I have worked remote for the last 3 years and in the office for the 10 years before that at the same company. I can definitely say I will never work in an office again if at all possible. Remote work is definitely not for everyone, but for those of us that prefer it, its more important than pay or benefits. I won't rehash what others have said, but i do have an experience that may be different than most.

I work for a company of close to 3000 that has maybe a dozen remote workers. Most of which are sales people, a few workers that work on site all over the country and then me, a developer/analyst.

As a general rule, the company allows occasional remote work for select teams (mostly just IT), but as a whole, it's against remote work. I am the only developer (or IT for that matter) that is full remote.

Working for a company that is NOT a remote friendly company is an absolute challenge. Here are a few of the additional challenges you deal with above and beyond the normal remote work. - missed conversations. they happen way more in an office that doesn't have remote workers

- no advancement possibilities. I'm already sr. so I don't care)

- jealousy issues. not a real problem aside from I can't tell people I am working in another state for the winter

- you are an inconvenience to everyone. every meeting requires the phone or remote desktop just for you

- all processes have to take into account 1 remote worker

- missed team events, although I attend most of them since I only live 1.5 hours away (most of the year)

- VPN... if there are issues, I am the first to know

- expectation of 8-5 m-f. Although I actually prefer it because routine is good and sets defined work/life time

Ultimately, if you are not sure if you would like to be a remote worker, I wouldn't recommend it at a company that isn't at least 50% remote (or at least the team you would be on).

user:	embersdev
created:	January 31, 2017
karma:	13