Comment It's all about the discipline (Score 2, Interesting) 301
I'm a US citizen currently living in the UK (also about 90 min from London) and have worked from home for nearly 3 years. The first time was as out of necessity to help take care of our 3-year old when my wife was ordered on bed-rest whilst pregnant with twins. I arranged to write code for my employer from home and go to the office when we had other help around. At the time I only lived about 10 min from the office so going in on occasion or even on short-notice wasn't an issue.
The next time was after relocating to Germany to work for the European office of a US internet consultancy. The company went under when the dot-com bubble burst and I took a job with a US software company which was expanding into Europe. I was living in the north of Germany and this company's German office was in the south of the country (about a 7-hour drive). I worked remotely and travelled to customer sites for several months and then relocated to the UK but continued to work from home full-time.
Since then, I've changed employers again but was able to negotiate working from home 3-4 days a week.
My experience:
-I agree that you need your own space in the house. When daddy's in his office the kids need to understand that they can't be screaming outside his door or barging in whenever they want.
-If you've got a dedicated connection, being on IM or at least being able to quickly reply to email is an invaluable way of keeping in touch with colleagues and even partners or customers.
-Being remote doesn't have to hamper career progression or management opportunities. If you're working for a multi-national company and most of the folks who report to you (and the folks to whom you report) are in another country it doesn't really matter if you're talking to them from home or the office.
-My current client is in Milan but my deliverables don't require me to be on-site so, again, it doesn't matter if I'm working on my tasks from home or the office.
-I've been on conference calls with executives from customer or partner companies across Europe and discovered that more than one of us are calling in from home (I've even heard they're kids in the background).
-Regular communication (phone, email, IM) during the day with fellow workers can help address loneliness and isolation.
-Keep consistent hours. Start and finish work at the same time and for Pete's sake, change out of your pyjamas before you clock in.
I'll admit it takes discipline but getting those extra 4-5 hours a day to spend with the family is all the motivation I need.
The next time was after relocating to Germany to work for the European office of a US internet consultancy. The company went under when the dot-com bubble burst and I took a job with a US software company which was expanding into Europe. I was living in the north of Germany and this company's German office was in the south of the country (about a 7-hour drive). I worked remotely and travelled to customer sites for several months and then relocated to the UK but continued to work from home full-time.
Since then, I've changed employers again but was able to negotiate working from home 3-4 days a week.
My experience:
-I agree that you need your own space in the house. When daddy's in his office the kids need to understand that they can't be screaming outside his door or barging in whenever they want.
-If you've got a dedicated connection, being on IM or at least being able to quickly reply to email is an invaluable way of keeping in touch with colleagues and even partners or customers.
-Being remote doesn't have to hamper career progression or management opportunities. If you're working for a multi-national company and most of the folks who report to you (and the folks to whom you report) are in another country it doesn't really matter if you're talking to them from home or the office.
-My current client is in Milan but my deliverables don't require me to be on-site so, again, it doesn't matter if I'm working on my tasks from home or the office.
-I've been on conference calls with executives from customer or partner companies across Europe and discovered that more than one of us are calling in from home (I've even heard they're kids in the background).
-Regular communication (phone, email, IM) during the day with fellow workers can help address loneliness and isolation.
-Keep consistent hours. Start and finish work at the same time and for Pete's sake, change out of your pyjamas before you clock in.
I'll admit it takes discipline but getting those extra 4-5 hours a day to spend with the family is all the motivation I need.
