Working Remotely

[DrJohnZoidberg]

It's been two years for me, give it time.

My parents come to visit for a few weeks about twice a year, after that I'm pretty happy having the place to myself

 

[DA-LION-619]

Does working remotely mean you have to be on call from 8-5?

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Does working remotely mean you have to be on call from 8-5?

Well that's kind of up to who you work for.

 

[DA-LION-619]

Well that's kind of up to who you work for.

Just trying to find out what it means generally to people.

 

[Nerfherder]

I work in a company that is split between JHB and CT and for a while CT was just two people (before me it was one)
They did allow us to work from home as long as we were always available but now that the office is bigger it a bit more strict and JHB does not have the same leniency as management is there and they are customer facing.

I like being able to work from home as I need to but I don't think I could do it all the time. I enjoy the human contact and I find the days at home are a lot longer, its harder to keep office hours.
I also enjoy getting out the house.

Newbs at home is not a good idea, you need to have that ability to keep your self busy and commit to tasks.

 

[^^vampire^^]

Manage people on what they deliver and not the time they spend at the office. How all companies should run, especially in tech (where often we are selling the technologies to enable this). Where do do I apply

That's the problem, the more productive you become the more companies believe they squeeze out of your between 8am - 5pm. They are defiant that they should be ignorant on the fact that people aren't 100% productive all the time. Honestly if you get 60% out of me on any given week then lucky you - it's just my 60% is equal to most others 100% so it equals out. If I could spend 3 days working a week I would probably be more motivated to put all my effort into doing my best in those 3 days and having the other time for myself; companies cannot comprehend this and would rather have you average at 5 days than at your best for 3-4 days.

 

[MrGray]

I don't like either extreme of 8-5 office hours or entirely working from home.

Our company works as a tight knit team of developers and I don't believe we would have even half of the camaraderie, knowledge transfer, mutual mentoring and ultimately productivity if we all worked remotely permanently. I also found that working entirely from home can become very lonely and you easily develop cabin fever. We also like to bring fresh but inexperienced talent into our environment regularly and I can't see how they would grow without ongoing immediate interaction with the more accomplished members of the team.

That being said, we allow for the flexibility of working from home or keeping irregular hours whenever a team member just feels like focusing on an aspect of their project for a few days here or there, or circumstances make it easier, but not indefinitely. So basically it doesn't feel like you're on a strict 8-5 compulsory clock, but strangely the result is counterintuitively that most actually seem to end up preferring the structure of regular office hours and human interaction.

Personally, I've worked remotely before but after a while found that I did not enjoy the isolation nor the way the boundaries between work and personal time tended to blur. I actually ended up feeling like I lived in an office and needed to justify to myself why I should stop working every day, feeling guilty about watching tv or something in the evening because I could rather be at my workstation getting things done.

Not everyone is the same, many thrive working remotely, but be aware that it's not necessarily some kind of nirvana where you can spludge in your pyjamas all day or park in M&B sipping cappuccinos while working. Those things are cool at first but can become soul destroying after a while.

 

[Drifter]

We are allowed to work from home under certain conditions, but as a rule, it is frowned upon. I get a lot more done from home than in the office.

 

[gfmalan]

That's the problem, the more productive you become the more companies believe they squeeze out of your between 8am - 5pm. They are defiant that they should be ignorant on the fact that people aren't 100% productive all the time. Honestly if you get 60% out of me on any given week then lucky you - it's just my 60% is equal to most others 100% so it equals out. If I could spend 3 days working a week I would probably be more motivated to put all my effort into doing my best in those 3 days and having the other time for myself; companies cannot comprehend this and would rather have you average at 5 days than at your best for 3-4 days.

Not all companies... I run a small company, and I believe, so long the work is done/up to date, you can do what you want. I have only one requirement, start just before 8, when done, do what you want. Don't start at 11 and work till 3 and say you are done.

The problem comes in that certain employees can't handle the freedom, and take chances. You need a self motivated person if you want to do this work from anywhere opportunity.

Human interaction is a problem...

 

[Vohligh]

I worked at a large insurance company where some of us where allowed to work from home on an adhoc basis, granted that we were available via chat or phone.

 

[deweyzeph]

Our biggest challenge as a completely remote company is communication. We use Slack and Skype mainly for team meetings. When we get new members on board it takes a while to get them into the swing of things. It's definitely a learning curve for people who have never worked remotely before. People either hate it or thrive on it. My guess is that it suits people with a more independent spirit and who can manage themselves well. People who need to be micromanaged all the time are definitely not suited for remote working.

 

[Pho3nix]

Our biggest challenge as a completely remote company is communication. We use Slack and Skype mainly for team meetings. When we get new members on board it takes a while to get them into the swing of things. It's definitely a learning curve for people who have never worked remotely before. People either hate it or thrive on it. My guess is that it suits people with a more independent spirit and who can manage themselves well. People who need to be micromanaged all the time are definitely not suited for remote working.

Wanna hire me?
Please...

 

[Pho3nix]

As for the question at hand.
A firm no.

Management want's to see you here. Even if you are doing fokol.

 

[Randy_The_Squirrel]

Hello, I joined the forum to comment on this.

I live and work in Gauteng, as a software developer. I started working in 1994, year after matric. I have never been with any company that is happy to let people work from home.

Some bosses love the game, the ability to watch over people, it is, probably what one could call a sport of some kind.

I do know some companies work like this BUT, in the main, they want to watch the employees closely

 

[deweyzeph]

Can I work for you?

Me too?

Manage people on what they deliver and not the time they spend at the office. How all companies should run, especially in tech (where often we are selling the technologies to enable this). Where do do I apply

I'd love to work from home, the only concern is when it comes to that lovely load shedding time of the year. Most companies will have backup power / generator to keep things running..... oh and can I work for you too ?

Wanna hire me?
Please...

Haha, sorry guys. We're not hiring at the moment.

I just wanted to add there that from a business's point of view there are huge advantages to having a remote-only setup. You can imagine how much money we save on overheads like rent, furniture, refreshments, office equipment, etc. From a technology perspective everything is in the cloud. We rely heavily on technologies like Dropbox, Google Apps, Slack, Skype, Jira (for project management), Bitbucket, Zoho CRM, etc. Make no mistake, productivity is heavily tracked and monitored and anyone who doesn't perform is soon weeded out and exposed. But the amazing thing is that when you give people the responsibility for managing themselves they more often than not rise to the occasion. In the 4 years that we've been running we've only ever had an issue with one person, where we've had to sit them down and tell them that it's just not working out.

Employees appreciate when they can pop down to the mall at 11am on a Tuesday morning and do their weekly shopping, or go to the doctor or dentist without having grovel for permission from a manager. We really don't care what you do during the day (or night), but you'd better make sure you meet your deliverables and don't let the team down. How you do that is up to you.

 

[HavocXphere]

Probably could work from home, but office is much better. More screens, secretary, industrial printers, big desk, aircon, colleagues to consult on tricky issues.

Plus better for mental work/home separation anyway.

 

[Sodan]

Working from home all the time is not as great as you may think it is. I prefer a balance of some days at home and some days at the office. Currently I'm at home all the time and you get cooped up, you need human contact at times.

Extroverts do. Introverts, not quite so much.

Probably could work from home, but office is much better. More screens, secretary, industrial printers, big desk, aircon, colleagues to consult on tricky issues.

Plus better for mental work/home separation anyway.

Aren't you married?!

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

Extroverts do. Introverts, not quite so much.

I agree with that. I generally try to avoid people, but am forced to at work. I'm weird like that.

 

[Randy_The_Squirrel]

okay

let's see here

Benefits of working from home
* Less intrusion into your life from busybody bosses
* don't have to put up with co-workers disgusting habits
* don't have to put up with noise at work from inconsiderate QA/Testers
* don't have to smell other people's "cat vomit" lunch
* Far less risk of being spied upon at work

Concerns about working from home


* Work/life balance separation issues
* Disturbances and distractions
* Power and ADSL outages
* Aircon
* Have to use your own equipment often
* Pay for the bandwidth used out your own pocket in other words no compensation for the overheads incurred, so the benefit is somewhat negated
* Difficulty in getting assistance
* Resentment from management, often this working from home thing is the first thing to be blamed when there's a productivity issue.

 

[[)roi(]]

Working from home always sounds like nirvana; but in practice it takes a lot of discipline to get the balance right; for example; segmentation: work when it's easy to get distracted by home priorities and "be in home mode" when it's too easy to extend work hours chasing a challenging problem.