Ask HN: Remote work just doesn't work? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Remote work just doesn't work?

6 pointslehtu9 comments

This is something that I hear a lot. I live in Finland and I work as a developer. Many companies, co-workers and colleagues repeat the same thing "remote work just doesn't work". I'm sick of hearing this. It is extremely hard to find work as a developer with remote option in Finland. Common case is that remote work has been experienced in the company before and one person exploited it badly. Because of that one person, one single bad experience now no one is privileged to do any work as remote.

I really want to hear what experiences of remote work you guys have, does it work? And how to make it work? Next time some one makes that claim, I want to be prepared!

ps: I'm mainly talking about 100% remote work, not only 1-3 days in a week.

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My current start-up doesn't have an office. A bunch of us tend to meet about 1 day per week (because there are some things which face-to-face helps with). Two of us are tens of miles apart and others are in another country and indeed travelling.

My previous start-up had a biggish remote office thousands of miles away, which I intermittently managed, but not really a fixed base for me.

In fact, I haven't really had a paid separate 'office' for about 20 years, and I seem to be doing OK as are my businesses.

So, to claim that remote working does not work is wrong.

Note: I've also worked with charlatans in two companies who were nominally 'in the office' but ripping off the employer. One had the misfortune to apply to work full time (and be accepted) for two of my clients and end up sat next to me at both. That didn't last long! The point is that 'not remote' is no guarantee of success either!

Thanks for your answer! That's quite true that 'not remote' isn't guarantee of anyhting either.

What I have been talking with ppl, there is few other questions in the air about remote working. How do you track that everyone does their job, or dont. How you can know they actually do something and doesn't outsource it. If job is testing or research how can you track that job is really done. And the most common question is "how can you know that they actually do 8 hours per day?"

Do you have anything to share on these question? Tools or good practices?

Making sure that work is being done remotely is not much different than in the office, unless it's something physical like making pies which you can see. I can see updates in a repo as easily 1000 miles away as sitting next to the person doing the work.

I also don't care about 8 hours per day, I care about outcomes. I also am happy to pay by the hour or the day or whatever is appropriate.

In fact I am nominally the only person in my current business nominally doing 8h per day, and it really doesn't matter as long as the right goals are achieved.

Words of wisdom! That's very true that repos are good way to know if someone is doing anything or not. Also I like the idea that the result counts, not only hours spent itself. I'm afraid that most of the companies in Finland are too conservative for this new way of thinking..

Those questions apply equally to in office employees.

Spot on! But for some reason no one is asking those questions when speaking about work done in the office. Weird isn't it?

I've just returned from a charity programming event and there are many companies I know of from there and elsewhere who successfully have fully or partially built remote teams.

In my experience as a remote developer it works out well, but the one draw back is it takes much more time to develop good rapport with people when you're not communicating in person.

My biggest suggestion is trusted referrals. People will trust a remote developer more if the person they were referred by is already some one they trust. I was hired to program in a language I'd never heard of because of a glowing referral from an old friend and that ended up working out well.

Thanks for the answer!

Trusted referrals sound good, but I think it works only if company is already open minded for remote work. In the other hand if developer is so good and good referrals it might work.

Can you share was there remote workers in the company before you?

In that specific case it was contract work. I'm unaware of others there.

I have 3 to 4 companies lined up now for a position that prefer remote work. One is a government contractor company as well so clearly they find that as an acceptable option. These opportunities were made possible by employees of the companies at the charity programming event being there to recruit more employees.

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