working from home
d^2
i'm just curious how many of you folks work from home. (telecommute
style, not just once in a while). it seemed like there were a few.
i've been doing it for a couple months now, and i have mixed feelings
about it. just curious how others are faring.
Greg Brand
It's pretty isolating to work from home. My company rents its extra offices to three different people who could work from home but much prefer the camaraderie of having other people around. Interesting exchanges of ideas happen around the water cooler-- silly but true.
The VT Software Developers Alliance recently rented space from the VT Center for Emerging Technology at their second building at Exit 16 in Colchester. (Disclosure: I'm on the Board of VTSDA.) The space includes individual offices that VTSDA intends to offer to solos or small companies. I think the rent is likely to be around $350 per month. The VTSDA gets little or no financial benefit, it's a pass through, it's just a way to help developers with cabin fever ;-) Feel free to spread the word, and contact me if you want more info.
Greg Brand
Matthew Weier O'Phinney
I've been telecommuting for 3.5 years now. I'm in a rather unique
situation -- both teams I've been on in that time frame have been
geographically distributed (one team was spread between multiple
locations in the US and Israel, the other covers just about every
timezone), and being in an office would have kept me in contact with at
most one or two co-workers on my team.
As such, I've grown accustomed to using other media for communication:
* Email, of course
* IRC and IM for more synchronous communication
* Skype for phone calls. I use this daily, and it's a great way to
exchange ideas, particularly when brainstorming or doing code
reviews.
Due to my situation, I'd be using these same media regardless of whether
or not I'm in the office. In a way, telecommuting actually is easier,
because I'm using these media exclusively.
I typically have a chance to get together in person with the teams I
work with 2-3 times a year. These are invaluable for establishing good
interpersonal relationships, and for helping identify how different
vocal tones might connote meaning as well (useful for those skype
calls).
Being out of the office has some good benefits: fewer distractions while
coding, the ability to actually _turn off_ distractions when necessary
(disabling mail notification, turning off IRC, IM, skype, etc), and
isoloation from office politics. It can also add some drawbacks -- you
don't get the office gossip or the ability to gauge the health of the
company in the same way as when you're present in the office. For the
most part, this hasn't been problematic for me.
That said -- I do often miss being present with people in person. This
is why I attend the user group meetings. I also try to meet with former
co-workers and friends on occasion to keep some human contact in my
life. Conferences are also a great opportunity for me to meet with my
peers and contributors, which, again, helps put a more human spin on the
online relationships I have.
--
Matthew Weier O'Phinney
mweiero...@gmail.com
http://weierophinney.net/matthew/
jsled
> I've been telecommuting for 3.5 years now. I'm in a rather unique
I have been for … 5.5 years, now.
Originally I was the only person remote from a startup, of a
development team around 6 people. It sometimes took extra effort to
stay in the loop. We hadn't adopted IRC at that point, but we should
have done so earlier; I think people in the office still liked having
a quiet developer back-channel. Where I'm at now, everyone's remote;
that's nice as we all know the challenges/accommodations that go with
the work-from-home practice.
Everything Matthew said is spot on.
> Being out of the office has some good benefits: fewer distractions while
> coding, the ability to actually _turn off_ distractions when necessary
> (disabling mail notification, turning off IRC, IM, skype, etc), and
> isoloation from office politics. It can also add some drawbacks -- you
> don't get the office gossip or the ability to gauge the health of the
> company in the same way as when you're present in the office. For the
> most part, this hasn't been problematic for me.
otherwise co-located group. You don't get to share in either the
highs or the lows.
On a slightly unrelated note, at the end of a job I had years ago, a
few of us isolated ourselves in one of our coworker's house during the
days to collaborate on an intensive project. It was nice to get out
of the office, immerse in the project at hand, &c. It happened that
the company was kinda death spiraling at the time, so it was
especially nice to get out of the psychically depressing mood around
the office, too. When we'd come back in for one day a week, people
were clearly very dreary; who'd want to be around that?
--
…jsled
syosoft
Being around my daughter for the first years of her life far outweighs
any water-cooler banter. After 7 years of working exclusively from my
various apartments, I finally rented out office space on Church
street. The goal of the office was to mingle with others in the
business, but the reality has been very different. Unless I start
doing some major local business, I see no need to keep the office.
Just my 2c.
r...@bigyellowtech.com
working space. This would be a place sort of between an office and a
coffee shop for people who telecommute and/or work on their own.
The benefit would be to provide some of that social interaction and
cross-pollination to local workers who otherwise wouldn't change out
of their sweats (ask me how I know (-; ). The drawback would be that
there would be a cost to it.
Is anyone here interested in knowing more?
Been working mostly remotely for almost 2 years. It has its benefits
and drawbacks, mostly discussed above. But I do miss the
collaborative environment. Sometimes working side-by-side with
someone is simply much more effective.
For me the jury is still out on co-working spaces but if there was one
I would probably try it out.
Rob
David Walsh
in building the business but that is about to change as we hire people. My
dogs will be very sad to hear that but we are hoping to maintain the home
base mentality that work and other priorities like your life or wife should
be integrated and not segmented.
Anyway, I think a coop style work space for independents would be ideal for
the model STG has in mind. One tenent is the base rent and facilitator and
home base people can come and go with a minimal rent sharing burden. I could
then as needed have a Large pipe to the virtual world instead my silly
satilite.
Sounds very Vermonty.
This is the model VCET often uses and apparently Blue House as well.
DWalsh
-----Original Message-----
From: Burlingt...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:Burlingt...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of r...@riggen.org
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 7:02 AM
To: Burlington, VT PHP Users Group
Subject: [Burlington-VT-PHP:350] Re: working from home
I spoke with someone recently who is beginning to look into co-
Rene Churchill
got too used to seeing me still in my bathrobe at 11am. The two biggest
problems were lack of social contact with anybody else and lack of a
barrier between work and home life. I was living alone at the time and
found myself eating out of a pot at my desk and checking my email 'one
more time' at 10pm.
I found a cheap office in downtown Waterbury and found that I was able
to be a lot more productive there, especially in billing hours because
of the division between work and the distractions of home life. Having
my wife-to-be move in with me was also a big help towards wanting that
separation between home & work life.
There wasn't anybody else techy in the office space, it was just nice
to chat with somebody else over lunch. The 3 offices on that floor
would all have lunch together. If you do have the chance to share
office space with another programmer, it's a real help with those
problems that just need somebody else's eyes. Half the time you
spot the problem while you're explaining the code to them, but it
helps to have that other viewpoint.
I'm in an office environment now and prefer it. In fact I wish my
commute was longer than the piddly mile it is. There isn't enough
time to clear my head from the work problems before I get home and
walk into all of the home stuff.
Rene
d^2
i even make sure i take a shower and am dressed before i sit down to
work.
definitely tough not being around people all day, though. phone calls
just aren't as random and spur of the moment as an in person
conversation.
i might consider shared space, but my concerns would be cost and
"subscription" -- if i come a couple times and don't like it, can i
stop coming? what if i decide there are only a couple months of the
year i really want to come? etc.
On Mar 28, 9:02 am, Rene Churchill <rene.church...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I worked from home for a couple of years. Enjoyed it but the mailman
> got too used to seeing me still in my bathrobe at 11am. The two biggest
> problems were lack of social contact with anybody else and lack of a
> barrier between work and home life. I was living alone at the time and
> found myself eating out of a pot at my desk and checking my email 'one
> more time' at 10pm.
>
> I found a cheap office in downtown Waterbury and found that I was able
> to be a lot more productive there, especially in billing hours because
> of the division between work and the distractions of home life. Having
> my wife-to-be move in with me was also a big help towards wanting that
> separation between home & work life.
>
> There wasn't anybody else techy in the office space, it was just nice
> to chat with somebody else over lunch. The 3 offices on that floor
> would all have lunch together. If you do have the chance to share
> office space with another programmer, it's a real help with those
> problems that just need somebody else's eyes. Half the time you
> spot the problem while you're explaining the code to them, but it
> helps to have that other viewpoint.
>
> I'm in an office environment now and prefer it. In fact I wish my
> commute was longer than the piddly mile it is. There isn't enough
> time to clear my head from the work problems before I get home and
> walk into all of the home stuff.
>
> Rene
>