UPDATE: Anyone work a fully remote job?

[Carson Dyle]

TL;DR: Worked from home for a year & a half. Glad I did it for the experience & to get it out of my system, but would never do it again. A minority of people who have excellent self-discipline can be successful at it. If you're going to try it, set some ground rules like a defined workspace, a routine, etc.

It's not just the discipline, it's the mindset and the circumstances.

If you have a family, friends, hobbies, it's not a big deal. Work is the "small" part of your day. On the other hand, if you live alone, have no wife or kids, and not many, if any, friends, it's probably going to be hell. That's the social life, or a very large part of it, for most people like that.

 

[purbeast0]

In response to Kaido's long post about structure, I can get that. I would definitely need something like that too.

As I mentioned the past year I was working as a cofounder of a startup on a mobile application. I put in 20-30 hours a week on it outside of my normal. So it wasn't like a couple an hour week type of thing. I typically get up for work around 5:45am or so, sometimes early, and leave between 6 and 6:15. Some days when I get my haircut, I would get it cut at 9 and leave the house around 8:30 or so. Those days I would get up at my normal time, usually around 6am, and do work until 8:15 then get ready for work. I would literally wake up, piss, walk into my "office" with my eyes still half shut, put headphones on and fire up Pandora, and get to work. So I have no problems with doing that.

Also as far as team collaboration, I still did that with the developer I was working with. I chatted with him daily. We'd get on screen hero often to talk over issues and walk through problems. I've noticed people mentioning a lot of tools I've used in these listings.

That said, I'm just at the exploring opportunities stage at this point so it's not even close to becoming a reality. I don't know if I would like it full time for a long time or not but there is really only one way to find out. I can say for sure I would love not having to commute. I also have no plans on building a home gym, I don't want to work out at home I want to have to "go to the gym" to do so. I've always felt that way and have no plans on changing that.

 

[Exterous]

Two things to think about are family & distractions. It's very difficult to work remotely if you have a family because hey, you're home! You're not "really" working, right? And like Carson said, you can never really escape...work IS home. Distractions are also a big problem. I have ADHD. If I have a work computer in front of me & a video game system next to me, it's awfully tempting to just put in 20 minutes of gaming time, which turns into 14 hours of gaming time. Sounds ridiculous, but if you weren't a super organized student growing up, remember back to the weekends of your youth & how much homework you really got done during them.

Having seen how network traffic is used between 'in office' and 'at home' its not ridiculous. Most of our resources for this job and my last are behind a VPN for remote users so their VPN is on all work day. There is a notable increase in non-work related traffic from people when they work from home as opposed to working in the office.

I'll echo the need for structure for me personally. I work from home frequently so, on those days, I setup a more defined structure than if I was in the office. I also lean slightly towards Extrovert so if I work remotely too often I start to miss the additional human interaction.

 

[Kaido]

In response to Kaido's long post about structure, I can get that. I would definitely need something like that too.

Again, it all depends on how you can handle things. I thought I could & honestly, I didn't do too well at it. Most people I know who have tried working from home have run into the same thing. But, there is a minority of people who excel at it because they can buckle down without being in a RL social environment. So it's not impossible!

 

[ImpulsE69]

I would definitely say that if you have kids, you make your family understand you ARE working. I don't have kids, so that part was easy, but it took some time to make the wife understand I was working and not her errand boy while she was at work. You definitely need to be disiplined in your work ethic as well.

 

[pontifex]

Yes
how did you go about finding it? supported a company that got bought out by another one. Got hired by the buying company. Initially wanted me to move to another state to work at their office for a lot more money, then they changed their mind and wouldn't pay the extra money but said I could work from home where I live instead.

What field are you in? tech support. was supporting servers before, not supporting voip systems and software

Did you specifically target a remote job or did you work somewhere and it eventually turned into that? eventually turned into it

Or are you just a freelancer? no

Do you have to meet up with the heardquarters and if so how often? no, however i have gone to the main office or other offices for some training.

Do you like it?
yes and no. its nice not having to drive to work, can wear what i want, no one breathing down your neck, not dealing with annoying co-workers, but it gets a bit lonely, harder to get help/training, harder to be recognized, miss interaction with good co-workers.

 

[Kaido]

Do you like it?
yes and no. its nice not having to drive to work, can wear what i want, no one breathing down your neck, not dealing with annoying co-workers, but it gets a bit lonely, harder to get help/training, harder to be recognized, miss interaction with good co-workers.

It's funny how the things you want & value in a job change as you get older. If you had asked me when I was 20 about telecommuting, I would have blindly said yes, awesome, sign me up today! But yeah, exactly what you said...there's the social aspect, the help aspect, recognition, etc. Working at a good job is almost like being part of a family, even if it's not a family-style culture at work. I guess it's more being part of a good workgroup or team that is the nice part...

 

[Feneant2]

What I see in this thread is people equate working from home with flexible hours... which shouldn't be the case. You'd assume working from home there are no spouse and kids around pestering you as it's 8-4. People need to define set hours and stick to them- then once done, you close the 'office' and you're 'home. When I work at home, and its definitely not full time, my employer knows I work 8-4 and if they contact me after 4, I won't pick up the phone or respond to Email. Having your employer think they can contact you at any hour of the day because you're a teleworker means they don't understand teleworking and are more into slavery.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Might want to read up on Tim Ferris' 4-hour workweek book & blog, as well as FI/ER on Reddit to see how people actually make more free time happen. It's not impossible, if you play your cards right, it's just that most people are big believers in the 9 to 5 thing when there's no law or requirement making that a reality for people.

Meh - in my opinion most of what Ferris' says in that book is not workable for most people. If I recall correctly, most of what Ferris advocates is to find a niche and then automate your function or outsource to other people that you pay less. There are few jobs that allow for that.

 

[Viper GTS]

How the fuck are employers supposed to keep people around when even their happy and well paid employees are still a flight risk as soon as something gets a "tad stale"?

I hope you're downplaying things op, because the idea of somebody being happy and well paid but still looking to job hop just infuriates me. You must not be that happy.

For small employers it's going to be difficult as you won't have the structure to promote employees. For bigger ones, have places for the talented/motivated people to go. Otherwise you're going to lose them.

Ultimately though you are correct - If I'm looking to leave I'm not all that happy, but a 'tad stale' is enough to make some of us unhappy. I need challenges to consume me, otherwise I'm bored and no reasonable amount of money is going to keep me.

Viper GTS

 

[gorcorps]

For small employers it's going to be difficult as you won't have the structure to promote employees. For bigger ones, have places for the talented/motivated people to go. Otherwise you're going to lose them.

Ultimately though you are correct - If I'm looking to leave I'm not all that happy, but a 'tad stale' is enough to make some of us unhappy. I need challenges to consume me, otherwise I'm bored and no reasonable amount of money is going to keep me.

Viper GTS

One of the issues I've seen with job hoppers is they never bring up their concerns to their manager, or anyone that has any power to do anything. If they know you're paid well, and you seem pretty happy, then they have no idea that you're still looking because you want more engaging work. Once I got to that point I mentioned it to my boss and he had plenty of ideas to get me engaged. Sometimes they just need to know, you'd be surprised.

Obviously everyone is going to have different experiences, but it's not that uncommon to see people bitching to their peers, or at home, but not mentioning a thing to their manager or anyone else.

 

[luv2liv]

i was working as a telecom engineer for Ericsson, based in Plano Texas. about 3 times a year, they would fly me down there to do some projects that i coulda done easily at home.
daily, i would be on Lync to group chat with other engineers from mexico and india. my salary was $70k annually, while the Indians were averaging $4.8k
when i was laid off, i wasnt surprised.
i dont know how other telecommuters are. but if you are 100% at home, pretty sure your job can be outsourced to someone sitting somewhere for much lesser.

 

[purbeast0]

i was working as a telecom engineer for Ericsson, based in Plano Texas. about 3 times a year, they would fly me down there to do some projects that i coulda done easily at home.
daily, i would be on Lync to group chat with other engineers from mexico and india. my salary was $70k annually, while the Indians were averaging $4.8k
when i was laid off, i wasnt surprised.
i dont know how other telecommuters are. but if you are 100% at home, pretty sure your job can be outsourced to someone sitting somewhere for much lesser.

That is a good point. But with software dev, you get what you pay for. There's a reason good developers make a lot of money and people are willing to pay them.

 

[Deeko]

I work remotely about 95% of the time. When I took the job, the office was in NYC and I was in Philly. So it was initially a job where I'd come in most of the time and work on the train so my day wasn't too insane. Then they did some corporate restructuring and the team relocated to Europe. We still have a small presence in NYC but its actually easier to work with Europe from home than from the office so I am remote most of the time. Visit the team 1-2x per year, go into NYC a couple of times a month. So I kinda fell into the situation through circumstance, not intent, but I love it.

 

[Carson Dyle]

One of the issues I've seen with job hoppers is they never bring up their concerns to their manager, or anyone that has any power to do anything. If they know you're paid well, and you seem pretty happy, then they have no idea that you're still looking because you want more engaging work. Once I got to that point I mentioned it to my boss and he had plenty of ideas to get me engaged. Sometimes they just need to know, you'd be surprised.

Obviously everyone is going to have different experiences, but it's not that uncommon to see people bitching to their peers, or at home, but not mentioning a thing to their manager or anyone else.

A couple of good reasons for that. Number one is that they become high maintenance. "I just don't feel engaged by the work I'm doing" Oh, poor thing. Another is that most people clearly have a feel for their company's culture, how well they're doing, how valued they are as an employee. They know that whining about their job or their compensation is futile and it's just going to tick someone off. It's not always "you don't know until you try". More often, you know damned well.

 

[LevelSea]

Can't telecommute for my job. I don't think they'd like it if I loaded up a few $100k dollars worth of test equipment and set up in my garage. My wife wouldn't like it either.

 

[Ruptga]

A couple of good reasons for that. Number one is that they become high maintenance. "I just don't feel engaged by the work I'm doing" Oh, poor thing. Another is that most people clearly have a feel for their company's culture, how well they're doing, how valued they are as an employee. They know that whining about their job or their compensation is futile and it's just going to tick someone off. It's not always "you don't know until you try". More often, you know damned well.

Yeah, there's no shortage of idle bitchers, but it's not safe to assume that's the case.

I know my bosses know I'm bored, and from time to time they give me a project I can take on, but I also know that I've fixed basically everything that they will let me fix. There are major projects I'd love to take or just be a part of, but they're never going to happen unless the systems and practices that we've been using for years finally collapse completely. That's the kind of place we are; as long as the money is coming in they just don't care, it doesn't matter that we could make x% more or make the same amount with x% less effort and headache.

 

[BudAshes]

I work from home full time. I work for a managed services IT company that kept me on when I moved out of state. It's not bad, helped me raise our Great Dane puppy and my commute went from 30-60 minutes a day to 5 seconds. I can also afford a much nicer place which helps. Not to mention avoiding all the driving I did while on the job. Just make sure you have good internet and backup internet(4g tethering or something similar), a quiet space to work with a view and a really good headset and a desk that can elevate so you can stand and work. Don't try to work from your couch, you will kill your back and get distracted. You also have to make sure you don't get disconnected from the day to day at your office. Helps to have something like Skype for business setup so you can call, send documents/pictures, do video calls and text message all from the same application.

 

[Robert Munch]

I work 100% remote SCCM/Automation/Scripting and I love it. My role doesn't offer many opportunities for remote however, so I'm hanging onto it until I can transition to a more programming based role since there are many opportunities offered to work remote. All depends on your lifestyle though i'm single with no kids and moved around to various cities as a means to travel. The perks is that I have my own work space, no shared shitter, listen to whatever the hell I want without headphones, nobody to look at my screen to see what i'm up to and complete privacy. I'll head to coffee shops, restaurants, bars to get out of the apartment and work. No need for "special" Fridays to wear jeans as some companies make that a perk. I get to go to the gym everyday whenever time I want and avoid the over-crowding. It's also nice to work in your boxers and if your balls itch no worries about anyone looking.

I don't care to mingle with other co-workers face to face since the majority of my work has been communicated through Skype for business/email. I've worked in office spaces that had shared desks, shitty views or boring/dull environments. Would not want to head back to an office and waste an hour trying to find lunch somewhere and commute 30-45 mins each way. No thanks. It's too bad more companies don't offer remote positions which is probably due to the older generations wanting physical presence old school mentality.

 

[Carson Dyle]

no shared shitter

That's quite a perk. Do you get stage fright?

 

[Robert Munch]

That's quite a perk. Do you get stage fright?

I'll put it this way i'm not a fan when there's 3 stalls the far left and right are in use and the middle is freed up meanwhile either person is blowing out their insides into the toilet and it smells putrid. At times it feels like it's a competition on whose bowels can make the most destruction in the toilet and I've seen some corporate bathrooms destroyed where a simple toilet paper clean up will not do the job.

 

[Murloc]

That's quite a perk. Do you get stage fright?

so you enjoy shitting in toilet that are sprayed with piss and shit all over, with who knows what strains of norovirus?

It's really not about teh stage fright, I couldn't care less when I really need to go.

 

[IEC]

I've done both 100% travel and 100% remote. They each have their pros and cons. Having a gig that's 100% remote when you're in graduate school is awesome. But that generally requires you to have made a good impression on your previous employer and client(s).

 

[Brovane]

I work about 80-90% remote. I am a Technical Project Manager for a large Corporation and most of my time is spent on conference bridges or planning. I work in California but my Manager I report to is in Atlanta. At our local office in Orange County, CA I have no other Co-workers from IT except for two Desktop support people and I don't interact much with them. My most recent manager doesn't care where I work as long as the work gets done. I have a separate room for my office and a setup with a docking station and dual 27" Monitors so my setup at home is better than my cubicle at work. At least at home I can take conference calls and not have to use a headset. I have two children but they are 11 and 12 so they are in school for most of the day.

About the only reason I go into the office now is for Telepresence meetings. I enjoy it and find myself more productive being at home because there is less distractions at home and then in the office.

 

[vi edit]

I could do 50% remote. Not sure I could go "full remote". But part of that is just the nature of my job. There is utility and value to face time when it comes to interacting. You aren't just some voice or named email. Half time is a nice mix of not having to deal with traffic and parking, plus being able to flip out loads of laundry during the day...but not being a full time lock-in to the house. The idea of being 100% telecommute sounds good, but I'd probably really start withdrawling after 4-6 months and it would feel a lot less fun than it did up front. I get to do 6-8 "work from homes" a month right now, and it's refreshing.