The digital hermitage: How “remote work” has changed over 20 years

Even before Ars' first post, IT Editor Sean Gallagher was pioneering working from home.

Read the whole story

 

[liandri]

What a well-timed article. I start my new remote position this upcoming Monday. I'm leaving a large pure-software company for another pure-software company that is building its engineering org with remote in mind. I think that's the difference. Both are within miles of each other in the SF Bay area, but one is committed to GSD (Get Sh#t Done) regardless of your location.

For many reasons, I hope there's a future where on-site presence becomes the exception, and even warrants a slightly higher pay for the inconvenience.

Some have noted that they work longer from home. I love that aspect. I hate mucking around because it's 30min before I need to leave and there's no point starting a new project, but feeling bad if I did just leave "early". The morning and evening commutes are such disruptive artificial barriers to my productivity, I'm excited to be rid of them (again).

 

[jazzylarry]

I haven't been doing work-from-home for nearly as long as Sean, but I'm on year 7 of working full-time from home for Ars; prior to that, I worked at least 1-2 days at home per week at the last several jobs. It's got its ups and downs, but on the whole I prefer it.

The biggest upside to working at Ars is not having to argue with IT about my work computing setup. I can do what I want, thanks to the stipulation Ken worked out a decade ago stating that Ars gets to remain independent of Conde IT. And thank God for that.

Nice setup, although you're missing a Matrix poster (would seem to complete the set at this point)

 

[DarthSlack]

Companies could then have smaller offices where those that can not or do not want to work from home can reside and can also have hot desks for the home workers that need to meet occasionally etc. It is win win.

At least in my experience, this particular aspect is a double edged sword. For some reason, hot desks can generate resentment if not handled properly. And sometimes even if handled properly. I'm a strong support of working from home, it generally has more upside than downside, but office space savings is one of the toughest to deal with.

Hot desks are often used to delegate to unworthy people in the office. So mixed in office, work from home often leads to resentments, where as straight work from home is not in different from working in another location.

I haven't run into that one, but I have run into that people generally do not react well to their cheese being moved around every time they come into the office. They get grumpy if nothing is theirs to set up as they like. An added problem is that the bean counters decide that no only is hot desking a good idea, clearly if its not a "real" office, they can cut WAY back on the space.

So you end up with hot desks the size of a postage stamp stuck in an office the size of a broom closet. Or, even worse, in an open environment.

 

[mltdwn]

Meh, I am torn on work from home. I love working at home because I get so much more done. I hate, as does my family, working from home because I get so much more done due to being far more likely to just keep working.

When I go into the office I go in between 8&9 and am out by 7 at the latest. When I work from home though there have been several times I pulled all nighters and then worked straight through the next day too not because I had to but because ‘hey I’m already sitting here at the computer might as well knock out those servers built for that project that isn’t really starting till next month’ or ‘hey we were talking about trying to do X and Y with our VRA environment why don’t I just spend the next several hours coding out that solution, it’s only 10pm I can have it done by midnight’ which then leads into more and more work creep.

 

[FLOptima]

What a well-timed article. I start my new remote position this upcoming Monday...

Same here, I just switched to a full-time work at home job last Monday. Previously I'd been hybrid of office and 1-2 days a week of work from home for most of the past 8 years, with exception to a year or so long stint of fully working from home.

I was hesitate at first because my experience was negative being the only full-time remote individual, on my last fully remote job (internal promotion, whole team was in a different state so was allowed to go full work at home since local office had limited space). But this new gig, the entire company is virtual with no official office space and so far I am loving it. Good luck with your new gig!

 

[jaberg]

Easiest thing to do is to buy an kitchen worktop off-cut, fix it to a wall and put legs on it. Cheaper and better than a pre-fab desk.

I think you massively overestimate a lot of folks' DIY abilities. I wouldn't even know where to begin with this—I had to google what "worktop off-cut" meant (I mean, contextually it's obvious that it's a table top surface of some kind, but I had no idea what specifically it would be or look like), and the only hand tools I have are computer-oriented, like ifixit screwdrivers.

But I definitely know how to screw together a prefab desk!

Another option is to have the desk built for you. My current corner desk is similar to yours (though currently not as photogenic so I’ll spare you the photo) and was built to order by Techline. I realize you’re not local to me, but there must be similar vendors in your area. I won’t pretend that this was a budget solution, but the desk is still going strong over ten years later and the price, installed, was comparable to that of top line office furniture. (And at the time, this was built to serve as a work-at-home office so some level of expense was justified.)

The desk system is made from a veneered manufactured product and to be honest, it is showing some signs of chipping — I figure in another couple of years I’ll resurface the desktop by spraying it with Fleckstone. Still, very satisfied after over a decade of “use” which includes computer stuff, soldering, gluing and painting. (I protect the surface with green cutting mats for those tasks.)

“Cabinet Dan”, who crafted the built-in entertainment system for the family room said at the time that he could have delivered a comparable system as well. He works in wood. Maybe that would have been a better option? At any rate, quality solutions are out there.

 

[azazel1024]

I am a federal employee and it has its ups and downs. Mostly upsides. I've been teleworking 2 days a week for 2 years now. If I had to go back to fulltime in the office, I'd probably slip in to some deep depression and would absolutely be gone at the first instant I could (I am mid career. ~15 years in, ~15 years till early for early retirement).

I don't know that I'd really want to work from home 100% of my time, but I'd prefer that over never teleworking. My ideal would be 3 or 4 days a week from home and allow me flexibility in that. One issue is that, at least at my agency and my part of the agency, we aren't really treated like adults with telework. From an executive level, the assumption seems to be we do nothing and aren't to be trusted (there are of course exceptions, but that is the general feeling and policy we get from our executives with telework).

We have very little flexibility. I'll explain why that is important (I am sure most of you who do or have teleworked know what I am talking about

Pro's
- Saving on my commute. I live near Baltimore and commute about half an hour each way. Two days of teleworking a week means I save about 2hrs a week in commute time. Also about $10 a week in gas and wear and tear expenses on my car.
- Saving time on not being offensive. Let's face it, if I decided to skip a shower and pants going in to the office, I'd manage to offend some pearl clutcher ("oh no, he doesn't have pants on and smells slightly of BO and looks like someone just rousted him off a couch in some alleyway!"). Beyond personal hygiene that can take a bit of a back seat on telework days, I am just not a morning person. I can wake up, drink coffee and summon full alertness in front of my laptop rather than at my dinning room table. There is no summoning the courage to get in my car and drive to work. This is a minimum of 45 minutes (usually an hour) of savings on each telework day. On a normal day I wake up at 6:45am and I am in my car driving to work around 8:30am. On a telework day I can drag myself out of bed a little earlier so I am up at 5:50am and online at 6am. That is more like 1.5hr savings on each telework day.
- As indicated above, I really am getting about 4hrs a week back of my life teleworking 2 days a week and saving about $500 a year in vehicle expenses
- I don't have people dropping in on me for idle chitchat or conversation. Or if they do need a work conversation, they typically email or IM me and if they need to discuss on the phone, they usually do one of those two also. Having a minute or three to mentally prepare, finish an email I was working on, etc. before talking to someone is really nice...rather than either having to deliberately put off a conversation as someone is standing in my cubicle waiting to talk to me, or having to interrupt what I was doing
- Quieter work environment most days (exceptions, when my kids have off school. They are old enough they can take care of themselves so it isn't some "child care" situation. However, that doesn't mean there aren't ever times I hear "YA!" echoing downstairs when my oldest kicks some butt in Fallout 4 or whatever and I have to remind them I am on a work call.)
- I don't have to take off for things I need to be home for. Needing to sign for an important delivery? Just schedule it on one of my telework days. Furnace guy is coming by to clean the furnace? Just schedule it for a telework day.
-I get to spend WAY more time with my wife. She works from home 100% of the time for her job. She has her work and I have mine, so it isn't like we are just hanging out watching movies all day long or something. But it is really nice to be able to sit down and have lunch together or run over to the town a couple of miles from our house and grab a quick lunch date. Besides, we've started a few months of Pandemic Season 1 and 2 at lunch and finished it up before the kids got home off the bus because work was done for the day in time.
- I get WAY more done during the day at home when I telework. Also it helps me focus during meetings sometimes. I have ADHD and sometimes having a physical focus helps me mentally focus on what people are saying. I've found that doing laundry, especially folding it is relaxing and helps me focus on what people are saying. My wife used to do all of the laundry. These days I pretty much do all of it (except make the kids put away their folded laundry). Also I am home for lunch, I can do some chores in the yard, clean up the kitchen, what-have-you on my lunch break rather than sitting in my office chair at work.
-Just much more comfortable. The surrounding environment at home is comforting. I can listen to music at whatever volume I want to. I can put a show on for background sound while I type emails or read papers. I can wear sweats and a heavy blanket if it is the winter time sitting in my basement office. Whatever.

Negatives
- Little flexibility. I NEED to be home for something on a Wednesday? Well that isn't my telework day and I am not allowed to move my telework days within the week (I don't work a job that has "coverage" issues directly serving the public or other agency employees). So I'll still need to take off
- We just changed telework policy (OMB directive to all agencies). If we can telework, if the office is closed for weather or other similar reasons, we must work from home even if it wasn't a regular telework day. Okay, makes sense. But we are not allowed "liberal telework" on bad weather days. We are granted liberal leave instead (and have for decades). IE if the weather looks like snow, we can take leave and they won't/can't say no for any reason. Even if the office isn't closed. Well it is much more productive if I am working from home, rather than taking off. But I am not allowed to do that. If the roads are impassable where I live, I have to either risk bad roads, or take the day off. That sucks and no reason for that. It is easy enough to manage (are county schools/offices closed where you live? Okay you can work from home that day).
-I do feel a little disconnected sometimes for staff. Usually it only feels really disconnected when I do something like take a few days off and then I am teleworking my first day back from leave. Then it is kind of hard both to feel super motivated and feel like I am disconnected from what is going on. Not a serious issue, but it is there
- I really just don't know that I could do a job that wouldn't allow me to telework part time. Sure if it was temporarily suspending or not being able to participate in telework for some kind of probation period for a few weeks or months.

Anyway, those are my pro's and con's from telework as it relates to telework at my agency. I know some agencies are much more lenient/understanding with telework. Heck, some parts of my own agency are better at it.

I've found it is a bit harder to manage employee performance of those teleworking. At least for problem employees. Of course when it comes to that, usually it ends up being an employee who loses telework pretty quickly because of performance issues. A good employee is a good employee whether they are working from home or in the office.

 

[jaberg]

I haven't been doing work-from-home for nearly as long as Sean, but I'm on year 7 of working full-time from home for Ars; prior to that, I worked at least 1-2 days at home per week at the last several jobs. It's got its ups and downs, but on the whole I prefer it.

The biggest upside to working at Ars is not having to argue with IT about my work computing setup. I can do what I want, thanks to the stipulation Ken worked out a decade ago stating that Ars gets to remain independent of Conde IT. And thank God for that.

Nice desk. Custom built or available retail? Been looking for something similar with no luck.

Easiest thing to do is to buy an kitchen worktop off-cut, fix it to a wall and put legs on it. Cheaper and better than a pre-fab desk.

I had a big L-shaped desk for a long time, but then I switched to a sit-stand desk: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S79282389/ I probably don't use it in standing mode as often as I should, but it's definitely been helpful to not sit all the time. I have it bracketed by other furniture to add back the desktop space I gave up, since I actually have three computers in my immediate workspace.

Having enough space to work is pretty important if you are going to do most of your work from home. I think if your workspace is an afterthought in your home, it's going to be harder to avoid distraction.

I look hard at the BEKANT everytime I swing through IKEA. One of these days it’s going to follow me home. I already use an IKEA pedestal standing desk in my bedroom—for the times when the commute downstairs to the office is just too much to bear.

 

[SteveTheSixth]

When was about to become independent and start working from home in 2009, lots of people warned me that you had to exercise discipline. But they meant it in two different ways. Some meant that, to get a full day's work, you had to keep focus and not slip out to put on laundry or do other household chores. Some meant that you had to avoid too many work hours by going back to the office after dinner since it was so handy.

Both can be true. I find I start earlier and therefore have longer days than I did when I was in an office. But that allows me to do things like putting on laundry or reading Ars during the day.

 

[azazel1024]

What a well-timed article. I start my new remote position this upcoming Monday. I'm leaving a large pure-software company for another pure-software company that is building its engineering org with remote in mind. I think that's the difference. Both are within miles of each other in the SF Bay area, but one is committed to GSD (Get Sh#t Done) regardless of your location.

For many reasons, I hope there's a future where on-site presence becomes the exception, and even warrants a slightly higher pay for the inconvenience.

Some have noted that they work longer from home. I love that aspect. I hate mucking around because it's 30min before I need to leave and there's no point starting a new project, but feeling bad if I did just leave "early". The morning and evening commutes are such disruptive artificial barriers to my productivity, I'm excited to be rid of them (again).

I am typically slightly more productive at home than in the office (see my examples of less "drop-in's" and "socializing"). Also I work much longer hours. In the office I am usually working 8 1/2-9hrs most days (we get 30 minutes unpaid lunch, so 8 1/2 is a regular work day). When I am teleworking my average length of work is 9 1/2hrs and plenty of time I am working 10, 10 1/2 or 11hrs. I don't feel wiped afterwards. If I work a 10 1/2hr day in the office I pretty much just want to crawl in to bed, ignore my wife and kids and pass out and wake up on the weekend.

 

[Trout Mask Replica]

The best thing is being lied to. This happened to me twice, actually.

Interview for job, blah blah blah, so... what are you looking for in a job? I make it extremely clear that remote work is what I am looking for (as I did/do with recruiter). I've got no problem working on site a few weeks until I get up and running full-steam, etc. Oh great, you've go the job! * High-fives all around*

Fast-forward 6-8 weeks later. So, I thought I'd start coming in Tues-Thurs. for a couple weeks and then go remote full-time (excepting critical meetings and such, sure). *Lumberg voice* Ummm, yeah... so about that. We've had problems with people in the past so we really aren't comfortable with people not being on site. Me (internally, DAFUQ?!), I thought we talked about this, in fact you and the recruiter advertised this as a remote position, correct? *Lumberg voice* Ummm, yeah...

2 days later. Ummm, yeah... here's my resignation. What? two weeks notice? Ah, no, I NEED THAT TIME TO LOOK FOR ANOTHER FUCKING JOB.

 

[seanmgallagher]

It's not all sunshine though:
- for best results you need to set aside part of your home to be "your place of work"
- you are totally dependent on your ISP - not all are reliable (and you really need that)
- going in to the office feels really alien
- you miss out on "water cooler conversations" - if your company has the odd coup or "night of the long knives" you might not want to be out of sight...
- you tend to work longer hours. Well, I find I work longer hours
- you do need good discipline to avoid distractions. Crack that and you're made
- you need to get in to the habit of making sure your company knows you're being productive. "Out of sight, out of mind" was written to define most middle management, everywhere...
.

I've been full time remote for over 10 years at large traditional corporation. All of the benefits are pretty obvious, but I struggle with the cons as well.
To your list of negatives, I'd add:
- you must actively seek face to face social interaction outside the home
- it can stress a relationship if your partner is at home all day, too
- you must be capable of self-motivating and problem-solving beyond what is typical
- you live in your own head far vast periods of time (which I have concluded is not healthy)
- Limited political capital in the office because you can't cultivate normal human relationships from afar
- constant, _constant_ anxiety over getting canned because you are remote

Echoing all of this. I don't care what anyone says, a Slack window does not carry the rapport building capabilities of lamenting to your buddy at the office the Cowboys' performance against the Rams, but I digress. Maybe you don't want to be home all the damn time; maybe you live next to a busy NYC thoroughfare like I do and it's constant ambulance sirens all day when you're home.

A hybrid approach works best, in my opinion. Feel slightly under the weather but still feel up to working? Need to concentrate? The incessant coughing makes the monkey part of your brain start screaming "These people are sick! GET AWAY FROM THEM BEFORE THEY MAKE YOU SICK!" ? Work a day a week or two from home. But come in and remind people that you're not just some far-flung remote employee. Bullshit about Dallas' defense or the latest Trump tweet or whatever.

Not going to argue with you. We have an annual staff meeting, and I occasionally connect with our DC-area editorial contingent, but Slack is not a substitute for human interaction. The best arrangements were those that allowed me to hot-desk once or twice a month, or spend a few days a quarter for meetings. But that is just not achievable with an organization like Ars.

I think that my periods of self-employment have made that gap tolerable to me. Also, there are the security cons. (Shmoocon this weekend, for example.)

 

[vershner]

I've been working from home two days a week for a few years now. The company actively encouraged it for a while to alleviate a problem of limited parking at a new office.

On the whole it's a positive thing, but the main problem I find is when I have to attend a meeting remotely, but all the other attendees are in the office, it's really difficult to take an active part.

 

[Defenestrar]

Nice desk. Custom built or available retail? Been looking for something similar with no luck.

I bought it at Fry's like 14 years ago and I have had zero luck finding it online since. The closest I've been able to come is this Bestar corner desk, but it's not the same one. I actually ordered that Bestar desk a couple of years ago and it's a pale imitation (and flimsy as hell, too).

Wish I could find the original one I bought because mine's getting pretty worn out. Going to have to replace it at some point with another corner desk and so far I haven't found any that I like.

That's a reasonably common design option if you look into commercial desk companies like Steelcase and Herman Miller. Steel furniture isn't quite as bulletproof as it was in the '50s and '60s, but one should still be able to support as many dancers as can fit on top of it. Unfortunately you usually can't buy direct, but your area should have several interior design/commercial furniture showrooms that are authorized dealers. This might be where your Condé Nast connections come into play - there's a chance they have a corporate contract rate. Otherwise it'll be more like buying a new car - negotiation and multiple dealers. Think of it like a quest.

 

[seanmgallagher]

I haven't been doing work-from-home for nearly as long as Sean, but I'm on year 7 of working full-time from home for Ars; prior to that, I worked at least 1-2 days at home per week at the last several jobs. It's got its ups and downs, but on the whole I prefer it.

The biggest upside to working at Ars is not having to argue with IT about my work computing setup. I can do what I want, thanks to the stipulation Ken worked out a decade ago stating that Ars gets to remain independent of Conde IT. And thank God for that.

Nice setup, although you're missing a Matrix poster (would seem to complete the set at this point)

My office is currently dominated by a Home Depot-purchased Husky workbench set up as a standing desk, Navy memorabilia and Godzilla-themed art. Plus, I still have more compute power than any individual should rightly have. My server rack in the basement was dubbed "Banshee" by my wife because of the howl of the cooling fans; my next investment is a soundproofed server enclosure.

 

[jep123]

Working at home proves to be challenging at time. But it's so rewarding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW3lhfVpLL4

 

[Coyote-3D]

I'm surprised that you gave up on the old Information Week article so quickly. There are several references in the Wayback Machine

https://web.archive.org/web/20000606090 ... 33olsg.htm

 

[azazel1024]

As usual, it depends on the bosses, the internal power structures, the people, and so forth as to the efficacy of the work environment, be it work-from-home or in-office.

I had one job that allowed us to work from home once a week. I loved being able to concentrate on tougher projects without constantly being distracted. But on the flip side, there was also constant complaining about one guy in another department who worked from home maybe 9 days out of 10 who took hours to respond to anything. If what I heard was correct, he was a Christian scientist with severe back problems, so he refused to get medical care, and there was fear that firing him for being so lazy and unproductive might result in a lawsuit.

I also had one job before my current one that I lasted at for six weeks because there was literally not a desk for me at their NYC office, so they told me to work from home. Great! ...Then I quickly found out my DevOps Engineer colleague at their Stamford, CT headquarters would take days to get back to me. And my boss, a Ph.D. holder in something pertaining to Biology and the main developer for the company's core product, also took days to get back to me. So there I sat... away from direct human interaction if I stayed home, taking IT training courses due to a dearth of actual work to do, going to the library and coffee shops. Too bad the last job where I sat there with nothing assigned to me or anything to do, one day I was let go with no severance, so I was not content to do that.

Then I found my way to a large financial news company with an open office layout where at least 25% of the people sound like they belong in a tuberculous ward circa 1900, people constantly complain about how loud it is where they work is and how they cannot function without active noise-cancelling headphones, and no one in power has the desire to start telling people "Your disgusting coughing is disruptive and unconducive to a healthy and productive work environment. Go home, see a doctor, and don't come back until you get it under control" or "Quit yelling at people 6 yards away, not caring about all the people between you and the person you're bellowing at. Walk over to the person and talk to them and don't yell at them like you're in a bus station."

I guess what my rambling is trying to convey is that bosses that are either lazy, too busy to care, scared of cracking the whip, or a combo thereof will result in shit results, regardless of if you come into the office or work from home.

Yeah we are moving to open office layouts. Cubicles can be a bit trying at times as it is. Speaking to friends and co-workers in other parts of my agency that have gone to open office layouts, the morale universally goes down, productivity goes down and everyone hates it (including managers). But it saves some space and it is "collaborative" (so much easier to hear someone's loud conversation 5 cubicles and 30ft away when the walls are only 3 feet tall rather than 6 feet tall, and the cubicles are also 1/2 the size). I've got about 2 years till our office space gets converted. I am dreading the day it happens. Maybe at least by then we will have moved to 3-day telework and hot sharing (the later, not looking forward to, but they want to save MORE space. So it is coming and 3-day telework is likely going to be required to enable it).

 

[Ben G]

Ah yes, working from home. So, have you... you know...

 

[jazzylarry]

I haven't been doing work-from-home for nearly as long as Sean, but I'm on year 7 of working full-time from home for Ars; prior to that, I worked at least 1-2 days at home per week at the last several jobs. It's got its ups and downs, but on the whole I prefer it.

The biggest upside to working at Ars is not having to argue with IT about my work computing setup. I can do what I want, thanks to the stipulation Ken worked out a decade ago stating that Ars gets to remain independent of Conde IT. And thank God for that.

Nice setup, although you're missing a Matrix poster (would seem to complete the set at this point)

My office is currently dominated by a Home Depot-purchased Husky workbench set up as a standing desk, Navy memorabilia and Godzilla-themed art. Plus, I still have more compute power than any individual should rightly have. My server rack in the basement was dubbed "Banshee" by my wife because of the howl of the cooling fans; my next investment is a soundproofed server enclosure.

I used to have that banshee setup. A set of servers with two RAID clusters attached. Back in those days the whine of the SCSI drives alone was loud enough to require some sound proofing. I now have my servers in a colo, so my home is quiet, relatively speaking.

 

[Defenestrar]

One of the things I've found a little more nuanced when equipped to work from home is taking a sick day for one of the kids. Depending on the type of sick, I might even be able to get a full day in, but other times it's way more than just refreshing meds/drinks/books. I can look back at the end of the day and estimate how much sick time to charge, but during the day it's hard to manage coworker's expectations of my connectivity, particularly because it varies so much from my normal work from home response. Because of this, I'll often take the whole day off and claim unavailability outside of emergencies, even though I know that I'll most likely be reading a book while my kid sleeps off a fever.

 

[xz4gb8]

Deputy Cartman on Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:09 am wrote:

A hybrid approach works best, in my opinion. Feel slightly under the weather but still feel up to working? Need to concentrate? The incessant coughing makes the monkey part of your brain start screaming "These people are sick! GET AWAY FROM THEM BEFORE THEY MAKE YOU SICK!" ? Work a day a week or two from home. But come in and remind people that you're not just some far-flung remote employee. Bullshit about Dallas' defense or the latest Trump tweet or whatever.

Where geography and management allows the hybrid approach, socialization and resource savings (time, gasoline) are both possible. I note that today's trend to allowing no remote employees greatly reduces the incentive for well-settled employees to remain and opens the door for hiring young mobile newcomers at lower salaries.

Working in San Jose, California, in 1981 I began extending my work day at home by telephone to Japan and Israel offices. The company provided a centrex line so I incurred no long distance charges. I did backups of and updates to VAX/VMS systems outside of local work hours using dialup over the same line. This, of course, was in addition to my nominal 8-5 office time. After I came to EDS in 1988, I routinely did software builds after hours from home, again extending my work day. Even now in "retirement" I support macOS users remotely from my home office, thus avoiding beaucoup miles of driving. Of course, on-site visits are still required for major system changes and for user training. In every case, understanding management made my time planning effective and improved my productivity for the clients and the company.

Aside: The transition from 9600 bps dialup character terminal access to 25/5 cable has produce a seismic shift in remote capabilities.

 

[Lodai]

...
The biggest upside to working at Ars is not having to argue with IT about my work computing setup. I can do what I want, thanks to the stipulation Ken worked out a decade ago stating that Ars gets to remain independent of Conde IT. And thank God for that.

Wish my home office desk was that neat and tidy. ;-)

But in all seriousness, I work from home 2 days out of the week, and I find that I get more work done in those 2 days than in the 3 at the office. Work has an "open office" concept. Damn near impossible to concentrate. If I need to get a solid hour of quiet to work, I book a small meeting room just for myself.

 

[Lodai]

...
Thank you A similar one can be yours for the low low price of about twenty bucks!

Damn you! Now I have to spend more $. Awesome posters!

 

[btbinjapan]

As a Japanese-to-English translator, I have worked all configurations over the past 25 years: 1) full-time employee on premises, 2) full-time employee with remote work permission, and 3) full-time freelancer working at home / wherever.

Luckily, I was working in-house full time when my career started and the internet was still crawling along at dial-up modem speeds, and the concept of remote working gained traction as internet speeds improved (and everyone learned how to use email). Now I have gigabit fiber while working full time as a freelancer, which sounds ultra productive until you realize how much time is spent on Ars / Reddit / YouTube for breaks from work every day.

Despite all the progress on infrastructure and technology for remote work, I find that most large Japanese companies are hesitant to let their in-house translators work remotely outside the office, even for a translator with clearly measurable productivity metrics (words translated per hour). I thought this would change after the massive earthquake / tsunami / nuclear meltdown in Japan in 2011 forced employees to walk several hours home only to turn around and try to get into the office the next day with few commuter trains running in Tokyo. If anything, that experience should have changed mindsets among corporate managers, at least from a business continuity planning / risk perspective. But it didn't.

I'm at a stage in my career where I have a golden opportunity to run my own translation business from anywhere in the world. However, it is a constant hustle and there is a surprise every year that moves the goal posts for keeping the business going. If I could choose an ideal work situation, it would have the stability and benefits of a full-time employee position and the flexibility of working from home with clearly established expectations for performance.

 

[SPCagigas]

Now I just need to get my wife to understand that "working from home" is "WORKING from home" not "hanging out at home with nothing to do"...

 

[Violynne]

Reading about those who can work from home rubs me the wrong way.

Not because I deem their choice as negative.

It's just I have a boss who still lives by the creed "If I have to be here, so do you" despite all the technology which can prove I am working from home.

Alas, I sit here in my office, my boss three doors down, not working to submit a post.

Logic.

 

[evan_s]

I haven't worked from home full time but my last two jobs (~last 7 years) have been pretty friendly to working from home.

At my previous job my son was born shortly after I started working there and a month later my boss had his second so we both worked from home 2 days a week and coordinated our schedules so we were in the office at the same time. Did that for ~6 months and then it was WFH on Fridays as a schedule but it was always easy to work from home for any reason. Feeling a little under the weather. Work from home. Wife or kid sick WFH if I need to. Got an early morning call because you are on the west coast and the client is on the east coast? WFH at least for the call if not the entire day. On top of that the office was 3 miles from home so I had a pretty short bike commute and pretty flexible hours.

My current job started off as in the office full time but everyone had a laptop and vpn access for evening/weekend work as was occasionally needed to hit deadlines. Since everything was setup for remote work my boss was pretty open to allowing you to work from home when you needed to. After about a year we ran out of space in the office due to growth and started WFH part time and sharing desks to save office space.

All in all I do enjoy the freedom and flexibility and being in the office part time/WFH part time has worked as a good balance for me. My new office is still relatively close (15 miles round trip) so the commute in isn't bad but I still wake up later and I am online sooner when WFH. WFH doesn't tend to lead to me working any more time than I would if I was in the office mainly because I'm hourly and have to bill time to different clients so in the office or WFH doesn't really drive the OT it's the work that needs to be done that determines that. Even when I do go into the office if the OT is more than ~1 hour I'll typically head home and have dinner and spend some time with the family and log back on to do the OT later from home.

I do agree that having a good work setup is important. I've had a pretty big corner desk for ages. I probably got it at staples or office depot or similar but it's been so long I've honestly forgotten where I got it. It was a bit of over kill when I wasn't regularly using two or three computers for my personal use but it's been really handy for WFH. As it is I've got a better setup at home than I've got at work. My desk is bigger. My monitors are better and most of the time it's quieter and less distracting.

One of the guys on my team says his WFH setup is basically sitting on the couch with his laptop which technically violates our WFH policy and would drive me crazy but he is still productive so I don't make a big deal out of it.

I'm not too much of a hermit as I still have 2 or 3 days in the office and even when I work from home my Wife is home and home-schools our son so they are both around on and off throughout the day. There's occasionally days when my son will have lots of friends over and when it's planned ahead of time I'll often head into the office for the day to avoid the chaos.

 

[clf28264]

Sounds like you worked for JP Morgan Chase on Athena and now are at Bloomberg...

As usual, it depends on the bosses, the internal power structures, the people, and so forth as to the efficacy of the work environment, be it work-from-home or in-office.

I had one job that allowed us to work from home once a week. I loved being able to concentrate on tougher projects without constantly being distracted. But on the flip side, there was also constant complaining about one guy in another department who worked from home maybe 9 days out of 10 who took hours to respond to anything. If what I heard was correct, he was a Christian scientist with severe back problems, so he refused to get medical care, and there was fear that firing him for being so lazy and unproductive might result in a lawsuit.

I also had one job before my current one that I lasted at for six weeks because there was literally not a desk for me at their NYC office, so they told me to work from home. Great! ...Then I quickly found out my DevOps Engineer colleague at their Stamford, CT headquarters would take days to get back to me. And my boss, a Ph.D. holder in something pertaining to Biology and the main developer for the company's core product, also took days to get back to me. So there I sat... away from direct human interaction if I stayed home, taking IT training courses due to a dearth of actual work to do, going to the library and coffee shops. Too bad the last job where I sat there with nothing assigned to me or anything to do, one day I was let go with no severance, so I was not content to do that.

Then I found my way to a large financial news company with an open office layout where at least 25% of the people sound like they belong in a tuberculous ward circa 1900, people constantly complain about how loud it is where they work is and how they cannot function without active noise-cancelling headphones, and no one in power has the desire to start telling people "Your disgusting coughing is disruptive and unconducive to a healthy and productive work environment. Go home, see a doctor, and don't come back until you get it under control" or "Quit yelling at people 6 yards away, not caring about all the people between you and the person you're bellowing at. Walk over to the person and talk to them and don't yell at them like you're in a bus station."

I guess what my rambling is trying to convey is that bosses that are either lazy, too busy to care, scared of cracking the whip, or a combo thereof will result in shit results, regardless of if you come into the office or work from home.

 

[infromsea_4eva]

It's a small world!

I'm retired Navy, working from home for a LARGE corporation, in a project manager role. Just a few years I was told you couldn't "be" a PM from home, I'm here to say that's not true.

My biggest challenge isn't the working from home piece, it's adjusting to the corporate culture and trying to get the other drones to recognize what a sweet gig this is and to stop trying to re-create the office environment digitally. I don't care if you are "offline for a few to take the car to the shop" as long as the work is done. Holding calls that don't need to be held just to allow time to gossip, worry vocally about possible changes, and have that "water cooler time"... I'd rather be outside!

I love the advice in the article and the comments, have a GREAT internet connection (FIOS here), have a dedicated working area, maybe one without a "personal computer" available (if possible, you might work from your own PC...), try to "work" regular hours so you don't feel like you are always at work, and have outside social groups (for me, it's vet groups and professional orgs), don't expect facebook/messageboards/linked in to provide that socialization you might have gotten from a physical work place.

Lastly, I built my own stand up desk. If you are in the DELMARVA area and want one built, let me know, I've considered building these as a side hustle and, since I can work "on the move" could come help someone build one. I can share a pic and ideas, it's super easy and while mine isn't lovely, it isn't horrible, and it gets the job done...

I'm going to grab my work laptop and go "work" from the library, read the paper for free and stretch my legs a bit. I never did that while in the NAV...

Cheers my fellow remotees!

 

[pokrface]

Ha, I had the exact same desk, but got rid of it when we moved a few years ago. It was a beauty, though. I got mine from Staples, it was a floor model. We moved it in one piece into the back of a box truck through a dock door in the back. I used it at work sometime around 2005, probably. Then I bought/took it when the plant moved and used it at home until 2014 or so.

This is how I roll now.

I don't suppose you remember the brand or model or anything, do you? I've been totally unable to find another one—just the cheap imitation crappy one that isn't nearly as good.

My office is currently dominated by a Home Depot-purchased Husky workbench set up as a standing desk, Navy memorabilia and Godzilla-themed art. Plus, I still have more compute power than any individual should rightly have. My server rack in the basement was dubbed "Banshee" by my wife because of the howl of the cooling fans; my next investment is a soundproofed server enclosure.

My server & network stuff is all crammed into the closet. I keep the door shut. It gets hot in there.

 

[jazzylarry]

Reading about those who can work from home rubs me the wrong way.

Not because I deem their choice as negative.

It's just I have a boss who still lives by the creed "If I have to be here, so do you" despite all the technology which can prove I am working from home.

Alas, I sit here in my office, my boss three doors down, not working to submit a post.

Logic.

I basically cut my work to be accomplished expectations down by at least a factor of 4 if I have to work in the office, if it's an open office with no real private workspace and chatty neighbors - I do a minimum factor of 10.

Or, in a way that bosses like that one can appreciate, all work estimates get multiplied by those factors.

 

[jazzylarry]

Ha, I had the exact same desk, but got rid of it when we moved a few years ago. It was a beauty, though. I got mine from Staples, it was a floor model. We moved it in one piece into the back of a box truck through a dock door in the back. I used it at work sometime around 2005, probably. Then I bought/took it when the plant moved and used it at home until 2014 or so.

This is how I roll now.

I don't suppose you remember the brand or model or anything, do you? I've been totally unable to find another one—just the cheap imitation crappy one that isn't nearly as good.

My office is currently dominated by a Home Depot-purchased Husky workbench set up as a standing desk, Navy memorabilia and Godzilla-themed art. Plus, I still have more compute power than any individual should rightly have. My server rack in the basement was dubbed "Banshee" by my wife because of the howl of the cooling fans; my next investment is a soundproofed server enclosure.

My server & network stuff is all crammed into the closet. I keep the door shut. It gets hot in there.

Colo space for a base 1/4 rack runs maybe $300 a month here which covers power, backup power, space, unlimited 100Mbps symmetric network access with 5 static IPs (for the 1/4 rack) and services such as the ability to call in and have someone power cycle your systems if necessary.

Unless you live in the north, where you'd like that extra heat of course. I couldn't tell how much space you need if you went full rack mounted, maybe only 2U or 4U? In that case, your price could be halved or more.

 

[pokrface]

Colo space for a base 1/4 rack runs maybe $300 a month here which covers power, backup power, space, unlimited 100Mbps symmetric network access with 5 static IPs (for the 1/4 rack) and services such as the ability to call in and have someone power cycle your systems if necessary.

Unless you live in the north, where you'd like that extra heat of course. I couldn't tell how much space you need if you went full rack mounted, maybe only 2U or 4U? In that case, your price could be halved or more.

The rack stuff is actually all networking gear. Colo'ing it wouldn't help me since it's all stuff for the house

 

[Hap]

As a senior engineering manager for a large aerospace firm, I have a small, hard walled office with a door (important for financial or performance discussions), and I typically work in the office 9 hours a day (normal work schedule - we work split weeks, 44 one week, 36 the next and take the 2nd Friday off) and usually another 2 hours once I get home. As an engineering manager, I'm really expected to be available when needed for my engineers. I typically can determine when I want to work a full day from home and I have a really nice setup at home with a Polycom speaker phone and much nicer monitor setup than at work that comes from a time when I ran a team fully located in CA but I was resident in the Central time zone. Since some of them would work until 9pm, that would make me have to available until 11pm. I don't really want to hear how as their manager I should have made them come in earlier BTW - my management philosophy is that I'm here to facilitate my engineers work, take care of them from a career perspective (even if it means leaving my program) and to occasionally counsel them on issues (rarely happens). Besides, they worked in Sunnyvale, CA with nightmare commutes. Who was I to make them try to drive in that hellish traffic (they couldn't work remote as it was classified work).

I do find I sometimes have distractions from work, but in general I manage my time well. When the spouse gets home around 6pm. It's pencils down until she goes to bed around 8pm.

 

[seanmgallagher]

I'm surprised that you gave up on the old Information Week article so quickly. There are several references in the Wayback Machine

https://web.archive.org/web/20000606090 ... 33olsg.htm

My Internet Archive search-fu is apparently not up to snuff. Thanks.

 

[jazzylarry]

Colo space for a base 1/4 rack runs maybe $300 a month here which covers power, backup power, space, unlimited 100Mbps symmetric network access with 5 static IPs (for the 1/4 rack) and services such as the ability to call in and have someone power cycle your systems if necessary.

Unless you live in the north, where you'd like that extra heat of course. I couldn't tell how much space you need if you went full rack mounted, maybe only 2U or 4U? In that case, your price could be halved or more.

The rack stuff is actually all networking gear. Colo'ing it wouldn't help me since it's all stuff for the house

I'd almost ask why you need a closet of pure networking gear. I'm done to 2 units, both are tiny. Neither is commercial class anymore, although the performance is on par for most things.

 

[pokrface]

Colo space for a base 1/4 rack runs maybe $300 a month here which covers power, backup power, space, unlimited 100Mbps symmetric network access with 5 static IPs (for the 1/4 rack) and services such as the ability to call in and have someone power cycle your systems if necessary.

Unless you live in the north, where you'd like that extra heat of course. I couldn't tell how much space you need if you went full rack mounted, maybe only 2U or 4U? In that case, your price could be halved or more.

The rack stuff is actually all networking gear. Colo'ing it wouldn't help me since it's all stuff for the house

I'd almost ask why you need a closet of pure networking gear. I'm done to 2 units, both are tiny. Neither is commercial class anymore, although the performance is on par for most things.

The depths of my craziness are all laid out in that article.

tl;dr - "need" and "want" are very different animals, and I have a 2-income house, no kids, and no impulse control.

 

[azazel1024]

One of the things I've found a little more nuanced when equipped to work from home is taking a sick day for one of the kids. Depending on the type of sick, I might even be able to get a full day in, but other times it's way more than just refreshing meds/drinks/books. I can look back at the end of the day and estimate how much sick time to charge, but during the day it's hard to manage coworker's expectations of my connectivity, particularly because it varies so much from my normal work from home response. Because of this, I'll often take the whole day off and claim unavailability outside of emergencies, even though I know that I'll most likely be reading a book while my kid sleeps off a fever.

There is this. I just play it by ear on how sick my kid seems to be. Mine are 6, 8 and 10 now. I've only been teleworking for 2 years now and my wife works from home 100% of the time, but it is a part time job (15-20 hours a week). Which means in most cases, she is the one "taking care of the kids" if they are home on a telework day.

A wouldn't take care of a 3yr old while working. Heck, I wouldn't take care of a 4 or 5 year old. A 6 year old? Yeah I don't think I'd consider that child care. My 6 year old on average needs maybe 30 minutes of "attention" in a given day if it is just here (IE no fights with her older brothers to manage).

A few minutes to make her breakfast in the morning, a few minutes to make her lunch in the afternoon and maybe a question or a little direction given every once in awhile. If ALL my kids were home and it was just me, I don't think I could honestly say I can work. At least if my wife wasn't home.

Too many fights to break up, or a parade of kids coming to tell me they are bored, etc. Any of them on their own, not a problem. If I have to go get them from school because they are sick, I can flex out of work for 30 minutes to get them if my wife is in the middle of something (or vice versa she can just go get them). For watching them, if they are REAL sick, I'd have to take the day off.

Mostly though it just means they are going to be quieter and either sleep on the couch/in bed, or lay on the couch and watch movies all day. But a serious stomach bug, again too distracting. I don't need to have to jump off a call or be unavailable for 10 or 15 minutes because I am holding my daughter's hair back as she is puking in the toilet or cleaning up vomit off the couch/rug/floor.

Fortunately stomach bugs are super rare in my family (I get them WAY more often then my kid's or wife. And getting sick in general is very rare for my kids).

But again, one of those work/life flexibility things I don't have when I am in the office.

Also another of those "treat us like adults thing". Plenty of times I am too sick to come in to the office, but I can telework just fine. No, with a head cold I am not 100%, but I can work okay. I am not going to come in to the office and risk getting everyone else sick, being out of my comfortable environment where I can make tea for myself every 60 minutes, take a lunch time hot steamy shower to try to clear my sinuses, etc. If I've got the flu (knock on wood, not since I was 5. My wife and oldest had it despite getting flu shots last year) or some other serious illness, no, even on a telework day I am not working. I had strep a few months back (first time since I was 13) and I had to take the day off even though it was my telework day. I had been up most of the night, could barely swallow, feverish and just felt horrible. I dragged myself in to the doctor's, got some amoxicillin and texted my boss to tell her I was taking the whole day off, not just the morning like I had told her earlier.

But in a given year, if I had the choice to telework when sick (but could still work), versus having to take a sick day, I'd probably not have to take off at least 5 or 6 days a year. As it is, the 2 out of 5 days I can telework probably saves me a couple of sick days a year where my telework day just lines up with being sick.

 

[azazel1024]

Ha, I had the exact same desk, but got rid of it when we moved a few years ago. It was a beauty, though. I got mine from Staples, it was a floor model. We moved it in one piece into the back of a box truck through a dock door in the back. I used it at work sometime around 2005, probably. Then I bought/took it when the plant moved and used it at home until 2014 or so.

This is how I roll now.

I don't suppose you remember the brand or model or anything, do you? I've been totally unable to find another one—just the cheap imitation crappy one that isn't nearly as good.

My office is currently dominated by a Home Depot-purchased Husky workbench set up as a standing desk, Navy memorabilia and Godzilla-themed art. Plus, I still have more compute power than any individual should rightly have. My server rack in the basement was dubbed "Banshee" by my wife because of the howl of the cooling fans; my next investment is a soundproofed server enclosure.

My server & network stuff is all crammed into the closet. I keep the door shut. It gets hot in there.

Mine is spread over a couple of shelves in my basement storage room.

Yours is probably much more impressive than mine. I only have a couple of 16 port GbE L2 switches, router, my home server and a nice UPS to make sure it all stays up. Spread around the house I've got a couple of wireless access points, and a couple of 5 port switches where it just didn't make sense to run THAT many LAN drops to the location...or just as much, the purpose of the location changed and I am too lazy to run 2-3 more cables to the location.

I am looking forward to 2.5/5GbE getting cheaper enough with enough options to upgrade my whole network. I haven't bought any network gear in about 2 years and I am getting the itch to redesign the whole thing.