[biztos]

I've been working remotely for about 8 years, and I have to say it's a challenge. I have great colleagues and a great manager and we work on stuff we care about, so I am in no position to complain.

However, all things being equal, I would much prefer to be in the office 3 days per week (not 5!). For all the advantages of working remotely, the social isolation is extremely unnatural and not good for you. Today, for example, I will chat with my personal trainer at the gym, and have a couple phone calls, and that's it for human interaction on a Monday.

Also, while heads-down coding is probably better in the home office, brainstorming and whiteboarding and collaboratively figuring stuff out is way better in person.

> First, I have 5-6 weekly 1:1s with different people with no agenda

That's a great plan, and I wish it were realistic for my team. We've done things like that but they always fall apart once everyone gets really busy. I'd love to blame the 6 time zones but it's not that.

Funny, when I was younger and worked remote on a couple of startups, the isolation wasn't that big a deal. But I went out almost every night, and one (hopefully) outgrows that.

Anyway, good article, and I hope the author continues making the best of a good but tricky way of working!

[randomdata]

I have been working remotely for approximately 17 years now and has always seemed quite normal to me. I grew up on a farm where my parents worked predominantly from home themselves, so that may have given me a model to follow. Really, when you think about it, when we were a primary agrarian society, working from home was the norm. There are probably a lot of good lessons to be found in history.

[jaymzcampbell]

Having worked at home for around a year now I have to say I completely agree with your summary. I used to dream of 100% WFH and now realise I am not cut out for it psychologically.

I seem to thrive with a certain level of interaction. Companies I've contracted for remotely have been great but it has been extremely isolating. Where I felt like I had a good handle on the overall direction of things when I worked in an office, moving this 100% to slack and google docs has left me often feeling more like a cog on one piece than a part of the overall project.

[chrisan]

I will be coming up on my 10 year mark for working remotely this summer.

Are you truly isolated?

At work: no 1:1/group chat or video conference? We are on chat all day and dive into video or a phone call for brainstorming. I don't have that sense of isolation. Heck, some days I feel like I've wasted too much time interacting with work mates on chat.

Off work: I understand you can't hang out with your buds every night of the week but it would be an odd day if I did not talk to at least one of my friends on the phone or Telegram or play a video game together. Kids change things and they are less available to "do stuff" but we still talk almost daily. Weekends are still there to get together or an occasional after-work dinner.

Have you tried seeking out some clubs of a hobby of yours? Sports, board games, maker/hacker spaces, volunteering?

My vacations which I look forward to are still the ones where I turn off all communication and seek isolation where its just me and the wife out in nature away from other humans.

[fredley]

Depending on the type of work, I find 1-2 days a week working from home to be optimal. It provides good concentration time, but I don't think I could ever consider fully-remote work, it's just too lonely. If you're not good at seeking out social interaction when you're already feeling depressed (like me), it sounds like it just wouldn't be compatible at all.

[sshagent]

I'm at around 8 years as well and have the sames as you really. I love working from home, but social isolation is a thing. I should have probably had those 5 to 6 1:1's. Whilst I'm in a team, my skill set is different from all theirs, so mine would be almost purely social chats.

Certainly by Friday evening I need to be outside and chatting to people. I've recently discovered a couple of friends are working from thome, so considering trying to spend a day working from their home and perhaps vice versa. Keeps the convenience of avoiding the commute into London but gets a little social time and some other people to bounce ideas off.