
Ask HN: Remote work just doesn't work? - lehtu
This is something that I hear a lot. I live in Finland and I work as a developer. Many companies, co-workers and colleagues repeat the same thing &quot;remote work just doesn&#x27;t work&quot;. I&#x27;m sick of hearing this. It is extremely hard to find work as a developer with remote option in Finland. Common case is that remote work has been experienced in the company before and one person exploited it badly. Because of that one person, one single bad experience now no one is privileged to do any work as remote.<p>I really want to hear what experiences of remote work you guys have, does it work? And how to make it work? Next time some one makes that claim, I want to be prepared!<p>ps: I&#x27;m mainly talking about 100% remote work, not only 1-3 days in a week.
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DamonHD
My current start-up doesn't have an office. A bunch of us tend to meet about 1
day per week (because there are some things which face-to-face helps with).
Two of us are tens of miles apart and others are in another country and indeed
travelling.

My previous start-up had a biggish remote office thousands of miles away,
which I intermittently managed, but not really a fixed base for me.

In fact, I haven't really had a paid separate 'office' for about 20 years, and
I seem to be doing OK as are my businesses.

So, to claim that remote working does not work is wrong.

Note: I've also worked with charlatans in two companies who were nominally 'in
the office' but ripping off the employer. One had the misfortune to apply to
work full time (and be accepted) for two of my clients and end up sat next to
me at both. That didn't last long! The point is that 'not remote' is no
guarantee of success either!

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lehtu
Thanks for your answer! That's quite true that 'not remote' isn't guarantee of
anyhting either.

What I have been talking with ppl, there is few other questions in the air
about remote working. How do you track that everyone does their job, or dont.
How you can know they actually do something and doesn't outsource it. If job
is testing or research how can you track that job is really done. And the most
common question is "how can you know that they actually do 8 hours per day?"

Do you have anything to share on these question? Tools or good practices?

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DamonHD
Making sure that work is being done remotely is not much different than in the
office, unless it's something physical like making pies which you can see. I
can see updates in a repo as easily 1000 miles away as sitting next to the
person doing the work.

I also don't care about 8 hours per day, I care about outcomes. I also am
happy to pay by the hour or the day or whatever is appropriate.

In fact I am nominally the only person in my current business nominally doing
8h per day, and it really doesn't matter as long as the right goals are
achieved.

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lehtu
Words of wisdom! That's very true that repos are good way to know if someone
is doing anything or not. Also I like the idea that the result counts, not
only hours spent itself. I'm afraid that most of the companies in Finland are
too conservative for this new way of thinking..

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6ftdan
I've just returned from a charity programming event and there are many
companies I know of from there and elsewhere who successfully have fully or
partially built remote teams.

In my experience as a remote developer it works out well, but the one draw
back is it takes much more time to develop good rapport with people when
you're not communicating in person.

My biggest suggestion is trusted referrals. People will trust a remote
developer more if the person they were referred by is already some one they
trust. I was hired to program in a language I'd never heard of because of a
glowing referral from an old friend and that ended up working out well.

~~~
lehtu
Thanks for the answer!

Trusted referrals sound good, but I think it works only if company is already
open minded for remote work. In the other hand if developer is so good and
good referrals it might work.

Can you share was there remote workers in the company before you?

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6ftdan
In that specific case it was contract work. I'm unaware of others there.

I have 3 to 4 companies lined up now for a position that prefer remote work.
One is a government contractor company as well so clearly they find that as an
acceptable option. These opportunities were made possible by employees of the
companies at the charity programming event being there to recruit more
employees.

