
Working remotely for extroverts - joshbetz
http://hoppycow.com/2014/12/13/dear-mjbrender-working-remotely-for-extroverts/
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ufmace
I think of myself as being mostly introverted, so I was a little surprised at
how well I can relate to many of those suggestions. It's good to remember that
the introvert-extrovert thing is a tendency with many levels rather than an
absolute. I do need and enjoy lots of alone time, solo projects, and low-
intensity social interaction (ahem ahem, internet forums like HN...). But I
also need some amount of actual in-person social interaction, including the
types of things the author describes.

I also wonder sometimes just how introverted people who say that they're
introverted really are. I tend to think that true introversion is genuine
pleasure at being alone, and discomfort from being in social situations is not
necessarily a consequence of that so much as not having learned social skills.
Enjoying being alone is perfectly okay and not something that can be or needs
to be 'fixed'. Social skills can be learned and improved at any time, though,
just like any other skill. If you don't care to, that's perfectly fine, but
you could be missing out on a lot of things you might otherwise get.

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marcosdumay
It's not a matter of skill. For some people, being around others that they
don't know very well is tiresome, for other people, it's a pleasure. How well
the person handles the situation is a completely different matter.

Also, I don't see any reason to think the above correlates with liking or
disliking to be alone.

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thoman23
As an introvert, it's fascinating to me how there are people who look forward
to those awful team lunches and office birthday cakes. I feel exhausted just
thinking about those things.

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jurre
Do you like your coworkers?

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doorhammer
Throwing in another two cents here.

I'd say I lean toward introversion, though I've tried to spend a lot of time
learning to engage in social situations, and do fairly well. I've been a full
time trainer, and participated in various levels of managing teams to good
success (if I do say so myself).

I like the people on my team, and I like going to lunch with them, but I hate
Team Lunches. I think it has to do with how contrived the social situation
feels, and how much I feel like someone is trying to push me into their vision
of a sociable team.

One of my pet peeves is finding out someone wants to push Company Culture and
that means getting everyone together to do cheers and chants.

There's nothing inherently wrong with cheers and chants and team lunches or
whatever you want to do, but you love your job and who you work with and not
want to be forced into a contrived social situation where you're supposed to
bond. I bond just fine with my coworkers after we decide which thai place to
go to on a given day.

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systemdturd
The key thing to remember when working remotely, or even at home, as the two
are always the same thing, is to make regular visits out to see people. Having
worked remotely for a three year spell. I found a certain quota of face to
face time is a minimum requirement to stay normal, sane, and most of all,
grounded.

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wallflower
As an introvert who works in an office (and works remote in binges), just
being in the vicinity of people is good for overall mental health. You don't
have to interact with people to be energized by them (all the better, of
course if you do). Like walking down a busy city block, energy can be absorbed
by just being near people.

Open plan workspaces tend to get a bad rap on HN. My challenge to developers
here is to stop relying on the headphones to block out noise to focus. It can
be done. You don't need to be in a "monastery" to work well.

~~~
MrDom
Are you sure you're an introvert then? Being around people doesn't energize an
introvert. That's the definition. Being an introvert myself, hanging around in
a coffee shop even without interacting with anybody will wear me down slowly.
I've built up enough of a tolerance that I can deal with it and still go on to
have other social interactions throughout the day, but the fact remains just
being near people is an energy net negative for me (and all introverts).

> Open plan workspaces tend to get a bad rap on HN.

And in several scientific studies.

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reinhardt
It's not so black and white. A term I've read somewhere for being around
people without interaction is "ambient socialization". I'm a dyed-in-the-wool
introvert and still find it beneficial from time to time, especially after
long stints of isolation. It doesn't necessarily mean you become more
productive (e.g I can't concentrate in coffee shops as much as from home but I
attribute it more to noise than people per se) but it still works fine for
breaking the routine once in a while.

~~~
wallflower
I agree that it is not so clear. I do remember one exercise at a previous
company where they divided us into introverts and extroverts based on MBTI
(Myers-Briggs scores). They then gave us the hypothetical exercise that we had
the day off.

Us introverts were planning chores and shopping.

The extroverts were planning a trip to Vegas.

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tzaman
This article is beyond awesome - I was actually starting to think I'm in some
kind of burnout stage since I didn't feel productive at all and I was blaming
it on the fact that I've grown from a developer role into a more managerial
one. I'm quite an extrovert working full time fully remote and some days just
seem like they last forever.

/me is off to find a coworking space nearby.

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lostcolony
Not really related to being an extrovert; finding ways to deal with the
incongruity of working remotely in a world that assumes your workplace offers
a social experience is something introverts need as well.

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11thEarlOfMar
The recommendations in the post sum up to building a surrogate workplace and
surrogate colleagues. That is great for attending to the need for active
feedback of human interaction for the extrovert, but it is not the context in
which the work is actually being done. Does that discontinuity present any
obvious problems?

Due to the absence of any discussion of telepresence robots, do they miss the
mark in addressing these needs, or, has the writer not learned of them?

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GBond
Question for remote employees: Do you get to join a co-working space as an
expensible perk? I am considering asking for it but I was wondering if it is
culturally out of the norm for companies to pay for it.

~~~
nikolayb
At Automattic we do. It shows that a company isn’t remote just to offset
office costs.

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vonnik
These are some great suggestions. I worked remotely for two years and almost
went crazy. It's hard to overestimate how much information you miss out on
when you stop sharing a room with people.

