i work for american companies from abroad (i am english, but live in chile). i have worked for a small-ish startup (about a dozen employees) and a technical consultancy (similar size). before that i had worked with a team split across two locations (usa and chile); before that i worked from england for a company in scotland (after working locally - moving south pushed me into my first remote job).

i am not convinced that the problems are any worse than working locally, to be honest. the problems may be different, but it's still true that a good manager makes life easier, and that a bad manager can be worked around.

so i would say that if you have an experienced employee that you trust (as i hope i am!) then it's not a big deal. and inexperienced people that you don't trust are still a crap-shoot - remote working doesn't change that.

any way of working has its own issues. if you're competent you can solve them; it's your job to do so. if you can't, working locally will only make the misery local.

i guess maybe people want specific advice anyway. the most important thing is that you (as employee) need to force feed status to your employer. there's no feeling worse in the world than hearing "so what have you been doing?". meeting up physically once a year or so is also a good idea. weekly teleconferences help. that's all as obvious as it sounds, which brings me back to my original point...

[ps and personally, i love it. the peace and freedom are great. good pay (compared to local market) is a bonus.]

[pps an observation that might be illuminating - i just realised that half my computer screen is devoted to communication. i have a text console on the left, with (ascii) mail in the current tab; on the right i have an open chat window; in the middle is eclipse). the web browser alt/tabs over eclipse and chat.]