[jvns]

> In regular companies, you usually have direct manager, human resources, office manager, cleaning personnel, legal department, IT support, etc...

It's interesting to me that you didn't have those! Is that because you were working for small startups? I work for a pretty large company, so I have a manager, HR, a legal team, and IT support. I can't go see the IT folks in person obviously, but they have occasionally mailed me things I need. I talk to my direct manager 1:1 once a week, and he also works remotely. I definitely feel like I'm part of a larger team / company of people who can help me and not like I'm just off working on my own without any support.

I edited the post to add a section about "But if you are struggling for 3 days x 10 hours per day to fix a bug, chances are high that nobody will realize this." (that hasn't been my experience so I wanted to talk about how I approach spending a long time stuck on something)

[ganzolo]

My experience are with startups. But even though you are in a bigger company, you cannot have :

- Unexpected physical 1-1 with an HR in a meeting room about your problems.

- Cleaning and organization of your working space. Even if this represents only 10 minutes a day this can represent half a day at the end of the month...

- And more generally everything that goes through email / chat / calls tend to take more time than if you just go to see the person and ask.