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Comment by chasd00 | Hacker News Reader

I've been remote for about 5 years now. Once thing often overlooked is the perception of working remote by significant others. It took a handful of fights with my wife until we came to an understanding that from 8-5 i'm at work, even though I'm home, I'm still at work. Granted, there's give and take like with all things in a marriage but when I "leave" for work and shut the office door I may as well be 30miles away in an office building until 5.

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I've been working remote from home for 15 of the past 18 years.

Taking it a step further, the biggest problem with "my door is shut, I'm at work" is that I sometimes need to open my door. Perhaps for lunch or a snack. Or just to stretch my legs and think. Just because my family sees me wandering around the house doesn't mean I'm available.

I've found that it works best to have my wife & kids email me questions/info/thoughts even though we're in the same house. I can then respond when I'm available. Sometimes via email or sometimes by initiating a conversation.

Ha! I was working remote yesterday from my couch for a portion of the day. My wife wanted me to go to the store with her and her justification was "you're just playing on the computer"

As someone who’s not married it also isn’t good for relationships in general. Staying home all day basically makes you the least interesting person in the world. You never have any crazy stories, weird colleagues, office romances, and whatever else normal people talk about. How do you answer “how was your day” and make it interesting?

I know I'm unusual about this, but I really try to keep my conversations away from simply just normal happenings. I recognize this is probably a necessity to share our days, but I value people that speak about ideas more.

Yeah, I work remote and I don't talk to people about my job at all other than to describe it if they ask. Frankly my job sounds boring and the industry I'm in is totally unglamorous so the less I say the better. I'd rather talk about all the stuff I do outside of work.

For the record I love my job and the company I'm with.

So just discuss non-computer related stories from HN...

My wife also works from home which makes it all good, but, during the 26 years working from home, I indeed had girlfriends who thought; great, he is home let’s go do something fun! Explaining it does not work like that is tiresome, I mean, what is so hard to understand? Also many people actually believe I am on some kind of permanent vacation. Which I find weird too as I am a hard worker and usually spend more rather than less time working than they do, but they have to go to an office so it feels more real.

I'm starting a remote position on Monday, and my wife and I have had a similar conversation. I've portrayed it in similar ways: when I'm working, it should be the same as if I were still at my downtown office; but I can teleport home instantly if there is a true emergency.

Oh the luxury. I live in London. No way I could afford a dedicated office room. I settle for the corner of my living room, with a good pair of noise cancelling headphones which indicate "I'm working". Seems to work, most of the time.

Seconding this. I've worked from home for 16 years(my whole life).

I've taken to asking my SO to treat it like I'm at an office, and not home at all. A lot of discussions end in "is that something you could do during your work day?"

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