Ask HN: What are the top pains of being a remote worker?
50 comments
1) Working out of my bedroom. I think a lot of people forget that some people simply don't have the living space to make a home office or can't go out (accessibility issues) in a way that a proper office allowed. By far the hardest psychological part of Covid to deal with; I have a lot more empathy for prisoners in solitary confinement now. Going out once a month is not what the body/mind was meant to have.
2) Not having the work social circle and chatter. I consider myself an introvert but I still find myself missing the short conversations in the open office and in the hallways that often led to new ideas implemented, quick checkups, social integrity.
3) Not having work equipment. I'm a designer. Been able to work off of the laptop fairly well, but I miss our (specialized) printers deeply.
2) Not having the work social circle and chatter. I consider myself an introvert but I still find myself missing the short conversations in the open office and in the hallways that often led to new ideas implemented, quick checkups, social integrity.
3) Not having work equipment. I'm a designer. Been able to work off of the laptop fairly well, but I miss our (specialized) printers deeply.
1) That's true! Maybe after Covid is over, going to a coworking space for to work will be better for remote workers
2) Did you find anything to solve this? I have this as well
3) This seems like a tough issue to solve
2) Did you find anything to solve this? I have this as well
3) This seems like a tough issue to solve
Have you gone to meetups or hobby classes?
Not yet! The pandemic is still strong here so need to wait a bit until we can do that
- Family interruptions
- Family thinking that you actually don't work and instead thinking they can schedule tons of things to do while you're supposed to be working
- No boundaries in terms of when work ends and begins
- Not leaving the house enough; eg getting tired of being home all the time
- Family thinking that you actually don't work and instead thinking they can schedule tons of things to do while you're supposed to be working
- No boundaries in terms of when work ends and begins
- Not leaving the house enough; eg getting tired of being home all the time
No kids here, and my wife works most weekdays as well (but out of the house, in a cubicle farm mostly answering calls so well isolated) so the first 2 points aren't a big issue for me.
- No boundaries in terms of when work ends and begins
I really struggled with this throughout last year. By the end of the year, though, I'd set up a home gym (this requires space, I have a basement rec room that was near perfect) and that became my end of day space. At 4:30pm I put on socks and gym shoes and go down there and exercise for 30-90 minutes every day (with spring and summer part of that was moved outside for running). I was no longer finding myself still at my work computer at 6pm, or turning it on at 7pm to see if I'd gotten responses to certain emails from people in other timezones. My day simply ended. It also helped to elevate my mood and reduce my anxiety as I was getting into better health.
It's still hard to do with kids, and again you have to have the space for it. But it can work very well if you can pull it off. Even just getting out for a 30-minute run or walk after work is a nice disruption to help separate the work day from the non-work day (that was my routine when I worked in the office but couldn't stop thinking and stressing about work after the work day officially ended and I went home).
- No boundaries in terms of when work ends and begins
I really struggled with this throughout last year. By the end of the year, though, I'd set up a home gym (this requires space, I have a basement rec room that was near perfect) and that became my end of day space. At 4:30pm I put on socks and gym shoes and go down there and exercise for 30-90 minutes every day (with spring and summer part of that was moved outside for running). I was no longer finding myself still at my work computer at 6pm, or turning it on at 7pm to see if I'd gotten responses to certain emails from people in other timezones. My day simply ended. It also helped to elevate my mood and reduce my anxiety as I was getting into better health.
It's still hard to do with kids, and again you have to have the space for it. But it can work very well if you can pull it off. Even just getting out for a 30-minute run or walk after work is a nice disruption to help separate the work day from the non-work day (that was my routine when I worked in the office but couldn't stop thinking and stressing about work after the work day officially ended and I went home).
Boundaries are tough! But this is good advice.
I've also seen that working days have increased in liquid hours, as it's easier to just go and "check your emails" in the night
I've also seen that working days have increased in liquid hours, as it's easier to just go and "check your emails" in the night
Being stuck in a room all day then going home to the same place gets a bit crap. Also never meeting the people I work with face to face. Takes so much longer to build up a bond with colleagues. I think people are starting to realise now that 100% remote working isn’t always amazing and has some downsides.
That's a good point! 100% remote is tough because you need other things to build relationships than just emails/slack messages
Living with people that don't understand or appreciate the fact that you're working, even though you're at home.
Especially when they're on holidays and want to relax and play music - impossible to work on some days
Especially if they don't actually understand that you need to focus to do your work
Funny how no one mentioned how hard it is when one adds a 2 year old child to the equation. My partner didn't get wfh and I was left to look after our little one on my own, when the childcare was prohibited due to lockdown. Really hard to get anything done if you can't focus for more than 10 minutes.
I think you’d be in the same situation if you brought the 2yr old to your office?
So maybe this is a challenge because of lack of childcare rather than working from home vs in an office building?
So maybe this is a challenge because of lack of childcare rather than working from home vs in an office building?
WFH is hard without kids, can't even imagine how tough it is with children.
A woman I spoke to mentioned that pandemic remote work is nothing compared to actual remote work, where you have your kids in childcare
A woman I spoke to mentioned that pandemic remote work is nothing compared to actual remote work, where you have your kids in childcare
Isn't this only due to the lockdown?
My biggest pain was my wife got sick of me after 12 years and divorced me
If I had to do it over again I'd find other WFH people in my area and rent a space where we could hang out and get our work done, like a hacker space. That leaves me in control of my working environment while providing some separation from home.
If I had to do it over again I'd find other WFH people in my area and rent a space where we could hang out and get our work done, like a hacker space. That leaves me in control of my working environment while providing some separation from home.
...I think you failed to identity the issue, because uh, your solution in the "if I could do it again" is, well, flawed. It's like you discovered an edge case that leads to catastrophic failure, and went "I'm going to rerun the test in a way that doesn't crash, and ship that shit, marriage.exe is ready for production.
If you'd like to go over all the issues involved in the failure of my marriage, I have a book length amount of journal entries we could go over in private messages. Maybe you would get more out of that.
Hacker space seems like an awesome idea. I've wanted to have something like that, maybe coworking spaces is the closest thing we currently have?
They exist now, but back then they didn't. I would have had to invent one. I think they are a great idea.
Currently:
1. I can't handle one of my work colleagues who is an awful awful man and instead of powering through it like I used to I've become borderline phobic of going into the office at all ever. Also because everyone else is working from home if I do go in I'm there with him on my own.
2. I can handle my work/home boundaries and when to switch off at the end of the day but other people can't or choose not to and they end up acting inappropriately, for example by messaging me work queries through personal social media at 11pm or using a work query as a trojan horse to start a more casual conversation I otherwise wouldn't have with them. This was always simmering in the background but there is definitely a new layer of entitlement since March 2020.
3. Increase in pressure to do things like work drinks
4. More difficult to get ahold of other people who are also working from home
Previously:
4. I worked from home a few years ago and had issues with people thinking that meant I wasn't working at all and they could schedule things for me or with me, or otherwise easily attention seek. This was a good catalyst for me to spot that these people saboutaged me across all areas of my life and I got rid of them and things are so much more peaceful now. What I am left with now is the people in my life like this that i can't so easily shake - tradesmen for my landlord dicking me about and my alcoholic neighbour.
1. I can't handle one of my work colleagues who is an awful awful man and instead of powering through it like I used to I've become borderline phobic of going into the office at all ever. Also because everyone else is working from home if I do go in I'm there with him on my own.
2. I can handle my work/home boundaries and when to switch off at the end of the day but other people can't or choose not to and they end up acting inappropriately, for example by messaging me work queries through personal social media at 11pm or using a work query as a trojan horse to start a more casual conversation I otherwise wouldn't have with them. This was always simmering in the background but there is definitely a new layer of entitlement since March 2020.
3. Increase in pressure to do things like work drinks
4. More difficult to get ahold of other people who are also working from home
Previously:
4. I worked from home a few years ago and had issues with people thinking that meant I wasn't working at all and they could schedule things for me or with me, or otherwise easily attention seek. This was a good catalyst for me to spot that these people saboutaged me across all areas of my life and I got rid of them and things are so much more peaceful now. What I am left with now is the people in my life like this that i can't so easily shake - tradesmen for my landlord dicking me about and my alcoholic neighbour.
- Same predictable working environment every day
- Feeling disconnected from my company and team
- Lack of physical/ face to face human interaction
- Reduced motivation
- Lack of spontaneous opportunities to meet new people, learn from others and socialise
I try to work from (SE) a different environment at least 3-4 days a week (Coffee shop, shared workspace etc, I head there after I've had lunch) and it really makes a difference for me - The small price of a couple of filer coffee's is definitely worth it.
- Feeling disconnected from my company and team
- Lack of physical/ face to face human interaction
- Reduced motivation
- Lack of spontaneous opportunities to meet new people, learn from others and socialise
I try to work from (SE) a different environment at least 3-4 days a week (Coffee shop, shared workspace etc, I head there after I've had lunch) and it really makes a difference for me - The small price of a couple of filer coffee's is definitely worth it.
Working in a different environment seems like a good idea! How do you solve the disconnected feeling from your company and team?
Also reduced motivation is tough. Are you seeing anything that might help with this?
Also reduced motivation is tough. Are you seeing anything that might help with this?
Yeah it really helps. I rotate through a few different spots throughout the week (3 coffee shops, 2 workspaces and my gym clubhouse) I find it helpful to change scenery and be around other people, albeit the majority of them I don't know.
For me there's something about being in a place with others that keeps me concentrated and focused on the tasks at hand, breaking up the monotony of working from the same room at home every day.
I try to have very regular calls with my team and arrange days to meet and work together from a location we can all get to with relative ease, along with full team meet ups at least every month.
RE lack of motivation, I think it's more of a company culture issue rather than WFH itself.
For me there's something about being in a place with others that keeps me concentrated and focused on the tasks at hand, breaking up the monotony of working from the same room at home every day.
I try to have very regular calls with my team and arrange days to meet and work together from a location we can all get to with relative ease, along with full team meet ups at least every month.
RE lack of motivation, I think it's more of a company culture issue rather than WFH itself.
I'm like you in the sense of having regular calls with the team. At least for me, it's important.
Also the lack of motivation because of company culture, what do you mean by that?
Also the lack of motivation because of company culture, what do you mean by that?
Muddled mental TODO lists.
In my apartment I can never quite switch over to work mode. I just think about cleaning my bathroom or going for a walk or doing the core workout I meant to do yesterday. At best I can inject "Implement feature x" into the same list, but I can't fully flush the home stuff. Which means I do much less work stuff.
In my apartment I can never quite switch over to work mode. I just think about cleaning my bathroom or going for a walk or doing the core workout I meant to do yesterday. At best I can inject "Implement feature x" into the same list, but I can't fully flush the home stuff. Which means I do much less work stuff.
Yeah, I get that. Do you have an office in your house?
(1) Camaraderie
(2) Interruptions/distractions
(3) Can you hear me? Well, oh sorry didn't mean to interrupt. What are you saying? Let me whiteboard this...okay need to share this window, now that...
(2) Interruptions/distractions
(3) Can you hear me? Well, oh sorry didn't mean to interrupt. What are you saying? Let me whiteboard this...okay need to share this window, now that...
Having had no chance to meet in person so far. At my last job, there was a remote group that treated us better after we met them in person. That seems to be quite common.
So you met them remotely and then in person? Was it an off-site?
Remotely, and then in person. We had a mix of meetings and social gatherings.
I guess 100% remote plus a few social gatherings in a year seems good
I've been working remotely since 2012 and am 99% satisfied with my setup.
Having said that, I do have something to add to the list: since going fully-remote the amount of after-hours social time with colleagues has dropped categorically. This is not entirely a bad thing, of course, but it has resulted in fewer chips and salsa/queso sessions (and that is a pain).
Having said that, I do have something to add to the list: since going fully-remote the amount of after-hours social time with colleagues has dropped categorically. This is not entirely a bad thing, of course, but it has resulted in fewer chips and salsa/queso sessions (and that is a pain).
All written communication inherently seems passive aggressive. There is a lot more to communication than words.
Personally, I feel like I can do written communication without being passive aggressive.
Agreed. The p/a is an indicator of personal characteristics and team characteristics.
My team’s written communication is crystal clear. Anything with more emotional overtones gets a zoom call.
My team’s written communication is crystal clear. Anything with more emotional overtones gets a zoom call.
Did you learn this in any way? Or just naturally?
I see no real pain but if I rank the small issues, the top ones would be:
1) Meetings
2) have to work on a beautiful sunny day
3) have to work
1) Meetings
2) have to work on a beautiful sunny day
3) have to work
1) Having to work with in-office people. In the pandemic, this has translated to teams of people who still have an "in-office" way of communicating and organizing despite us all being remote.
Yeah, this is a huge issue. People haven't realized that working remotely is different - I think this is an adaption thing and soon it'll change. Do you?
I think on a scale of years, yes. But it requires churn. I work with a team that hasn't had any turnover since their office days and they behave the same. I'm talking 1-2 hours of Zoom calls with 8 engineers M-Th most weeks.
Only one person can talk on Zoom at once..the project is going slower and they don't know why.
Only one person can talk on Zoom at once..the project is going slower and they don't know why.
Wow! Did you suggest a change?
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Are you in theUK
No, why?
You mentioned having to pay for your own benefits. I know that was common about 5 years ago with remote work in the US, but companies like Trinet are filling the gaps
Ah! This is good to know. Have you used them?
1) Timezones is a problem if teammates are in different countries and you want to have a meeting
2) Trust is also difficult to establish for new teammates.
2) Trust is also difficult to establish for new teammates.
How do you deal with the trust question? That's an interesting problem
hi @nowherebeen, this is really interesting. What is the issue exactly with the timezones?
As everyone got a taste of working remotely, a lot more attention got brought to these types of questions.
In my case, my biggest pains are:
1) Feeling part of the company and engaging with other employees
2) Having to pay for my own benefits (in my company, I need to get them myself)
3) Getting good wifi depending on where I am