- Commuting, public transit even in big cities leaves room for improvement.
- The open office plan. The last several offices I worked in. My laptop was pretty much right next to an adjacent co-workers. Chair to chair arms scraping.
- None of my adjacent co-workers were on my team. They were all managers for out sourced teams. In a different time zones.
- If I did need to collaborate with another team lead, there were no meeting rooms. And the wide open office space and high noise made it hard to communicate.
- My upper management, i.e. who I reported too. Worked from home most of the week. We couldn't do one on ones, or I couldn't talk to them. Because of no available meeting rooms, and as mentioned noise constraints in the open office space.
- Cost of living, why would I take the same pay in a city with four times the rent cost. With less space and amenities. When I could make the same amount remotely, and pay less rent.
As a remote employee. I can easily synchronize and work with my co-workers. No worrying about meeting rooms, or back ground noise.
I have a proper desk, and work area for development.
I can work in the environment that works best for me. Whether it's at home, or in a coffee shop researching.
I feel trusted and not micro-managed.
I don't need to stress about errands, and other daily activities.
If I do need face to face with my co-workers. We travel and see each other for in person sessions, very rare.
I'm not against on site, or in office. I'm just not interested in traveling over twenty minutes one way to work. For a non optimal office environment. That makes me less productive, than if I was at home.
It's not for everyone, and trying to fit it all one way won't work.
The other issue is tooling, and processes. Investing in the proper communication tools, zoom, slack, etc. Then having a strong documentation, and less tribal knowledge. Making it easier to work from any where.
The hard part is finding remote jobs.
The last architecture / design I wrote. Was done from my phone while waiting at the DMV.