July 18, 2016 at 2:21 pm
Definitely work from remote. It is easier to get more accomplished. There are typically fewer interruptions and fewer water cooler moments.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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SQL RNNR
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July 18, 2016 at 2:46 pm
SQLRNNR (7/18/2016)
Definitely work from remote. It is easier to get more accomplished. There are typically fewer interruptions and fewer water cooler moments.
When working remotely, one will miss out on a lot of crosspolinnation in terms of knowledge transfer and team building. However, when troubleshooting a specific issue or when one is on a development sprint with clear specifications, I find it more productive to work heads down for extended periods of time.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
July 18, 2016 at 2:57 pm
I would love the opportunity to work from home. I am still trying to get my home workstation up and running. I have a docking station to connect my laptop, it can support three displays, which I have; 28" UHD displays. I have a broadband connection to the internet. My laptop is an ASUS RoG laptop with 32 GB of RAM.
For the last 10+ years I have done DBA/Developer work without having to set foot in the server room. In some locations I didn't even have access to the server rooms, either because I didn't have the required clearance to enter the server room or they were geographically separated from me, such as else where in Afghanistan or in the UK, or even all the way back in the US. Our system administrators could do everything they needed from their desks except replace hardware, or swap cables around. They could even remotely reboot the servers from their desks.
I could do everything I needed from my desk, whether it was in an office here in the States or in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan we used Google Hangouts to get people together from multiple locations in Afghanistan and in the US when we needed additional help solving major issues that sometimes arose.
Biggest problem I see is the butts in seats attitude of many in management. Opening the door to remote workers actually gives businesses access to talent that they would miss otherwise. There are people happy where they are and aren't interested in moving. It could be they are close to family or there are things they are doing outside of work that is also important to them as well.
Remote working would also give people the opportunity to move to be closer to family if needed without having to find new employment.
I do understand that there are jobs that aren't easily done remotely, but many of us aren't in those types of positions.
July 18, 2016 at 3:21 pm
Almost 100% of the development work I do is on classified systems, so work from home is not an option. One nice benefit of my situation though is that once I leave the office, I get to be disconnected from work - no emails, nothing, since the work can't be done or even discussed in any detail outside the classified environment.
July 18, 2016 at 3:55 pm
lionfan91 (7/18/2016)
Almost 100% of the development work I do is on classified systems, so work from home is not an option. One nice benefit of my situation though is that once I leave the office, I get to be disconnected from work - no emails, nothing, since the work can't be done or even discussed in any detail outside the classified environment.
The software I work on runs on classified systems, but the development is done on unclassified systems. It's the data that makes our software classified.
Of course in Afghanistan, all the networks we worked on were classified networks.
July 19, 2016 at 8:19 am
Eric M Russell (7/18/2016)
SQLRNNR (7/18/2016)
Definitely work from remote. It is easier to get more accomplished. There are typically fewer interruptions and fewer water cooler moments.When working remotely, one will miss out on a lot of crosspolinnation in terms of knowledge transfer and team building. However, when troubleshooting a specific issue or when one is on a development sprint with clear specifications, I find it more productive to work heads down for extended periods of time.
If there's no knowledge transfer nor team building going on, then you're not missing anything WFH.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
July 19, 2016 at 10:07 am
Rod at work (7/19/2016)
Eric M Russell (7/18/2016)
SQLRNNR (7/18/2016)
Definitely work from remote. It is easier to get more accomplished. There are typically fewer interruptions and fewer water cooler moments.When working remotely, one will miss out on a lot of crosspolinnation in terms of knowledge transfer and team building. However, when troubleshooting a specific issue or when one is on a development sprint with clear specifications, I find it more productive to work heads down for extended periods of time.
If there's no knowledge transfer nor team building going on, then you're not missing anything WFH.
Knowledge transfer has to be a conscious decision. Even team members that are geographically dispersed can transfer knowledge via a variety of technologies.
Proof? Just look here on ssc. There is a lot of knowledge transfer occurring right here.
July 19, 2016 at 10:43 am
Sadly I have encountered one to many people who believe knowledge is power and keep things to themselves. If they do not end up leaving they often morph into poor managers unable to delegate properly! 🙁
July 19, 2016 at 10:54 am
mjh 45389 (7/19/2016)
Sadly I have encountered one to many people who believe knowledge is power and keep things to themselves. If they do not end up leaving they often morph into poor managers unable to delegate properly! 🙁
They think that it makes them indispensable when it really makes them a target. Yes, the company may lose knowledge, but that can be learned by others over time.
July 19, 2016 at 12:03 pm
I have been working from home part of, or most of the time, since 2009. First as a DBA for remote clients and since 2011 as a BI Person. I love it, especially now that I have a daughter. It took some discipline at first but I have developed a good routine.
I've had the freedom to do it more than I do. I think face-to-face time with your boss and co-workers is important for developing the kind of relationship that's not possible remotely. That said, I can be way more productive when working from home. Between prepping for work and the commute to/from I save 2+ hours per day at home.
Unfortunately, this study shows that most people end up working more hours...
On a similar note: the worst habit to get into, and I'm totally guilty of this, is screwing around during the day and promising yourself that you'll get your work done tonight. For me (especially as a parent) this often evolves into, "I'll set the alarm clock to 3:30AM and do it then"... When this stuff is going on it's much healthier to just go into the office.
I've found that you need to have an office (or at least a corner of a room carved out as office space) and work from there. This helps my brain get into "I'm at work" mode.
-- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001
July 19, 2016 at 12:09 pm
mjh 45389 (7/19/2016)
Sadly I have encountered one to many people who believe knowledge is power and keep things to themselves. If they do not end up leaving they often morph into poor managers unable to delegate properly! 🙁
Sad but true. Most people learn a lot by teaching others though. Your brain works differently when you're teaching than when you're learning. People who are constantly mentoring others seem to grow their skills faster and a better candidates for management.
-- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001
July 19, 2016 at 12:53 pm
Alan.B (7/19/2016)
I have been working from home part of, or most of the time, since 2009. First as a DBA for remote clients and since 2011 as a BI Person. I love it, especially now that I have a daughter. It took some discipline at first but I have developed a good routine.I've had the freedom to do it more than I do. I think face-to-face time with your boss and co-workers is important for developing the kind of relationship that's not possible remotely. That said, I can be way more productive when working from home. Between prepping for work and the commute to/from I save 2+ hours per day at home.
Unfortunately, this study shows that most people end up working more hours...
On a similar note: the worst habit to get into, and I'm totally guilty of this, is screwing around during the day and promising yourself that you'll get your work done tonight. For me (especially as a parent) this often evolves into, "I'll set the alarm clock to 3:30AM and do it then"... When this stuff is going on it's much healthier to just go into the office.
I've found that you need to have an office (or at least a corner of a room carved out as office space) and work from there. This helps my brain get into "I'm at work" mode.
The key is discipline. My ex worked from home for numerous years and was a solid example of a success story. She also only worked 35 hours a week and did more work in that time than the people working 40 hours a week in the office.
Some people can do this, others can't. I'd like the chance to see if I could do it. Living at my dads' I really don't have any distractions to worry about. Even Willow is reluctant to come down stairs.
July 24, 2016 at 7:46 pm
I have worked from home quite often, but not as a full time thing. I don't see any problems with it.
I've seen some interesting comments here. Some of them seem very odd.
I've never had a problem of losing concentration or dedication when working at home - but I've sometimes had it when working at work. That's the opposite of what some people seem to have experienced.
The idea that you have to interact with colleagues face to face every day is just plain crazy. I've been a team leader for teams spread over many locations on several continents and since on any day I had to communicate with most people by telephone or email rather than face to face it didn't make a significant difference if on some days I was at home rather than in one of the offices. Customers I had to talk to when they had a serious problem knew my mobile numbers (for a couple of years I was carrying three mobiles, one with a UK sim, one with an Indian sim, and one with a Spanish sim, to keep the cost of outgoing calls and roaming charges down) - what did it matter whether they got me at home or in one of the offices? If a customer needed face to face contact it would need scheduling anyway, since if I was in the office it might not be (and usually wasn't) on the contenent that customer was in - and usually those meetings would be where the customer was not where any of our ofices was (that had also applied when I normally worked in the office rather than at home). Yes, I had enough face to face time with colleagues in the offices; no, working from home wasn't a problem.
I first came across regular working from home long before I started working from home myself; the company I worked for had had, for a long time, a policy of offering female employees who might otherwise just stop work (usually when with first child) the option of working from home (on a reduced hours per week basis if they wanted not to be tied up for too many hours per day). These women turned out to be a great asset for the company, so we knew that working from home worked fine (this was in the early 1970s) and the company started offering an employees who wanted to work from somewhere out in the wilds an arrangement were they had to come in to the office for two or three days four times a year - people could work from virtually inaccessible places like Orkney on that basis (using, in the early 70s, a 2.4kbps link to connect to the computers in the offices for a short time every day they were working - adequate for interactive text and very limited graphics, but nothing like today's internet speeds). In those days I mostly worked in the office, hardly did any work at home, but that was what suited me then.
i find it hard to understand why there is so much emphasis on time in the office in jobs like software engineer or database deeloper or DBA. A significant proportion of work can be done at home and doing it at home would probably improve, not decrease, productivity if only because people won't be wearied every day by a painful commute.
Tom
July 25, 2016 at 12:13 am
The idea that you have to interact with colleagues face to face every day is just plain crazy.
For me it is not that I need to interact with colleagues face to face, the thing is at home I am alone and no-one to chat to every now and then. I focus and concentrate more at home that at work and actually are more productive at home than at work. It's the loneliness factor. I like people around me even if they don't talk to me.
Manie Verster
Developer
Johannesburg
South Africa
I am happy because I choose to be happy.
I just love my job!!!
August 1, 2016 at 9:17 am
Fortunately Marissa Mayer, the proponent of everyone in the office at Yahoo decided to collect her $50 million dollars, close her think tank, and stop promoting the benefits of everyone working in the office.
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