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Comment by yodsanklai | Hacker News Reader

I work remotely.

I've noticed that one thing that make me work harder than in an office, is that I feel that I need to earn the trust that my employer gives me. In an office, sometimes I feel that just being there is enough to justify my salary, even if I'm just chatting with colleagues or browsing the web. I discipline myself better when I work remotely.

Another thing that makes a difference for me: I suffer from back pain when sitting in a chair for too long. At my place, I can lie down if needed.

On the downside, I suffer from being far from where decisions are taken, and I sometimes miss important information.

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> On the downside, I suffer from being far from where decisions are taken

And your employer suffers from your lack of input in those decisions.

That may or may not have consequences for them but almost always will hurt the employee's career.

Yea, I've also noticed that I'm actually way more responsive working remotely because I overcompensate to signal that I'm available and working (or at least not slacking off). The fact that I'm in a totally opposite timezone makes me further want to ensure the high degree of trust. I'll immediately respond to Slack messages I get even at 2am if I still happen to be awake.

Meanwhile when I was working in an office, I felt that Slack messages were often a distraction that pulled me out of my flow state. I felt that if it were really that important or urgent (it rarely is), then they'd just come to my desk and tap me on the shoulder.

Looks like "working harder to compensate for not being there" is a common theme among us remote workers.

By the way, regarding:

> I suffer from back pain when sitting in a chair for too long. At my place, I can lie down if needed.

I suggest wearing a smartwatch that will notify you when you have been inactive for at least an hour. Try to do a couple minutes of stretches or bodyweight exercises when you get the notification. I see the opportunity to be able to squeeze in tiny amounts of exercise as another benefit of working remotely.

This was exactly my experience too, but I would gladly do remote again still. No chance of "advancement" within the company though for remotes.

My personal experience with lying down to work is that it feels good in the short term, but causes problems in the long term (increased pain).

I have no data to back this claim, but I can provide this single data point.

I completely agree with both your other points about trust/discipline and important decisions though.

I believe there are many studies, even posted here that lying down < Sitting < Standing < Walking. Lying down for long periods of time is worse for you. (sleeping excluded). Less activity with the body = worse for the body.

One good way to make sure you're not straining any part of the body too much is to have multiple confortable positions that you can change from along the day.

The ultimate good-for-you background activity would probably be some movement equivalent to climbing a tree (pumps your whole lymphatic system; suspected of being a causal factor of the health of people in “Blue zones”, as said zones all contain a lot of orchard workers; something our bodies probably expect us to do a lot of, given our evolutionary roots; etc.)