[peelle]

I am remote, and for the last few years did not work in a fixed location. My SO traveled with me and managed us, but had no job.

Because of the way we lived I think my communication skills have gotten better. Each new place we either lived with locals or other expats, or we worked out of pubic places like cafes. During non work hours we regularly went out and interacted with others.

For work I only need to be "in office" during certain 4 hour chunk of the day, the other hours could be worked whenever I chose. Often my schedule would change from day to day. This is bad for keeping regular eating and sleeping schedules. I feel this indirectly affected my social skills at times.

When I am in Asia, that four hour chunk corresponds to when most weekday meetups happen. This limits some of my opportunities to meet new people, and be sociable during the weekdays. On the other hand, I can do random daytime events that most people have to take off for anytime they come up.

I never had an extremely healthy social work life when I did work at the office. It was an office of 1-2 other IT people, and a majority of my work time was spent coding, not socializing. The same is true now, except when we socialize it's via hangouts instead of in person.