No team = it doesn't go wrong in the first place.

Nothing to go wrong means I cant be the hero when I fix it with judiciously applied ducttape

The techonology is there, and having flexible working arrangements such as this increases employee satisfaction which leads to more productivity.

A vast majority of my company has this working arrangement and the company thrives. Employee satisfaction is very high, and it's voted as one of the best places to work throughout the world.

Plus i save a ton of cash by not having to buy work clothes, commute, buy lunches, etc. Not to mention the time saved commuting, which can be put into working if you wish.

It's a proven (the company i work for, and many of our clients and partners) win for the employee and employer. Not to mention the environmental benefits.

Go Green, Go Home*






*I just made that up so don't go nicking it.

You can work from home then, that's the point.

One disadvantage of working from home is that you have to do all your own IT. I spent yesterday trying to work out why my laptop has been running slowly on and off for the last few months (it slows itself down when it gets hot apparently). In an office I'd just get some IT lacky to look at it and wouldn't have to worry about this kind of tedious crap.

I'm going to print that off and show it to my wife.

The main work related "challenges" I have aren't due to the distance, but the timezone - especially on friday. By the time I'm at my desk - everyone in the UK has pissed off down the pub.

Right, but if want something done properly...

No offence to my mates who work in IT but I wouldn't trust any IT person with any of my hardware or software issues

No, I cant. I do a certain amount of "fire fighting". Its not easy to diagnose a problem with a production machine by chinese whispers over the phone, being in the same building and going to look at it is a lot quicker.

Just going to the other office to ask a question is a lot quicker than texting and waiting for a reply.

If you make a product, then its easier to be where thats actually happening.

Besides, when I do work form home if I have a ton of design work to catch up on for example, then there are just as many jobs and distractions there that need doing anyway. Honestly, some days coming to work is a nice break!

That's pants.

I just called our IT guys who play with my laptop remotely. If they can't sort it and it's messing up my ability to work efficiently, they just send me a new one.

I did get caught out a little today though. My video phone rang and i was half asleep so didn't really notice it was my bosses boss calling. She smiled when she saw my bed head and batman t-shirt and said, "you look like my 3year old did this morning".

So you manually do stuff then. I don't find i lose time when needing to ask questions. I pick up the phone or video call them. If they're not around, it makes no difference if i'm there or not.

Your work requires some manual intervention which can be business critical so there's your exception for the majority of the time no doubt.

Like i said, unless you do manual labour, client facing, or have a crappy internet service (outside of civilization) then you're able to have flexible working arrangements such as working at home.

I manage people within the US and EU. I manage internal projects globally. I don't need to travel or be in an office to be effective and productive. I love it.

It'll certainly come in handy from September

Yeah, it wasn't bothering me that much until the last few days when it's been hot. I had to upgrade the BIOS which made me feel like a real techie.

You're right about the technology though - my company has a few telepresence rooms which integrate with net meeting and also my webcam. It's pretty cool when it's all working.

I hope so... you would be amazed how distracting and how much time gets sucked up by kids, more so when they are a bit older. Im afraid I would find it much to hard to compartmentalise my life at home into "work time" and "kid time".

The main problem I find working at home is that you develop paranoia because you don't know what is going on at the office. Plus you're often out-of-the-loop on important things. This is especially true if you're a subcontractor because they feel no need to copy you in on important office memos.

Plus I don't have central AC and there appears to be no way to get it.

Plus when you finally do have to go to the office it's just total hard slog, because there's no other reason to be there.

The problem is if it's the internet connection itself that is pooched. I support some people who work remotely, most of the time the problem is something to do with their internet connection, so you can't remote in.