Over at FYI they have an interesting report on working remotely. The number one takeaway, I suppose, is that almost everyone loves working remotely. If you’re one of those people who do, it’s hard to see why someone wouldn’t love it. Still, some folks don’t. One of my friends and ex-colleagues had to work remotely for a few months and hated it. He felt isolated and alone and missed talking to people.
We here at Irreal are misanthropes, of course, and have no such problems. It turns out that in that respect we’re like almost everyone else. Almost every remote worker who responded to FYI’s survey (486 people) said they loved it (91%) and would recommend it to a friend (96%).
The rest of the article deals with why people love working remotely, the problems that they encounter doing so, their workspaces, and tips they’ve found helpful in dealing with the problems. The number one problem, of course, is maintaining a presence with the rest of the team. That’s pretty easy if everyone is working remotely but can be especially tricky when most or part of your team is colocated.
The benefits most mentioned were not having a commute and being able to spend more time with your family. If you live someplace like California, your commute can easily be 3 hours a day so not having to endure it is a huge benefit. And, of course, being there to see your kids off to school and welcome them home is something that shouldn’t be dismissed lightly.
The article is fairly long but is mostly sidebars and charts rather than running text so it’s easy to read. If you’re interested at all in remote work, you should definitely give it a read.