Treating employees better than prisoners or factory
farmed meat is more expensive, but not $1K/month/employee expensive.

Its like "saving money" by giving employees flipped over 5 gallon buckets to
sit on instead of chairs, or forcing them to use 00s decade laptops instead of
new ones. Or an even better analogy is its like saving on labor costs by
hiring the absolute bottom of the barrel instead of the top rockstars. If you
thought you were saving money by providing an inadequate work environment,
wait until you're saving money by hiring people who can't fizzbuzz or even
helloworld. You'll really be rolling in the savings then.

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huangc10
After reading the article, one word comes in mind: flexibility. It's really
about you and your employer/fellow employees coming together to find out what
works and what doesn't. Everyone is different and everyone has different
needs.

The author talks a lot of "I". "I am this...", "I cannot this..." etc. While
these articles are interesting, I would love to hear the counter-side.

Is the overall efficiency of the team lacking because some people are full-
time remotely? How do the people who go to the office feel about working with
the remote engineers?

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ylhert
author here: totally agree with flexibility, that's really what I'm
advocating. That being said, I'm speaking (publicly) about a change I've
decided to make in my career (only working remotely) and the reasons I came to
that conclusion.

I am definitely not advocating everyone be forced to work remotely. I just
think people should have the freedom to work the way they see best for
themselves and organizations should be open minded about that.

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w8rbt
Reminds me of this Kunth quote about why he stopped checking email... "Email
is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things.
But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long
hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration."

    
    
        http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/email.html
    

Open offices (loud, busy, chaotic) should be used for people who need to be
on-top of things. They are not for developers or IT/Network technologists who
need time to think, solve problems and collaborate quietly.

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Raphmedia
My home office has a $3000 computer, $600 chair, high end keyboard and mouse,
a huge 4k screen. My office temperature is at the optimal for my body and my
setup is positioned according to the sun coming in the window.

At work it usually* is a $600 computer, a $60 chair, low end dirty keyboard
and mouse, small low quality screen. The office is cold, I have glare in my
screens... and I share a room with 60 persons.

It's hilarious how my personal setup outclass my professional one.

* I am lucky enough to have found an employer which value his employees and that's not the case right now for me.

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yankoff
By the way, when exactly did this hate for open offices started? I remember
everyone hating on cubicles and preaching open offices, now it flipped back?

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agentgt
IMO the best office are old houses even if it is not remote.

I'm from New England and I hate "open concept" design.

I like cozy pockets, wood floors, oriental rugs, steam heating, and in general
old designs.

I like mazes of interconnecting rooms with low yellow light coming out of
sconces.

None of this overhead white sunlight crap.

Despite that I prefer the new bamboo floor open offices any day to the office-
space-ugly-color-wall-to-wall-carpet-florescent-overhead-cubicle-fest of
yesteryear.

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gregmac
Lighting actually makes a very significant difference in my opinion. I
absolutely hate overhead fluorescent lighting, and really most forms of direct
lighting. Actual daylight from outside is okay, as is soft lighting reflected
from walls/ceiling. At work we have never turned on the overhead lights, just
used floor and desk lamps.

It seems like many of the people planning offices don't even consider
lighting.. they just by default put in a drop ceiling with 4x2 flourescent
light banks. It's not like it even costs much more to do, well, nearly
anything else and it makes a significant improvement to the office
environment.

~~~
agentgt
Totally agree. Just to clarify when I was referring to sunlight I meant the
crappy overhead lights that try to "imitate" sunlight and not the actual
sunlight.

However while I generally like sunlight I find it a little too variable for my
liking particularly if your region has seasons. On a cloudy winter day in New
England sunlight can have a white dreary look that is sort of depressing.

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ourcat
Exactly this. I've been doing this for over a decade now for all the same
reasons.

When I chose to work 'on the internet' back in about '94, I did it so I could
work for "anyone, anywhere, anywhen".

I've also done my fair share of open plan offices and they're just far too
distracting.

Gaining your employer's trust is the main thing. And you can do that simply by
getting the job done on time - or sooner. Also, they can see your commits, if
you use Gitlab or similar, so it's clear you're being productive, whatever the
hour or location.

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FrancoDiaz
I work from home now and love it. I'm not saying I won't ever go back to an
office, but I absolutely never will work in open office again.

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wyclif
I've found that the best argument for working remotely is simple: "because I
can."

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mordant
If you're stuck in an open-office situation, investing in a good pair of
wireless noise-cancelling headphones like the Sennheiser Momentum 2 or
equivalent might help cut out all the 'collaboration'-related noise so that
you can actually get some work done.

You don't have to listen to music or whatever - just turn them on for the
noise-cancelling functionality.

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tempodox
Disclaimer: Only splitting hairs here with my bare hand. But, as far as broken
semantic concepts go, “the least optimal” is somewhat entertaining. Two
opposite superlatives plugged together — is the sum total of that supposed to
be “mediocre”? Otherwise, “the worst” would have been much clearer.

