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Comment by BeetleB | Hacker News Reader

This is amusing. Not long ago I was in a thread about how to do remote work well and the top complaint amongst remote workers was "not responding quickly to IM" (between remote workers). And the general sentiment was the expectation to respond quickly is greater in remote work. That alone made me not want to take remote jobs. At my current work place, my IM status says that whoever IM's me should not expect a response and that if their query is urgent, they should simply walk over to my cube and talk (I don't mind). If not urgent, they should email.

The other thing that came out of that thread was "If you're remote and don't respond quickly enough, people assume you're slacking off - while in the office people visibly slack off all the time and it's considered OK".

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I worked with both types of people.

Funny thing is, when I am a freelancer, who gets paid much more money per hour than an employee, people valued my time and would send me mails or text messages and wait hours or days for an answer,.

When I was an remote employee, people paid me less and called me three times before 10am.

Somehow, many employers have the perception to own every minute their employees are awake.

I would never go back to such a work culture.

> Somehow, many employers have the perception to own every minute their employees are awake.

This is increasingly true from my perspective as well. Not sure if I was willingly unaware or what.

> Somehow, many employers have the perception to own every minute their employees are awake.

The disconnect is that their expectations are higher for remote than on-site. If I go for a short walk, and my boss comes to my cube and doesn't see me there, he assumes I went for a walk, or to the cafeteria, or whatever. He'll just try again or send me an email asking me to drop by once I'm back. It's not a problem.

But what I've heard from remote employees: If their manager tries to ping them and don't get a response, then it's "OMG these remote workers slack off too much!"

Yea, I'm contracting remotely and the difference between working a full-time job in the office seems to be night and day.

As a remote contractor, they judge me by my results and trust me to do my job however I see fit. No hand-holding or micromanaging, only one standup every couple days.

Meanwhile at the office I've got to attend a morning attendance meeting everyday, a bunch of other useless meetings, and I need to ask for permission if I need to take a couple hours to go to the doctor and apologize if I happened to sleep in one day.

Can't say I miss office life.

Especially the sleeping...

I have not set an alarm for months now.

I've always said one of my primary goals in life is to not have to wake up to an alarm. I'm so used to it now I didn't even think to mention it, but reading your comment I just realized I've achieved that.

But I sleep till noon lol

Is it possible your approach to instant messaging is wrong?

Article is espousing the benefits of asynchronous communication. If the expectation is that I respond within a minute or so, then it is synchronous.

Can you suggest a better way to use IM that doesn't require me to respond quickly?

I'm fine with IM for sending over quick URL's, etc while doing a live debug or something. But if you just have a "quick question", email me if not urgent or come to my cube if it is. If you are located far away, call me. Both email and phone are more efficient for simple questions. IM is in the unhappy place where it's worse than both.

"Sure, let me get back to you later."

That's a guaranteed way to be disturbed again in an hour or two.

Async doesn't mean "never", you do need to respond to your colleagues eventually.

If they need a response within an hour, then they need to indicate that (and ideally why) in their initial contact.

If they expected a response within an hour and didn't get it, they can call me or physically come to me.

I've told two of my bosses while being interviewed: Assume I'll check email only 3 times a day. Is that workable?

No one says "No" (even though it may not be workable).

One of my bosses actually suggested to me that I should have "office hours" and be available in those hours, and simply not respond all other hours.

It all depends on the need of the job. And most engineering/SW jobs do not need you to "be available to respond within an hour" for any request.

Sorry, but your inability to interact with your co-workers makes you a difficult person to employ. A ton of folks don't need this kind of special treatment.

That's an odd way to disagree with someone. The situation is symmetric. Why the assumption that I'm the one seeking special treatment?

My boss who suggested office hours wouldn't want to hire someone with your view.

It's more like your boss would rather have someone who doesn't need your special treatment, but since they have you, they've got to invent ways to deal with your special blend of crazy (office hours).

Further, you have no clue what my policy is regarding instant messaging, don't lash out at me because you're feeling vulnerable.

Amusing that you're pointing out to me that I don't know your policy yet you feel free to make assumptions about my boss.

Whatever provides less cognitive dissonance, I guess?

You've provided information about yourself and your situation (including your boss), I haven't.

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