Jobs offering developers the flexibility to work from home are rarely published on job sites. So how is it that you landed your work-from-home gig? Is it worth it?
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A:
The time i got to work from home, I was lucky. It turns out they downsized the office where I was and the IT people kept their jobs. It was really nice for a while. I got a lot done, but after a bit you start to realize that you really don't interact with anyone. It can get to you. The other thing I realized is that I would stop taking breaks. I quite often would just skip breakfast and lunch and keep working. It's a double edged sword. It's nice to be able to take the short commute from the bed room to your office, but at the same time there are drawbacks.
I know other people have said the same thing as well. I remember talking to a consultant about it, and she said that she had to force herself to shower and get dressed, becuase there was little motivation to do so other wise on a daily basis.
Kevin
2008-11-14 13:47:54
I find that working from home, I skip lunch less than I ever did in the office. Here I just walk into the kitchen, in an office, I had to stop working, drive somewhere, order, drive back... I used to skip lunch all the time in the office but not now that I'm home.
Andrew Van Slaars
2008-11-14 13:50:23
I guess the thing for me is that eating is a social time. I go out to lunch with people most times, so when no one is around, I just keep working.
Kevin
2008-11-14 15:56:12
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A:
I worked for the company five days a week for five years. Then I asked if I could work from home one day a week to reduce mileage on my car (5 years old, 200K+ km).
Basically I didn't ask until I made made myself indispensable. :-)
Graeme Perrow
2008-11-14 13:52:13
Wouldn't you say you earned your employer's trust? No one is indispensable.
mattruma
2008-11-14 14:09:06
+1
A:
It can be worth it if you'd be otherwise working in a noisy environment (hard to hit "The Zone") and if you are doing it part time. I wouldn't really want to do it full time unless you've got other means of keeping in touch with the rest of the people in the office. You'll miss out too much on the unscheduled, informal communication. That said, I do work from home from time to time but only ever for a few days in one go.
As to finding it, unless the job is already specc'ed as having telecommuting, you'd need to convince people that you're not going to goof off/play WoW/surf for pr0n while you're supposed to work. The best way I found to accomplish that is start working the odd day from home, be productive and slowly ramp it up.
Timo Geusch
2008-11-14 13:56:32
A:
Just work in a work environment whose culture is open to that. In smaller companies that have limited space, resources, and don't need constant face-to-face interaction, it is easier to pull off than in a larger environment.
One option is to do four 10-hour days -- especially if the current working arrangement has all developers leaving at the same time -- since it would allow for more coverage.
Lastly, it's not the Dot-Com era. The economy sucks. If you're doing consulting and paving your own way, you have some flexibility, but don't expect normal corporate gigs to be open to the idea beyond maybe one day at home.
Kevin Fairchild
2008-11-14 14:05:16
Depends on the company, though. The place I'm consulting at will let you do the odd day from home, some friends of mine who work in the same industry have employers who actively encourage and support working from home with the odd day in the office.
Timo Geusch
2008-11-14 15:52:19
+7
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I quit my regular job abruptly, and when my company wanted me to stay involved in projects as an hourly consultant, I demanded a rate that I was sure was too large for them to accept, along with the work-from-home thing.
They accepted. I'm wearing pajamas right now.
MusiGenesis
2008-11-14 14:10:24
+5
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I got my start by volunteering on an open source software project. Eventually I was approached with some contracting offers that used the software. It was all remote work and I quit my job and started contracting full time. That lasted for six months at which point I was hired full-time by one of the companies that I was contracting for.
Moral of the story: open source software can make you money.
dowski
2008-11-14 14:16:28
That's almost exactly the same as my experiences except I went straight from open-source volunteering to full-time.
Mike McQuaid
2009-09-17 22:29:05
A:
I had the opportunity to work from home one day a week for a period of 4 months. It was a pilot program and I was among the few selected to see if it works. To answer your question, I was selected because management trusted me.
I found that working from home was initially pleasant. No traffic. More flexibility to complete errands during lunch and before/after work. Fewer interruptions.
On the flip side, I found coding to be more difficult due to network latency and the company's solution for remote access. The cursor couldn't keep up with my typing. I also felt disconnected from the office. There would be announcements, staff meetings, funny events, etc. that I would miss out on. Long term I imagine this would negatively impact one's career.
In the end, we had a management change and the pilot was killed.
Mayo
2009-08-27 19:11:58
A:
A friend of mine does allot of work for www.freelancer.com it seems pretty legit. Read some review on it online and decide for yourself. Im gonna give it a try myself soon.