Thoughts from an established remote worker

[#1]

As a part of a team who was already mostly remote, the biggest challenge for me was explaining to "in office" staff how my team was able to be so effective, and why I chose to invest so much time in getting to know fellow team mates and their families. 

I am so happy to see companies now understanding the power of real human connection, and in embracing us to share our real "whole" selves with our peers, and learning how tooling can help level the playing field and empower teams to work better, regardless of location. 

#embrace-remote for life!

[Rachel Wright]

I too am an established remote worker.  I've rotated from working from home, then working in an office, and then back to both again, many times now.  It was always interesting to see who can embrace the remote idea and who can't fathom how work can possibly be completed in this manner.

I can say for certain that I'm MORE productive from home.  When I go into the office, there's constant time hijacking.  I waste time commuting, walking to meetings, getting sucked in to not so productive hallway conversations, etc.  None of that happens at home and I'm able to focus for long periods of time without interruption.

I hope recent events show employers that remote work is possible, preferable, and even profitable! 

#embrace-remote

[summer.hogan]

I also have a lot of experience working remotely. I agree Jeff that people just don't believe it until they see it. I recently moved from a full time remote job to an almost full time work in the office job, where they tried numerous times to implement a part time remote program, but the CEO was so against it, it never happened. Now, that we were forced to do it and the CEO and executives have learned how to use remote tools they actually like it and think it is efficient. It should not make a difference the location in which you do a job like we do. As long as you keep the lines of communication open, have responsible employees and foster a teamwork environment it will work. 

#embrace-remote

[Lua_Boschman__Comalatech_]

I've worked remotely or semi-remote for a few years now, and definitely prefer it. Not only is it more efficient in my experience, but it has saved me hundreds of hours of commute time and allows my family to be a one-car family.

A client recently spoke with us about the transition from server, where updates can be validated carefully over time, to Cloud where updates are too fast and frequent to validate in the same way. They were experiencing a culture shift of accepting a more intangible reality as equally valid. I think remote working is the same sort of shift, and one we are making across many fronts of our society.