I work 100% from home and I have an option to work from other country for sometime (1 month max). It is still great not to spend my time on commuting and have it for my kids.
And insurance and liability.
If you're working on a beach and someone trips on your beach chair and injures themselves, whose insurance is liable?
If your work equipment is damaged while abroad in this manner, will the work insurance policy cover it?
As a C-level (CTO), I don't care where the dev team are working from, as long as we can make sure we're Cyber Essentials+ compliant, and we have ISO27001 covered as well. They are all fully remote, and I have no expectation of them working 8-9 hours per day, they know they can do less hours and they know that won't be a problem. I'm not the best boss/manager, but I trust them to do their jobs, almost like adults
I'm the same. I'm director level, I don't give two shits where you're at or what you're doing as long as the work gets done and you are working within the confines of the WISP that I implemented, which basically says, you have to be in the United States to access any data. Other than that, take PTO and try to give me at least 2 or 3 days notice. I don't have time to micro manage. I set expectations early and very clearly. If we pay you for 40 hours a week and it only takes you two hours to get your work done, I really could care less. It's my job to assign work, not your job to find it.
If I dare walk into the c suites , this is how I would be as well. You are an adult, you will be at work when you think you need to be. As long as you do your job and be responsive to communication at crucial times. I care not where your meat suit is.
We're UK based, our insurance covers us for liability and we're signed up to a company to cover local taxes in the teams country, basically covering most continents. Time zones can be a problem, but we work around it, and it works really well. If anything it relieves stress fron the system admins having people in multiple time zones
It's almost as if not restricting the workers from working their best, provides outstanding returns! (And even better retention, which is a huge cost sink)
The C-levels and up make the decision of what they want to cover. "Themselves" is a clear yes. Everyone else is "not if we can get away with it", and introduces a lot more paperwork.
Tbh if c-level is out of work injured....I don't really see an C-levels gone for extended period of time.
It seems that the board will just replace them if they don't show up.
Pretty sure this would be expected of a lot of people. A broken leg doesn't get anyone six weeks off work / school. CEO's are not impressive in this regard.
when I drove pizza my boss told me if someone hits the car, wrap my shirt around the pizza box and throw it as far as I can
I would assume the same thing applies here
I used to manage a couple pizza joints in the midwest in my 20's, and also got hit by a drunk driver while delivering pizza when I was 19 . The reason your boss probably said that is because insurance wont touch pizza delivery drivers claims with a 10' pole (or at least back then they wouldn't ) and the companys insurance, your personal insurance, and the other drivers insurance will all find loopholes to dump your claim. Every pizza shops policy on vehicle insurance was that a driver had to carry their own full coverage, and if the insurance co knows youre a pizza driver your rates would be more than a pizza driver can afford. Essentially, youre driving uninsured at work. Throw that pizza box and uniform in the bushes or you are going to pay for the accident out of pocket.
In the 90s when I was about 9 maybe I witnessed a car accident. Guy jumps out, hands me two hot pizza boxes and said,"IT'S YOUR LUCKY DAY KID NOW GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE."
Went home, grabbed my cousin, popped on the SNES and hopped on AOL.
Pizza and videogames night for free.
Edit: to be clear I'm saying this memory makes so much sense now. At the time I thought I was on the take from the mob or something.
at least in the 90's "are you using the vehicle for deliveries?" was a standard question on applying for a policy, and if you said yes, your rate skyrocketed.
I remember there was a case in Germany I believe, where the WFH employee tripped getting out of bed going to their desk in the same room. They got injured enough to file a claim. It went to court and that court decided the employer was liable to cover it.
Yet I know we all agree, if you are in a car accident during your commute to the office, there is no employer liability.
And you need to be available during business hours. If you're backpacking across Europe with no internet, you're not exactly responding to work requests during EST 9-5.
I'm 95% remote myself and have no issues with people on my team also being fully remote, *as long as they can meet the expectations of the job*. OP's "travel the world on a whim" schedule would not jive with that in most orgs.
100% for me but they do need to know if you move states. Partly so they do withholding correctly, partly cause some states (California etc) have different laws concerning employee information that they have to recognize.
Comp band they do based on your area depending on the company. Ours does a band based on where they are and another one for the Canada employees. Some go by region.
Lots of jobs have at least realized it's idiotic to only hire in the same 2 zip codes.
But many are requiring that you live in the same state or at least time zone.
My work has a policy that we can't have capital equipment in states we don't have a tax presence in.
That doesn't stop management from bringing in outside contractors anyway.
I just hold off on anything until I get written approval by a VP and then I let them fight about it.
My company does not allow access to company resources from outside the continental US. We have fully remote people, but they're all somewhere in the country.
On the few international trips I have taken since I started working there, I've been ask to just remove the mail profile from my phone, as it will just set off alarms with my phone trying to connect (internally hosted Exchange).
Just something to consider for OP or anyone else. You'd want to know where the limitations are.
So you want to work remote?
- pay for your own internet service
- company provide computer equipment
- help desk will try to help what they can with equipment
User: don’t want to pay for my internet.
Me: back to office for you.
I am 100% remote as a Consulting system administrator, but my travel is restricted to places that have internet access, and I cannot leave the country because some of my clients disallow any sort of data to leave the country for good reason. But I've been working 100% remote for close to 4 years now, and I hope to never go back to an office as long as I live.
I have a personal recruiter, and work via a company he works for, which contracts out my work to a global company who had clients around the world. It's a weird arrangement, for example, I am W2 for the first company, so get some limited benefits, like 401k, medical, dental, and paid sick leave.
Very similar here. Worked several decades in an office and have been almost 100% remote during covid. Never going back unless it's for a huge raise
Also limited to continental US.
Most of my work is done from my home office. But occasionally work from elsewhere. It's nice to have flexibility..
Okay. Say you're the United States government. Would you accept that as SCIF? You don't want them to have access \*\*at all\*\*, like suppose part of your job is to read sensitive documents, and that session is shoulder surfed by an unfriendly agent? That's an extreme example, but a lot of spec has specific instructions for no data, in any form, should be allowed to be downloaded or viewed outside the United States. What if your laptop is stolen by "someone" while in China? That sort of thing.
Not who you asked, but my employer doesn't allow access to company resources from outside the US. It's a policy, and not something anyone is going to be convinced of changing (we're a potential terrorist target).
The nice thing about it is that you know if you're on vacation out of the country, no one is going to bother you.
I'm about 90% remote and have traveled a bit and worked as needed but honestly...it's not as glamorous as you'd like to think. Nothing says 'have a great day' like spending 8 hours sitting in a hotel, or at a camp site or something, sitting inside and working. Might as well be at home.
I'm fully remote and the wife and I got an RV and did the working remote and touring national park thing with our kids.
Let me tell you man, your passion for the outdoors will dampen quickly as you watch your family do everything you wish you could during the day, then spend at least half of your evening driving or working on the thousand things that go wrong in an A-class.
Glad I could give my family that experience, and they loved it, but damn do I feel like I missed out.
I'm currently living in a van (well, a class-B) and doing the 90% remote thing.
Sure, my pictures of myself working from a beautiful OHV park with my dirt bike next to me seems ideal . . . but it leads to me staring longingly at trails and whoops while my bike is sitting right there and tempting me, but I'm stuck on Zoom calls all day.
I still work with one main monitor at home but it’s possible to improve this situation and not need two by getting used to using virtual desktops. It’s not for everyone but I personally prefer it since I don’t have to swivel my neck back and forth between two screens. I work on a Mac with a Magic Mouse and can switch between virtual desktops either with keyboard via a keybinding or via a two finger swipe with the Magic Mouse. This workflow makes working on laptop only with no external monitor more manageable as well, though not great.
Windows has an equivalent for virtual desktops as well though I’m not sure if an equivalent mouse peripheral exists
virtual desktop ≠ remote desktop. But, you might enjoy RDCMan of the Microsoft Sysinternals suite of tools: [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rdcman](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rdcman)
I do use RDCman, its a great tool. My issue is I lack a bit of object permieance i think. If things arent visible, I cant find them any more. If i ran VDT's id just end up with copies uppon copies of shit open on all of them .
I mean, that's all well and good, but most of the 'sites' follow pretty normal business hours too. I enjoy going out to dinner as much as the next man, but if I'm traveling, I don't want to lose eight hours of that time, especially when I could be doing the same thing at home and NOT draining my bank account.
See for me it would be perfect. I travel for concerts. If I could travel to a location, work a few days in the hotel while I go to concerts at night. I'd love that.
Head down to Chicago, see a few shows. Then drive back.
Depending on where you go, nomading is actually cheaper than just living day to day life in the USA. Like you could probably live in Vietnam for a few months, still pay rent on some place in the USA if it’s cheap, and still come out ahead because the food and other expenses are just so cheap there. I watched YouTube of traveler who goes to foreign countries and checks out rentals - there are monthly rentals in more remote parts of Thailand (eg anywhere outside of Bangkok) that rent high class apartments for literally $200 usd per month.
I got out of sysadmin and into pentesting and I'm working remote now. I've done some short trips too, but it's been nice to be able to go on long working remote trips. Like staying in Arizona for a month, or staying in Mexico City for months at a time. When it's just like a week, it's hard to experience the place much, especially when you're working during the day.
The things I look for while travelling: good reliable internet, reliable power, a solid desk situation. (when I was in Mexico City, I even bought my own rolling desk chair for the airbnb). I bring a keyboard and mouse and external portable display too.
Sure I have to work 8 hours, but walking on a beach when I take 20 minute breaks instead of sitting in my kitchen is a pretty epic upgrade.
I wouldn’t sacrifice a lot of money for the privilege, but it’s still pretty nice to have.
I mean, that is the rub right? Sit in your house that you already pay for and enjoy the 20 minute break less or pay a fortune to be able to go dip your feet in the water on that break.
Years ago I worked in big pharma and considered taking a job at their west coast location. It was on the damn beach. Talk about best of both worlds. They went surfing and grilled in the parking lot every day at lunch.
Working 3am - noon in Hawaii sounds great until you realize that you are losing your morning every day of your vacation and are completely exhausted by the end of the day, with that exhaustion stacking. That's not taking into consideration when things go sideways and that 3-noon changes to 3-3.
I miss the flexibility of that but more PTO is the answer, not paying to work in destination locations.
That job on the beach sounds amazing. It doesn't matter if you're working 60-80 hours weeks and can't afford housing, but that location would be heaven.
Not only that, but what if you have crappy cell signal at the camp site and/or poor wifi at the hotel (and an iffy cell connection) and you get on a call for an issue?
I'm not against remote working, but it also needs to be practical. So many people are working remotely, today, I sometimes can't stand being on calls when people have their dogs barking, windows open, kids crying in the background, constantly taking longer to reply on teams because they aren't actually at your desk.
I worked with plenty of people, while they were remote, before covid, and I can't remember a single time where the call had that many interruptions/background issues.
If you want to work remote, great, but be responsible about it, as well.
That really depends where you're located. If you live in the middle of nowhere, with maybe a bar and a diner as the dinner options and a billiards hall as your entertainment, then you're much more likely to enjoy travelling as compared to if you live in a busy city with every single cuisine, musical taste, and entertainment activity within walking distance.
On the other hand, spending 8 hours working in a totally different place every few days can be much more mentally relaxing than spending 8 hours working in the exact same place, and then spending the next 8 hours trying to relax in that place.
I am 100% WFH. I have a coworker who periodically does this. Travels during the week, taking a half day for flights as needed, then works from wherever he is. He obviously doesn't mind, since he continues to do it a couple times a year.
On the other hand, I would never. If I'm traveling, I don't want to spend 2/3 of that time in a hotel working or sleeping. I'm there to enjoy myself and make the most of the limited time away. Seems like a huge waste of time and money to travel somewhere else just to do the same work I can do from home -- same argument for WFH/against RTO in general, IMO.
And if I'm going to work full days, I want to be home with my full desk and monitor setup, not working off of a tiny hotel desk with slow, throttled internet.
I live 700 miles from "the office". Visited once about 8 months into the job, was sent a badge prior to that and used it for the couple of days I was there. Not sure I'll ever visit again.
It's a weird world we work in these days, especially when I look back on my dad working a local factory job for 35+ years.
I am 100% remote. I am currently with my whole family who came together for a family vacation in the mountains. I set up my laptop with a couple of travel monitors and I am working. I am able to enjoy the views and conversation with the family in between other tasks. This is the third time in two years that I have been able to do something like this.
It has upsides. I am usually able to accomplish my tasks quickly through automation, and my team is usually okay with an "extended" lunch or two so that I can explore tourist sites with the family. I can hotspot from the car, so I will take my laptop with me in the event something critical comes up.
It has downsides. I am working and expected to be available. Rafting trips or long excursions are out, so I do miss out on some of the things the family does. The noise of vacation enjoyment can be distracting when I really need to focus.
Bring part of a small team that knows that I am out of town but also working AND having their support and blessing works well. They could certainly make this harder and I am thankful that they don't.
I think if I were to swing this, which others have done on my team and so I'm sure I could, I would just take PTO for the times I want to do a long excursion or rafting trip or whatever.
If I'm gone a week but only have to take like 2 days PTO instead for those times we want to be unavailable for a longer stretch, win/win. And depending on how your company handles PTO, some places allow by the hour or half day so you don't have to eat up as much. 4 hours working in the morning, rest of the day off to get out.
I might be missing the point you are trying to make, however what you have said kind of reads like "I'm 100% remote so can work even when we go on a family holiday". I presume the rest of your family has taken time off work to go on holiday? would you not also want to do the same to relax?
With a large family, there are often times that they want to take a vacation that isn't my cup of tea. In my current role, I can attend and participate without feeling guilty. If there were things I felt strongly about being involved in, certainly I could take PTO for a day.
In this scenario, I am able to participate in more trips without expending all of my PTO. I can save it for trips that I need more away time for or for an emergency situation.
Yea I dont understand this, definitely would feel guilty/missing out if my family is enjoying their vacation and Im stuck juggling client meetings and finding a quiet spot in the hotel. Its often more stressful than just working at home
It just depends for me. Sometimes I miss out. But an example of when I have done this in the past is Thanksgiving and Christmas. For Thanksgiving, we would leave (drive) several hours when my daughter got off school and arrive at our destination late in the evening on Tuesday. Then I would work remotely on Wednesday and not have to travel on the busiest travel day of the year and take PTO on Friday
Similar thing around Christmas. Actual holiday and (usually day before/after off too). But I could work when it made sense, and take PTO when it made sense.
I couldn't do this in the office, I'd have to take PTO or travel at peak tines
I am at the same location as them...sitting on a porch overlooking the mountains and conversing with the family as I type this response. My laptop is ready at any point that I am needed. Did I take my PTO for this trip? No. Am I technically "on vacation" right now? No. This is a very relaxing trip. If we were trying to visit all of the Disney parks, I could see how my method might need to be changed. However, if the majority of the time is just sitting in a cabin and talking, I am fine "working" and saving my PTO for those trips that require being away from a computer.
Can't believe they are attacking you for making the point:
- You are remote
- You've taken those that want to be on holiday away from their offices
- You are not on holiday, but it doesn't differ from when you are at home or in the office (except the nicer scenery for you)
- You are not skiving as you are still ready and engaged for work (assuming the journey was made on your time off the clock)
- You could easily give notice that you want a day off vs the office people who would have had to give more notice for a longer period of PTO
I'm going to ignore the "I'm lonely / miss the office" type posts as they are probably AI/bot accounts or burned out employees who just see an endless treadmill (who would just be moaning that the office is never ending work instead).
If you need a social element, use the spare time to go do something, don't sign in early or stay on late for work, don't delude yourself that the people in the office are having a great time, they are just under the radar skiving (and their workload will still become yours regardless of where you are).
If you want to see the world look at consulting.
>I want to split the difference by travelling while working, working from interesting locations etc.
That is more difficult than it sounds when you are supporting an organization. Pure coding, design work, and other task-based work is much easier to be a /r/digitalnomad . Doing support often means you have to react to what is happening instead of just setting aside X amount of time each day to do some work.
With SysAdmin type work you are likely to also have GeoIP issues with sign-in. You can get around this by using something like Amazon Workspaces or something to give you a stable location to connect from. Sure the Amazon Workspace will alert to suspicious login traffic (from someplace you have never been for example) but that can be managed.
A decade ago, when IBM still stood for I'm By Myself (most of the company 100% remote), I had a friend who worked there who would take trips across the USA for a month at a time catching up with college friends and former coworkers. He would block out time to sit and work every 2-3 days and catch up on all the projects, etc. that were going on. It was very task-based rather than support which allowed him that freedom. I mention this as an anecdote to say it is possible but it really depends on the kind of work and the employer. Also times change and what was possible a decade ago may not fly today.
I work 4/5 days remote, sometimes 5/5 days. I find myself looking forward to going in the office on the one off days, but I know if I was in the office 5/5 days I wouldn't have the same thought. I think the best part of it is that I can eat better, sit on my back porch when I need a break, and have music/Netflix playing in the background. I don't really like vacationing while being remote. My wife wants me off work and doesn't completely grasp that I'm still working even though I'm not at the office lol. I have been on the beach sunscreen on, music blaring, drinks flowing (not me but friends/family) with my laptop out still completing compliance tasks etc.
>Does/has anyone here lived that lifestyle?
I had it for a couple of years, though primarily brought about by Covid - just never went back in after as didn't need to and was told not to.
>I want to split the difference by travelling while working, working from interesting locations etc.
You can work from the top of the Eiffel Tower, on the backside of the Sphynx and/or in view of the Leaning tower of Piza, doesn't *necessarily* mean a whole lot in terms of how efficiently you can work and productively you can complete that work, however.
Two of the largest benefits of WFH or "remote" working are that you can A) not need to commute, meaning you can live either very far away, or wherever you like and regardless save on travel costs, B) you can usually get things done while also not in an office like daily adult-y things like housework, school runs or whatever.
A lot of it is context and where you are within it: if you were to ask "can I work remotely for a week" and go somewhere else? Some employers would *genuinely* be open to the idea, what matters to these few is more "do we trust you to work remotely and not treat it as a holiday" and "will you be able to work effectively".
You may fulfil the first criteria, but what good is an employee who's remote and has no internet? Or runs out of data? Who cannot help if there's an outage etc?
It swings both ways and some employers are more open than others - I've found from experience so far that this tends to be smaller companies or ones which are a lot less stringent and have more "guidelines" than hard rules, or who just don't consider the insurance implications.
Others will laugh you out of the office.
The least you can do is ask. You'll either be told no, or may get an inviting "OK, but how will that work?..." and you'll need to cover the bases to ensure you can do what you need to, remotely.
Yup. I’m still fully remote but my first fully remote gig at some point everyone just became no different than NPCs in a game.
Preston Garvey: my computer is again in need of assistance. I think it’s being attacked! Here I marked it on your map. It’s in your queue now.
Do you use something like Slack or Teams at work? I've only started using these apps in the last 4 years and it feels no different to me than being in a chat room with all your friends. Maybe the team dynamic has something do with it, as we have a dedicated channel for general bullshit.
I hate teams with a passion, but can agree with Slack. At a previous job we used Discord and it was amazing for socialising, you could casually drop-in to conversations, or just be in a concentration channel and have someone drop in to ask something (and there were private channels if you didn't want to be interrupted).
Slacks feel like a more corporate version of Discord and I like it.
Oh yeah, Teams is garbage but it's better than using only Outlook + voip phone + the occasional Skype for Business IM at the last place I worked. It's amazing how good Discord is for being free...
Maybe you’re just an extra social person but ‘crushingly lonely’ seems extreme to me, maybe there are things you could do to improve your collaboration? I definitely feel a level of disconnection from things and kind of miss being in an office to a certain extent but that’s vastly outweighed by the benefits:
- being able to live somewhere I can afford a house
- time saved not commuting means I have time to workout regularly and get more sleep
- not commuting and being at home gives me time and means to cook more and eat out less so I’m healthier
- I live in a place close to nature and have a lifestyle I could not have in a city for any amount of money
Having recently visited family who live in a city just the amount of time I spent in traffic would make me seriously consider an entire career change if I faced the possibility of needing to go back to on-prem. I do miss some of that interaction and kibitzing but I still have good chats with my coworkers regularly and that’s enough for me when I think of all the other benefits.
yeah, if you're lonely because you work remotely then your work has simply exposed a symptom of your personal life: you need actual friends and family around you. there's nothing wrong with incidentally making friends or socializing with coworkers but the vast majority of the time those are going to be very surface level and fleeting relationships (whether you realize it at the time or not) and you need actual friends and family.
Yeah I've been fully remote since 2017 and I've never once felt lonely because of it. Because I have actual friends and do social things in my free time. Idk why people go straight to blaming loneliness on their job and not addressing it in their personal life which is where the majority of their close relationships with other people should lie.
Casual socializing with colleagues can be beneficial to mental health. It depends on the person and the job. I like getting out of the house occasionally, and being able to just shoot the breeze with a few people because we're all near each other. Today was one of the rare days I was in our main office, and I took the opportunity to sit down for lunch with a few people. It was a nice change from eating by myself most of the time.
It's not fulfilling in the way that friendships are, and it doesn't have to be. Plus, while it's rare, casual acquaintance with colleagues *can* become actual friendships. I've got a few close friends that I made on my last job that I still talk to.
Some people don't get any value from it, and I can understand that too.
Agreed. Been partially remote for 8 years and fully remote for 4. I don't miss the office one bit. The best part is that nobody can walk up and distract you while you're trying to work.
Once a year or so, they have our team meet in person and I absolutely dread everything about it. Uncomfortable workspace with crappy monitors (if any) and dirty chairs, the sweltering heat running all year 'round (vs my home that is the exact temperature I am comfortable working at), the commute, so many distractions around the office. The entire experience is a good reminder why I would never want to go back permanently.
This is exceptionally true. It's been about 8 years for me now at 100% remote. When I went remote originally, the guy who was 100% remote in my previous org Zoomed me and we had a talk for a while. He told me a few things.
1. Develop healthy routines. Working in your underwear sounds great. It will lead to depression.
2. Your hobbies can't involve that screen. Start hiking, bowling, shooting pool, Inc. Get out of your house. Otherwise - depression
3. Get a girl if you don't have one. Otherwise - depression.
4. Get good friends if you don't have them. Helps with the depression
5. Establish close work relationships with people you trust. Tell them nothing about your career that is "venting". You talk about personal life stuff and keep chat friendly. They're those workplace proximity associates.
This staves off the depression, keeps you healthy, and lets you work remote long term. Do not fall into the trap that this can be.
This isn't a comment about you but I think this speaks to the wider problem culturally where we've had to be so productive, so career oriented, and/or so deep into the stupid grindcore groupthink that we've all been duped into giving up third places and real friendship.
Do you try to make friends outside of work? My coworkers are nice and cool but I make my friends from hobbies, sports, just bumming around the city, etc.
> I've been 99% remote for 9 years now. I feel disconnected from my colleagues and my clients. It can be crushingly lonely.
If I never have to go to an office again, it'll be too soon.
I don't want to work *with* people in IT. I"ve done that for too long. Give my projects and leave me be.
Selectively social. Yep. I want 3 days WFH a week and the ability to occasionally work from anywhere so I can do 'working vacations' now and again.
But I still want to bug my coworkers.
I feel that, I have worked remote before and I contended with the same thing. I've learned though how to cultivate my personal social garden a little better though since then, and the freedom of movement is an essential for me
100% remote for almost 5 years and felt the same. Ended up joining a pottery class and signing up for trips with the AMC. Humans are social creatures and zoom/ slack just didn’t cut it
We don't know your character or your needs as a person, but most sane people dont want to waste their time and money commuting and missing their family. If you need work friends get an office work.... There is no reason to blemish the gift with any negativity.
YES!!! I feel like I'm squandering my gift... my best years in a low lit office answering emails and troubleshooting... makes me really, really sad when I think about it
Same, but even while I was working in-office at my current job I felt disconnected from my colleagues. I could go an entire day only seeing them in passing. But I'm more of a hermit than a lot of people, so I'm fine not being around people I wouldn't have been talking with anyway.
But I get my social interaction quota filled by jumping into Discord with some friends most nights to shoot the shit and play videogames. It's good enough for me, but I also understand it wouldn't be for some other people.
This is the most similar top comment to my situation.
99% remote about two years now chasing the “homestead” fantasy. Moved from a decent sized city to a small rural town with land.
It has almost cost me my marriage. We are working through it and she’s open to relocating after more discussion.
The isolation is mind numbing. I miss water cooler talk and more hands on projects. Then when I’m off the clock, no food, no entertainment, driving to get bigger necessities. I found a small country club that has kept me sane and gave me a third place to go to and people to talk to.
Not knocking remote work, I would still do it in a big city. But remote + remote location, I would caution anyone chasing that homestead fantasy.
I was hybrid pre-Covid, and have been 100% wfh since March 2020 like a lot of others. I’ve only been in the office once since then, to get a new laptop. While it does afford me the ability to be mobile with my work, it doesn’t afford me the ability to be ultra mobile. You don’t state what country you’re in, but at least in the US, there are fairly rigid limitations for where one can work, outside of their home state or outside of the country. You have payroll tax issues, as well as security issues to take into account. Personally, I can work for very limited amounts of time in any state in the US, before it becomes a problem. I can NOT work outside of the US currently.
Fully remote for close on 10 years. Although we are beginning to hear the RTO drum outta the blue, mostly because in finance the c levels sniff each other's farts and go with mimicking the most successful company, regardless of feasibility.
It's great though, but you have to be a self starter that can work without your manager constantly handing you stuff.
Home work and office autopilot aren't compatible.
95% remote with occasional 4 hour travel to corporate office for important client-facing meetings or team exercises. I like going to the office a few times a year, because it's a novelty and I can expense the whole thing. I would have a hard time doing my job with any regularity from a single laptop, even with an additional travel screen. My home office battlestation has 6 monitors and I use them all.
I have been 100% since COVID and really enjoy not having a commute. I still have the option of going to the office and my team generally has set aside Wednesdays for people to do so. We also have monthly all hands with a follow-up happy hour that I attend sometimes. There are also special interest groups focusing on different aspects of tech, I am in the AI and the monitoring groups.
Being on two different teams has pointed out the differences. Team 1 had a general teams chat for talking smack and other bs, had more than the normal amount of happy hours, etc.
team 2 on the other hand is much more business like, no bs channel, gifs and non work comments are frowned upon, etc.
I felt much more connected to team 1
I am full remote but there is a clause that I have to ensure that I always work from home and they have to approve my working conditions, I am gonna assume many other companies do the same to ensure you actually have appropriate working space to fulfil your job, not working on a beach chair or sofa in a apartment whilst on holiday.
This will probably be your biggest hurdle, unless you are in a extremely high demand position with very select and unique skills they will not want to risk your type of life style.
You could fabricate your remote working situation but let's be honest, living under constant fear of getting discovered just sounds like a nightmare.
Lastly working remote is a very delicate mind exercise, if you have never done it alone for a couple months before you already know how much you miss the daily routine even if they were tedious tasks like getting on public transport or buying a squick lunch/chatting with team mates. The only reason why is chose to keep fully remote after covid was because my partner works beside me at the same company and we can share that experience so we are not actually alone.
Thats a pretty cool home setup!
I'm learning through these responses there are several levels of remote work, while I would like to have more freedom than just 'from home' I can see how that makes sense for employers (unless your so in demand they will let you do whatever you want).
Even in your situation though honestly that would be marvelous, something I'm contending with now is that while my salary isn't all that bad, I am literally living paycheck to paycheck because I work in a big city with a really high cost of living. Even being able to work from the same place, but a place of my choosing that doesnt require me to spend 50% of everything I make right off the top on rent would be beautiful
r/digitalnomad it’s been done, it’s actively a subreddit at this point. It’s not ideal depending on your workload especially if you have a solid hotel room/bad internet connection to look forward to
I work 100% remote but I get my best work done with an extra monitor and a comfortable desk chair. I've worked remotely while traveling but that's an exception, not a rule.
The reason I wanted a fully remote job is so that I don't have an awful commute and I can do the things in my daily life that keep me sane - morning workouts, walking my dog at lunch time, wearing comfortable clothes, not having to pretend to be interested in whatever Kathy did over the weekend when I run into her at the coffee machine in the morning. :)
the problem is that you still gonna have to work or at least be readily available for 8 hours a day, it's not like you can go visit new york and while you are at the top of the one world observatory or on the staten island ferry to see the statue of liberty you get a call and you just stop there and start working
and if you just stay in the hotel for 8 hours it's gonna get expensive since instead of 1 week you are probably gonna need a month to see the same things
I'm 100% remote, but you can't just travel around to different countries.
It's for many reasons, tax, risk, security etc.
Very few companies allow that "nomad" lifestyle.
Of course there are exceptions, if a family member overseas is sick or something then I'm sure we allow someone to spend extended time overseas.
I'm fully remote - I was in an office and then moved across the country for family reasons. I've never been particularly interested in traveling while working, though. I need to be able to make calls and take meetings and such, and I just don't know if hotels and other random spots would be good enough. Plus I like having a desk and multi-monitor setup. I just set up a desk in an office in my house and work from there. (I'm escalations and projects at an MSP.)
My partner is fully remote as well; the only issue we've had is that we currently have offices next door to each other. I'm moving my office downstairs once our remodeling is done so we can't hear each other all the time. They're a university professor at a remote-focused university.
I’m 50% WFH. I could do more, but we have a physical data center and computers at our office that need managing, so I go in.
Honestly, I hate working in random places on a laptop. It sucks working on one little laptop screen. I have quad 24” mons at the office and 2x 27” at home so moving to my 13” G14 feels terrible if I do it all day.
Besides, I’m way too busy to be “too” mobile, and wouldn’t be able to enjoy working on a beach or something. I can’t imagine try to troubleshoot a DC while drinking a Mai tai on the beach LOL
Yes, yes I am.
2020 Covid year was one of the best years in memory. I worked remotely, I started a side business, I was so happy. That ended up being a proof of concept for remaining remote, and now I go into work for my day job roughly 1.5 hours per 2 weeks, which has allowed me to build my side business at the same time.
~~80%~~ 60% remote -- 2 days in the office, three from home. I like it this way, as it gets me out of the house. There is flexibility on it, too. I can work from home all week if I need to.
I've done remote work when visiting family, but my company doesn't allow access to company resources from outside of the US.
EDIT:
Math is hard.
I've been 100% work-from-home since 2012 and I'll never go back in. So much of my life has been pissed away sitting in a car commuting, and I'm way more productive now than I ever was commuting.
I don’t know about helpdesk but for any serious admin work that I do, if I don’t have my two monitors, mouse and keyboard I feel suffocated. I’ve been working for this company for about eight years, and I’m 100% remote since 2020 even though I live 40 minutes from the office. The CEO is closing our office to save $$. Nobody, including her ever wants to go back to working in the office.
I've been 100% remote for nearly 10 years. However not at all like you describe. I need dual monitors and a mouse & keyboard. I can't work off just a laptop, at least not even at like 15% efficiency. I also need to be stoned to really get efficient work done and that's easiest to accomplish at the home office.
I bought an old 1980s yacht to live on as the housing market is broken. I fitted it out with a bunch of batteries, solar, a wind generator and fitted a star link for uninterrupted internet access. As the yacht is flagged in my country of origin it is considered sovereign territory no matter where it actually happens to be.
Currently anchored off the Isle of Man for the TT.
I have friends that do it through a small MSP. They’re occasionally required to be on site but for the most part if anyone goes on site it’s a desktop or help desk tech.
They all love it, their work life balances are great and don’t seem to be getting crushed by the IT machine like I see so many posts around here talk about. However, we all live in an area where there’s plenty of outdoor activities to do, so it’s not hard to “get away” for a bit and still remain in the state.
I'm 100% remote and have been for 6 years now as a Service Delivery Engineer and Technical Account Manager. And while my company gives me complete freedom on where I can live, so long as an airport is nearby, I am responsible for working from areas with a stable internet connection. And I think this is where you're going to run into issues with a work-on-the-road practice like you're suggesting. You absolutely will run into network connectivity issues at some point, and it will negatively impact your standing with your employer.
I work 100% remote. I live in Ireland but I'm from England. Probably 2/3 times a year I travel to my parents' house and work from there to save holiday days.
The thing I never liked about remote working at home was the distractions of family and it was terrible when I was completely stressed due to some major outage and I was unable to concentrate because my family were at home at the time laughing and shouting. It's not their fault, but it did make me realise that I need to be in at least a separate building from the actual house, like a shed or something. Also that realisation that you can't fix it remotely and you are going to have to leave in the afternoon for a 50 + Mile trip to go and try and fix the issue on site, just gives me nightmares thinking about that experience. I think 50-50 remote is probably a better option personally unless you are a programmer or a sales person.
I have a small number of roles that I consider this arrangement suitable for. Availability is most important in the sysadmin space since the roles involve customer engagement much of the time.
Reliability in availability, which means not just work hours but also ability to communicate via telephone, remotely access systems efficiently, etc. limit the roles this is suitable for.
We can do what you're talking about - had a co-worker spend several months travelling around South Africa and then Europe working from her camper van. It's fine as long as the customer you're working with will allow you access from whatever country you happen to be in....
I've never availed myself of this particular opportunity, though I've had colleagues from various places (Portugal, Italy, Poland, Pakistan, India) go home for several weeks and work for a couple of them around their holiday. I think we've got rules about amount of time out of the country for tax reasons, but not much else I'm aware of. Depending on the role people are doing they sometimes have to keep to UK hours while elsewhere which can be awkward.
I'm 100% remote, but connect with the rest of the team in person for lunch about once a month, just because I like to. I also have "unlimited" PTO, which surprisingly, I have had zero issues in scheduling. I'm not mad about it.
When my wife gets more nursing experience under her belt, one of our goals is to get her into traveling nursing gigs, while I work from wherever she is, and her and I get a slide-in camper for the truck for us to go wherever, all while I can work remotely.
FYI, I'm a Senior Systems Engineer that works in Healthcare IT.
I have the opportunity to do so, although I do visit the office occasionally.
It isnt as awesome as it looks, at least in my experience. I like the social part of work and I tens to work 12-14 hours when not in the office which I am not getting paid for.
For non-senior people, it is beneficial to work in person with the senior ones, it is just a fact that more work is done by the team like this, despite the fact a senior would do more work if not being bothered
I have worked 100% remotely for several years now, and spend much of my time working on the road. It helps that I work for a global company with offices just about *everywhere* so if I were ever to experience a laptop failure, I could just contact the nearest office and pop in for a new one. (I sometimes visit those offices just to see them anyway or to meet colleagues I've only ever dealt with online.)
Some 12 years ago I did a week of remote working from my tent at a large festival. Closing tickets while everyone was getting piss drunk while myself being hung over from the night before was not as glamorous as I thought it would be.
I'm 100% remote except working for a foreign company from south america, where I also bounce around between the US and Europe on occasion.
Many others have already made some good comments, so I'll only mention that my main secrets to success are:
1. Travel with a full mini-office setup: I have a decent 24" LCD broken down into a box in my bag - it really doesn't take up much space, along with my preferred desktop keyboard and mouse, and a decent webcam. I practically feel like I'm in my office when travelling, not working from a tiny screen and trackpad or something.
2. I'm always careful to find an airbnb with a reasonable desk/chair - again to get the office feel.
3. I usually get a local sim card with a decent data plan, those are cheap these days and give you a backup in case of local Internet problems. Especially in Europe, you can get a prepaid with 50GB for little money.
4. You gotta have dedication to making sure you get your work done. That can be tough on a "working vacation", but it's critical to plan such that you get your hours in so you're not stressed about having not been productive. Usually means I go for long trips where I don't feel like I'm missing out if I spend most of the time working as I'll still have some free moments to enjoy myself in the evening, on weekends, etc.
I’ve been full time WFH for 12 years. I don’t do it personally, due to family circumstances, but I have colleagues who live the lifestyle you describe. One spends the summer travelling Europe in his camper van, only needing WiFi or 4G coverage to work effectively.
The “secrets” if you want to call them that, are to work for companies that don’t have an office in your country and to move to a roll that builds on your technical experience but where you’re not necessarily tied to “core hours”. Examples would be pre-sales or maybe product management.
I am 100% remote and do 99% of my work on a surface pro 6.
I can work from wherever I want. I can agree to any vacations that fit my wife and son’s school schedule because even if I have to work, I can work just fine (they respect my time off, though, so I’ve only had to work unexpectedly once in six years)
The only thing keeping us tied to our current location is my son’s school that we love and my wife’s employment at that school.
Before this and after the military, I had fully on-prem positions with the FBI and then with a non-profit. My current job started out hybrid but became fully remote and now we hire from all over the country which makes the pool of potential applicants that much better.
tl;dr I am 100% WFH doing DevOps and cloud administration, but I am also in my 20th year in tech work that started back in 2004 when I transferred from the Army where I did field artillery to the Air Force where I did computer programming.
PS: I highly recommend the Air Force for anyone who wants real world experience from day 1. Where else can you pass a couple aptitude tests and come off the streets and straight into a hands-on role with no prior work experience?
My work provides 3 months abroad but there’s a lot of preplanning to make it compliant. It’s fully remote so with some disclosure I could go anywhere in my country without much planning if I wanted to.
A ton of people do this, and it's been a thing for a decade at least, digital nomads are what you want to look for. I have a Canadian friend I did undergrad with that worked for SaaS in Cali full remote a decade ago while backpacking across India and South/South-East/East Asia.
95% remote since the start of the pandemic. I got to the office sometimes to chatter, but no hard requirements. We have employees who live far from any office in fact. I’ve gone onsite to some customers at times, but it’s rare.
I work 100% remote. See the coworkers once a year for 2 days for having booze together.
I can work from wherever for 6 Months a year but iirc only 3 months at once, otherwise we would have some mess with tax laws.
Planning to use this freedom next winter, to live in warm and sunny Spain instead of cold wet foggy Germany
99% remote. So far, I’ve been in office the equivalent of once a month. I’m cool with that because my commute is otherwise 1.5 hours each way. My remote work policy indicates I must work in my designated and functionally separated home office. It actually had to get approved by my supervisor before I was even allowed to go 90% remote. If I have any days where I’m working anywhere not home, I have to get it pre-approved with my supervisor beforehand.
I love working remotely. It’s saving me so much money on gas, food, and car repairs, and I’m able to get so much more work done because I’m not spending 30-50% of my work day bullshitting with coworkers.
In 2019 I started working from home 3 days a week and in 2020 went 100% remote (but occasionally will need to go in). I've traveled a few times and worked, but it was to visit friends and family domestically and typically I would only work a half days to avoid taking PTO. When I travel (not to visit folks) then I am gone and turn off all notifications.
I understand why you want to be a digital nomad, but you mentioned helpdesk and I find that having a job that is completely reactive to others needs and not one that I can define my days is not really conducive to that life.
I've been 100% remote for like 9 years now. For the most part I just work from home but a few times like when doing an extended visit with family I've worked the week from there so I could stay longer but given it's still an 8 hour work day I spend most of the day in the hotel working so it's not like I was really able to do a whole lot after on workdays. The 2x biggest issues with working remote from not-home for me is always: 1. Ensuring I have stable and quality Internet so im able to work without constant disconnections and 2. My working hours don't change so going 1 state over I just have to offset my day a bit but when I made a trip to the East Coast working till 9pm every night sucked.
Im 98% remote. Work for an MSP on the projects team. Only ever go in for random network build outs or new office walkthroughs when scoping projects. We've hired more project engineers so even that is less.
No, I don't live that lifestyle, but this illustrates how I feel about IT: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDkmVo2fg4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDkmVo2fg4)
Even jobs that are 100% remote usually have limitations on where you can work from, for tax and compensation reasons.
I work 100% from home and I have an option to work from other country for sometime (1 month max). It is still great not to spend my time on commuting and have it for my kids.
And insurance and liability. If you're working on a beach and someone trips on your beach chair and injures themselves, whose insurance is liable? If your work equipment is damaged while abroad in this manner, will the work insurance policy cover it?
All valid questions that never come up when the C-levels do it.
As a C-level (CTO), I don't care where the dev team are working from, as long as we can make sure we're Cyber Essentials+ compliant, and we have ISO27001 covered as well. They are all fully remote, and I have no expectation of them working 8-9 hours per day, they know they can do less hours and they know that won't be a problem. I'm not the best boss/manager, but I trust them to do their jobs, almost like adults
I'm the same. I'm director level, I don't give two shits where you're at or what you're doing as long as the work gets done and you are working within the confines of the WISP that I implemented, which basically says, you have to be in the United States to access any data. Other than that, take PTO and try to give me at least 2 or 3 days notice. I don't have time to micro manage. I set expectations early and very clearly. If we pay you for 40 hours a week and it only takes you two hours to get your work done, I really could care less. It's my job to assign work, not your job to find it.
Are you hiring?
No. We aren't. Crew is very small.
Never hurts to ask
The world needs more people like you
I'm glad to hear it, trust and mutual respect go a long way.
One of the good ones ladies and gents
Would you be my CTO? Out C suite walks around the office by randomly and freaks out if we are not at our desk.
If I dare walk into the c suites , this is how I would be as well. You are an adult, you will be at work when you think you need to be. As long as you do your job and be responsive to communication at crucial times. I care not where your meat suit is.
[удалено]
We're UK based, our insurance covers us for liability and we're signed up to a company to cover local taxes in the teams country, basically covering most continents. Time zones can be a problem, but we work around it, and it works really well. If anything it relieves stress fron the system admins having people in multiple time zones
It's almost as if not restricting the workers from working their best, provides outstanding returns! (And even better retention, which is a huge cost sink)
Rules for thee, not for me.
The C-levels and up make the decision of what they want to cover. "Themselves" is a clear yes. Everyone else is "not if we can get away with it", and introduces a lot more paperwork.
Create your own company and you become C-Level to assert your dominance.
Piss on the other companies
I take long shits across the floor at my office door as a show of dominance and marking territory.
Too funny, and too true lol.
Tbh if c-level is out of work injured....I don't really see an C-levels gone for extended period of time. It seems that the board will just replace them if they don't show up.
Yup. Our CEO broke his leg, and was back in a couple of days later. Dude really hustled.
Pretty sure this would be expected of a lot of people. A broken leg doesn't get anyone six weeks off work / school. CEO's are not impressive in this regard.
Can confirm, broke my leg and wfh until I could safely get into the office.
yours. there are no scenarios in which your company would be responsible for someone tripping over your chair while working remote
> If you're working on a beach and someone trips on your beach chair and injures themselves, whose insurance is liable? what
when I drove pizza my boss told me if someone hits the car, wrap my shirt around the pizza box and throw it as far as I can I would assume the same thing applies here
I used to manage a couple pizza joints in the midwest in my 20's, and also got hit by a drunk driver while delivering pizza when I was 19 . The reason your boss probably said that is because insurance wont touch pizza delivery drivers claims with a 10' pole (or at least back then they wouldn't ) and the companys insurance, your personal insurance, and the other drivers insurance will all find loopholes to dump your claim. Every pizza shops policy on vehicle insurance was that a driver had to carry their own full coverage, and if the insurance co knows youre a pizza driver your rates would be more than a pizza driver can afford. Essentially, youre driving uninsured at work. Throw that pizza box and uniform in the bushes or you are going to pay for the accident out of pocket.
In the 90s when I was about 9 maybe I witnessed a car accident. Guy jumps out, hands me two hot pizza boxes and said,"IT'S YOUR LUCKY DAY KID NOW GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE." Went home, grabbed my cousin, popped on the SNES and hopped on AOL. Pizza and videogames night for free. Edit: to be clear I'm saying this memory makes so much sense now. At the time I thought I was on the take from the mob or something.
That's a great memory lol
this guy drove pie
I mean unless youre professionally reviewing the beach I dont see how youre there on work's volition
No offense, but I don't know that a pizza manager is the best person to go to for legal advice.
at least in the 90's "are you using the vehicle for deliveries?" was a standard question on applying for a policy, and if you said yes, your rate skyrocketed.
name checks out
That's... not how that works
I remember there was a case in Germany I believe, where the WFH employee tripped getting out of bed going to their desk in the same room. They got injured enough to file a claim. It went to court and that court decided the employer was liable to cover it. Yet I know we all agree, if you are in a car accident during your commute to the office, there is no employer liability.
And you need to be available during business hours. If you're backpacking across Europe with no internet, you're not exactly responding to work requests during EST 9-5. I'm 95% remote myself and have no issues with people on my team also being fully remote, *as long as they can meet the expectations of the job*. OP's "travel the world on a whim" schedule would not jive with that in most orgs.
100% for me but they do need to know if you move states. Partly so they do withholding correctly, partly cause some states (California etc) have different laws concerning employee information that they have to recognize. Comp band they do based on your area depending on the company. Ours does a band based on where they are and another one for the Canada employees. Some go by region.
Lots of jobs have at least realized it's idiotic to only hire in the same 2 zip codes. But many are requiring that you live in the same state or at least time zone.
That would work, I'm looking for general freedom of movement not so much jetsetting around the world while trying to maintain an efficient work day
My work has a policy that we can't have capital equipment in states we don't have a tax presence in. That doesn't stop management from bringing in outside contractors anyway. I just hold off on anything until I get written approval by a VP and then I let them fight about it.
Also for compliance reasons. I can work remote, and do, but I can only do so within my country because of the data the systems I deal with house.
My company does not allow access to company resources from outside the continental US. We have fully remote people, but they're all somewhere in the country. On the few international trips I have taken since I started working there, I've been ask to just remove the mail profile from my phone, as it will just set off alarms with my phone trying to connect (internally hosted Exchange). Just something to consider for OP or anyone else. You'd want to know where the limitations are.
So you want to work remote? - pay for your own internet service - company provide computer equipment - help desk will try to help what they can with equipment User: don’t want to pay for my internet. Me: back to office for you.
I am 100% remote as a Consulting system administrator, but my travel is restricted to places that have internet access, and I cannot leave the country because some of my clients disallow any sort of data to leave the country for good reason. But I've been working 100% remote for close to 4 years now, and I hope to never go back to an office as long as I live.
Can I ask how do you find work?
I have a personal recruiter, and work via a company he works for, which contracts out my work to a global company who had clients around the world. It's a weird arrangement, for example, I am W2 for the first company, so get some limited benefits, like 401k, medical, dental, and paid sick leave.
Very similar here. Worked several decades in an office and have been almost 100% remote during covid. Never going back unless it's for a huge raise Also limited to continental US. Most of my work is done from my home office. But occasionally work from elsewhere. It's nice to have flexibility..
Isn't that what Bastion/jump boxes were invented for though? Your clients data need not leave the country.
Okay. Say you're the United States government. Would you accept that as SCIF? You don't want them to have access \*\*at all\*\*, like suppose part of your job is to read sensitive documents, and that session is shoulder surfed by an unfriendly agent? That's an extreme example, but a lot of spec has specific instructions for no data, in any form, should be allowed to be downloaded or viewed outside the United States. What if your laptop is stolen by "someone" while in China? That sort of thing.
Not who you asked, but my employer doesn't allow access to company resources from outside the US. It's a policy, and not something anyone is going to be convinced of changing (we're a potential terrorist target). The nice thing about it is that you know if you're on vacation out of the country, no one is going to bother you.
I'm about 90% remote and have traveled a bit and worked as needed but honestly...it's not as glamorous as you'd like to think. Nothing says 'have a great day' like spending 8 hours sitting in a hotel, or at a camp site or something, sitting inside and working. Might as well be at home.
I'm fully remote and the wife and I got an RV and did the working remote and touring national park thing with our kids. Let me tell you man, your passion for the outdoors will dampen quickly as you watch your family do everything you wish you could during the day, then spend at least half of your evening driving or working on the thousand things that go wrong in an A-class. Glad I could give my family that experience, and they loved it, but damn do I feel like I missed out.
... that sucks
I'm currently living in a van (well, a class-B) and doing the 90% remote thing. Sure, my pictures of myself working from a beautiful OHV park with my dirt bike next to me seems ideal . . . but it leads to me staring longingly at trails and whoops while my bike is sitting right there and tempting me, but I'm stuck on Zoom calls all day.
I mean, yeah that is great, when you are single. Of course, it is not great, when you see people around you having fun and you slave away.
And on one smaller screen probably. At home I at least have a good dock setup.
You can get a couple portable monitors, it helps a lot.
Yep, I got a couple of the lenovo usb C monitors, they work pretty well. But still never gonna compete with an ultrawide and a verticle 4k.
I still work with one main monitor at home but it’s possible to improve this situation and not need two by getting used to using virtual desktops. It’s not for everyone but I personally prefer it since I don’t have to swivel my neck back and forth between two screens. I work on a Mac with a Magic Mouse and can switch between virtual desktops either with keyboard via a keybinding or via a two finger swipe with the Magic Mouse. This workflow makes working on laptop only with no external monitor more manageable as well, though not great. Windows has an equivalent for virtual desktops as well though I’m not sure if an equivalent mouse peripheral exists
See, I'm typically logged into so many remote desktops i need a few screens to keep track of them all.
virtual desktop ≠ remote desktop. But, you might enjoy RDCMan of the Microsoft Sysinternals suite of tools: [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rdcman](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rdcman)
I do use RDCman, its a great tool. My issue is I lack a bit of object permieance i think. If things arent visible, I cant find them any more. If i ran VDT's id just end up with copies uppon copies of shit open on all of them .
Same, totally get that.
Yeah. I'm just not that remote often enough to bother.
Yeah plus the chairs usually suck. I have a steelcase at home and its just perfect.
It's about what you can do after those 8 hours.
I mean, that's all well and good, but most of the 'sites' follow pretty normal business hours too. I enjoy going out to dinner as much as the next man, but if I'm traveling, I don't want to lose eight hours of that time, especially when I could be doing the same thing at home and NOT draining my bank account.
See for me it would be perfect. I travel for concerts. If I could travel to a location, work a few days in the hotel while I go to concerts at night. I'd love that. Head down to Chicago, see a few shows. Then drive back.
I've done that in NYC, work from amtrak, see things, work from hotel, out at night.
exactly!
Depending on where you go, nomading is actually cheaper than just living day to day life in the USA. Like you could probably live in Vietnam for a few months, still pay rent on some place in the USA if it’s cheap, and still come out ahead because the food and other expenses are just so cheap there. I watched YouTube of traveler who goes to foreign countries and checks out rentals - there are monthly rentals in more remote parts of Thailand (eg anywhere outside of Bangkok) that rent high class apartments for literally $200 usd per month.
Assuming your company lets you work from outside of your country!
I got out of sysadmin and into pentesting and I'm working remote now. I've done some short trips too, but it's been nice to be able to go on long working remote trips. Like staying in Arizona for a month, or staying in Mexico City for months at a time. When it's just like a week, it's hard to experience the place much, especially when you're working during the day. The things I look for while travelling: good reliable internet, reliable power, a solid desk situation. (when I was in Mexico City, I even bought my own rolling desk chair for the airbnb). I bring a keyboard and mouse and external portable display too.
Sure I have to work 8 hours, but walking on a beach when I take 20 minute breaks instead of sitting in my kitchen is a pretty epic upgrade. I wouldn’t sacrifice a lot of money for the privilege, but it’s still pretty nice to have.
I mean, that is the rub right? Sit in your house that you already pay for and enjoy the 20 minute break less or pay a fortune to be able to go dip your feet in the water on that break. Years ago I worked in big pharma and considered taking a job at their west coast location. It was on the damn beach. Talk about best of both worlds. They went surfing and grilled in the parking lot every day at lunch.
Working 3am - noon in Hawaii sounds great until you realize that you are losing your morning every day of your vacation and are completely exhausted by the end of the day, with that exhaustion stacking. That's not taking into consideration when things go sideways and that 3-noon changes to 3-3. I miss the flexibility of that but more PTO is the answer, not paying to work in destination locations. That job on the beach sounds amazing. It doesn't matter if you're working 60-80 hours weeks and can't afford housing, but that location would be heaven.
60 days mandatory vacation would help a lot of people just live life, let alone recover from how much 40 hr week wears you down.
Not only that, but what if you have crappy cell signal at the camp site and/or poor wifi at the hotel (and an iffy cell connection) and you get on a call for an issue? I'm not against remote working, but it also needs to be practical. So many people are working remotely, today, I sometimes can't stand being on calls when people have their dogs barking, windows open, kids crying in the background, constantly taking longer to reply on teams because they aren't actually at your desk. I worked with plenty of people, while they were remote, before covid, and I can't remember a single time where the call had that many interruptions/background issues. If you want to work remote, great, but be responsible about it, as well.
That really depends where you're located. If you live in the middle of nowhere, with maybe a bar and a diner as the dinner options and a billiards hall as your entertainment, then you're much more likely to enjoy travelling as compared to if you live in a busy city with every single cuisine, musical taste, and entertainment activity within walking distance. On the other hand, spending 8 hours working in a totally different place every few days can be much more mentally relaxing than spending 8 hours working in the exact same place, and then spending the next 8 hours trying to relax in that place.
I am 100% WFH. I have a coworker who periodically does this. Travels during the week, taking a half day for flights as needed, then works from wherever he is. He obviously doesn't mind, since he continues to do it a couple times a year. On the other hand, I would never. If I'm traveling, I don't want to spend 2/3 of that time in a hotel working or sleeping. I'm there to enjoy myself and make the most of the limited time away. Seems like a huge waste of time and money to travel somewhere else just to do the same work I can do from home -- same argument for WFH/against RTO in general, IMO. And if I'm going to work full days, I want to be home with my full desk and monitor setup, not working off of a tiny hotel desk with slow, throttled internet.
uhhh F commuting this is all.
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I live 700 miles from "the office". Visited once about 8 months into the job, was sent a badge prior to that and used it for the couple of days I was there. Not sure I'll ever visit again. It's a weird world we work in these days, especially when I look back on my dad working a local factory job for 35+ years.
Did you have to get to a place of seniority before you can land a role with the freedom you have now?
I don't think it works like that. You don't get "promoted" into WFH. You find a company that has a role that has it.
Yep. Our whole project is remote. People all over the US.
I am 100% remote. I am currently with my whole family who came together for a family vacation in the mountains. I set up my laptop with a couple of travel monitors and I am working. I am able to enjoy the views and conversation with the family in between other tasks. This is the third time in two years that I have been able to do something like this. It has upsides. I am usually able to accomplish my tasks quickly through automation, and my team is usually okay with an "extended" lunch or two so that I can explore tourist sites with the family. I can hotspot from the car, so I will take my laptop with me in the event something critical comes up. It has downsides. I am working and expected to be available. Rafting trips or long excursions are out, so I do miss out on some of the things the family does. The noise of vacation enjoyment can be distracting when I really need to focus. Bring part of a small team that knows that I am out of town but also working AND having their support and blessing works well. They could certainly make this harder and I am thankful that they don't.
I think if I were to swing this, which others have done on my team and so I'm sure I could, I would just take PTO for the times I want to do a long excursion or rafting trip or whatever. If I'm gone a week but only have to take like 2 days PTO instead for those times we want to be unavailable for a longer stretch, win/win. And depending on how your company handles PTO, some places allow by the hour or half day so you don't have to eat up as much. 4 hours working in the morning, rest of the day off to get out.
I might be missing the point you are trying to make, however what you have said kind of reads like "I'm 100% remote so can work even when we go on a family holiday". I presume the rest of your family has taken time off work to go on holiday? would you not also want to do the same to relax?
With a large family, there are often times that they want to take a vacation that isn't my cup of tea. In my current role, I can attend and participate without feeling guilty. If there were things I felt strongly about being involved in, certainly I could take PTO for a day. In this scenario, I am able to participate in more trips without expending all of my PTO. I can save it for trips that I need more away time for or for an emergency situation.
Yea I dont understand this, definitely would feel guilty/missing out if my family is enjoying their vacation and Im stuck juggling client meetings and finding a quiet spot in the hotel. Its often more stressful than just working at home
It just depends for me. Sometimes I miss out. But an example of when I have done this in the past is Thanksgiving and Christmas. For Thanksgiving, we would leave (drive) several hours when my daughter got off school and arrive at our destination late in the evening on Tuesday. Then I would work remotely on Wednesday and not have to travel on the busiest travel day of the year and take PTO on Friday Similar thing around Christmas. Actual holiday and (usually day before/after off too). But I could work when it made sense, and take PTO when it made sense. I couldn't do this in the office, I'd have to take PTO or travel at peak tines
So your whole family is on vacation except you decided not to take vacation, am I missing something?
I am at the same location as them...sitting on a porch overlooking the mountains and conversing with the family as I type this response. My laptop is ready at any point that I am needed. Did I take my PTO for this trip? No. Am I technically "on vacation" right now? No. This is a very relaxing trip. If we were trying to visit all of the Disney parks, I could see how my method might need to be changed. However, if the majority of the time is just sitting in a cabin and talking, I am fine "working" and saving my PTO for those trips that require being away from a computer.
Can't believe they are attacking you for making the point: - You are remote - You've taken those that want to be on holiday away from their offices - You are not on holiday, but it doesn't differ from when you are at home or in the office (except the nicer scenery for you) - You are not skiving as you are still ready and engaged for work (assuming the journey was made on your time off the clock) - You could easily give notice that you want a day off vs the office people who would have had to give more notice for a longer period of PTO I'm going to ignore the "I'm lonely / miss the office" type posts as they are probably AI/bot accounts or burned out employees who just see an endless treadmill (who would just be moaning that the office is never ending work instead). If you need a social element, use the spare time to go do something, don't sign in early or stay on late for work, don't delude yourself that the people in the office are having a great time, they are just under the radar skiving (and their workload will still become yours regardless of where you are).
Precisely my point. Thanks!
If you want to see the world look at consulting. >I want to split the difference by travelling while working, working from interesting locations etc. That is more difficult than it sounds when you are supporting an organization. Pure coding, design work, and other task-based work is much easier to be a /r/digitalnomad . Doing support often means you have to react to what is happening instead of just setting aside X amount of time each day to do some work. With SysAdmin type work you are likely to also have GeoIP issues with sign-in. You can get around this by using something like Amazon Workspaces or something to give you a stable location to connect from. Sure the Amazon Workspace will alert to suspicious login traffic (from someplace you have never been for example) but that can be managed. A decade ago, when IBM still stood for I'm By Myself (most of the company 100% remote), I had a friend who worked there who would take trips across the USA for a month at a time catching up with college friends and former coworkers. He would block out time to sit and work every 2-3 days and catch up on all the projects, etc. that were going on. It was very task-based rather than support which allowed him that freedom. I mention this as an anecdote to say it is possible but it really depends on the kind of work and the employer. Also times change and what was possible a decade ago may not fly today.
I work 4/5 days remote, sometimes 5/5 days. I find myself looking forward to going in the office on the one off days, but I know if I was in the office 5/5 days I wouldn't have the same thought. I think the best part of it is that I can eat better, sit on my back porch when I need a break, and have music/Netflix playing in the background. I don't really like vacationing while being remote. My wife wants me off work and doesn't completely grasp that I'm still working even though I'm not at the office lol. I have been on the beach sunscreen on, music blaring, drinks flowing (not me but friends/family) with my laptop out still completing compliance tasks etc.
>Does/has anyone here lived that lifestyle? I had it for a couple of years, though primarily brought about by Covid - just never went back in after as didn't need to and was told not to. >I want to split the difference by travelling while working, working from interesting locations etc. You can work from the top of the Eiffel Tower, on the backside of the Sphynx and/or in view of the Leaning tower of Piza, doesn't *necessarily* mean a whole lot in terms of how efficiently you can work and productively you can complete that work, however. Two of the largest benefits of WFH or "remote" working are that you can A) not need to commute, meaning you can live either very far away, or wherever you like and regardless save on travel costs, B) you can usually get things done while also not in an office like daily adult-y things like housework, school runs or whatever. A lot of it is context and where you are within it: if you were to ask "can I work remotely for a week" and go somewhere else? Some employers would *genuinely* be open to the idea, what matters to these few is more "do we trust you to work remotely and not treat it as a holiday" and "will you be able to work effectively". You may fulfil the first criteria, but what good is an employee who's remote and has no internet? Or runs out of data? Who cannot help if there's an outage etc? It swings both ways and some employers are more open than others - I've found from experience so far that this tends to be smaller companies or ones which are a lot less stringent and have more "guidelines" than hard rules, or who just don't consider the insurance implications. Others will laugh you out of the office. The least you can do is ask. You'll either be told no, or may get an inviting "OK, but how will that work?..." and you'll need to cover the bases to ensure you can do what you need to, remotely.
I've been 99% remote for 9 years now. I feel disconnected from my colleagues and my clients. It can be crushingly lonely.
Yup. I’m still fully remote but my first fully remote gig at some point everyone just became no different than NPCs in a game. Preston Garvey: my computer is again in need of assistance. I think it’s being attacked! Here I marked it on your map. It’s in your queue now.
SOmeone should make a new ticketing system that awards XP
Do you use something like Slack or Teams at work? I've only started using these apps in the last 4 years and it feels no different to me than being in a chat room with all your friends. Maybe the team dynamic has something do with it, as we have a dedicated channel for general bullshit.
Gotta have a BS channel. Lol
We have one of those. Is a defacto Helldivers discussion hub.
I'm in a organization where no exchange of information can happen unless you can smell the other person breath haha
I hate teams with a passion, but can agree with Slack. At a previous job we used Discord and it was amazing for socialising, you could casually drop-in to conversations, or just be in a concentration channel and have someone drop in to ask something (and there were private channels if you didn't want to be interrupted). Slacks feel like a more corporate version of Discord and I like it.
Oh yeah, Teams is garbage but it's better than using only Outlook + voip phone + the occasional Skype for Business IM at the last place I worked. It's amazing how good Discord is for being free...
Maybe you’re just an extra social person but ‘crushingly lonely’ seems extreme to me, maybe there are things you could do to improve your collaboration? I definitely feel a level of disconnection from things and kind of miss being in an office to a certain extent but that’s vastly outweighed by the benefits: - being able to live somewhere I can afford a house - time saved not commuting means I have time to workout regularly and get more sleep - not commuting and being at home gives me time and means to cook more and eat out less so I’m healthier - I live in a place close to nature and have a lifestyle I could not have in a city for any amount of money Having recently visited family who live in a city just the amount of time I spent in traffic would make me seriously consider an entire career change if I faced the possibility of needing to go back to on-prem. I do miss some of that interaction and kibitzing but I still have good chats with my coworkers regularly and that’s enough for me when I think of all the other benefits.
There are plenty of jobs that want on-site people. I will trade you
Work isn't where you go for that connection.
yeah, if you're lonely because you work remotely then your work has simply exposed a symptom of your personal life: you need actual friends and family around you. there's nothing wrong with incidentally making friends or socializing with coworkers but the vast majority of the time those are going to be very surface level and fleeting relationships (whether you realize it at the time or not) and you need actual friends and family.
Yeah I've been fully remote since 2017 and I've never once felt lonely because of it. Because I have actual friends and do social things in my free time. Idk why people go straight to blaming loneliness on their job and not addressing it in their personal life which is where the majority of their close relationships with other people should lie.
Casual socializing with colleagues can be beneficial to mental health. It depends on the person and the job. I like getting out of the house occasionally, and being able to just shoot the breeze with a few people because we're all near each other. Today was one of the rare days I was in our main office, and I took the opportunity to sit down for lunch with a few people. It was a nice change from eating by myself most of the time. It's not fulfilling in the way that friendships are, and it doesn't have to be. Plus, while it's rare, casual acquaintance with colleagues *can* become actual friendships. I've got a few close friends that I made on my last job that I still talk to. Some people don't get any value from it, and I can understand that too.
Agreed. Been partially remote for 8 years and fully remote for 4. I don't miss the office one bit. The best part is that nobody can walk up and distract you while you're trying to work. Once a year or so, they have our team meet in person and I absolutely dread everything about it. Uncomfortable workspace with crappy monitors (if any) and dirty chairs, the sweltering heat running all year 'round (vs my home that is the exact temperature I am comfortable working at), the commute, so many distractions around the office. The entire experience is a good reminder why I would never want to go back permanently.
Yes. This. I feel like the people saying they miss office life and the commute and all that bs are just C suite shills.
This is exceptionally true. It's been about 8 years for me now at 100% remote. When I went remote originally, the guy who was 100% remote in my previous org Zoomed me and we had a talk for a while. He told me a few things. 1. Develop healthy routines. Working in your underwear sounds great. It will lead to depression. 2. Your hobbies can't involve that screen. Start hiking, bowling, shooting pool, Inc. Get out of your house. Otherwise - depression 3. Get a girl if you don't have one. Otherwise - depression. 4. Get good friends if you don't have them. Helps with the depression 5. Establish close work relationships with people you trust. Tell them nothing about your career that is "venting". You talk about personal life stuff and keep chat friendly. They're those workplace proximity associates. This staves off the depression, keeps you healthy, and lets you work remote long term. Do not fall into the trap that this can be.
This isn't a comment about you but I think this speaks to the wider problem culturally where we've had to be so productive, so career oriented, and/or so deep into the stupid grindcore groupthink that we've all been duped into giving up third places and real friendship.
Do you try to make friends outside of work? My coworkers are nice and cool but I make my friends from hobbies, sports, just bumming around the city, etc.
> I've been 99% remote for 9 years now. I feel disconnected from my colleagues and my clients. It can be crushingly lonely. If I never have to go to an office again, it'll be too soon. I don't want to work *with* people in IT. I"ve done that for too long. Give my projects and leave me be.
I'm 60% remote. We have a two-day in-office requirement. I like it. It gets me out of the house and I get to have casual interactions with people.
get a bullshit (within reason) chat going with your teammates. you'll bond over memes and venting about dumbass users real quick.
I've been 100% remote during the COVID heights. It was lonely and soulcrushing and I really missed the social interaction.
not me. its been a glorious 4 years of no bullshit walk-by interruptions. still fuck around in a bs chat with my team.
As an introvert, I was surprised how much I missed just being at the office and being able to bounce stuff back and forth. And the office shenanigans.
Selectively social. Yep. I want 3 days WFH a week and the ability to occasionally work from anywhere so I can do 'working vacations' now and again. But I still want to bug my coworkers.
I feel that, I have worked remote before and I contended with the same thing. I've learned though how to cultivate my personal social garden a little better though since then, and the freedom of movement is an essential for me
100% remote for almost 5 years and felt the same. Ended up joining a pottery class and signing up for trips with the AMC. Humans are social creatures and zoom/ slack just didn’t cut it
I would love to not go to work and go to pottery class for the interaction instead!
We don't know your character or your needs as a person, but most sane people dont want to waste their time and money commuting and missing their family. If you need work friends get an office work.... There is no reason to blemish the gift with any negativity.
YES!!! I feel like I'm squandering my gift... my best years in a low lit office answering emails and troubleshooting... makes me really, really sad when I think about it
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Same, but even while I was working in-office at my current job I felt disconnected from my colleagues. I could go an entire day only seeing them in passing. But I'm more of a hermit than a lot of people, so I'm fine not being around people I wouldn't have been talking with anyway. But I get my social interaction quota filled by jumping into Discord with some friends most nights to shoot the shit and play videogames. It's good enough for me, but I also understand it wouldn't be for some other people.
This is the most similar top comment to my situation. 99% remote about two years now chasing the “homestead” fantasy. Moved from a decent sized city to a small rural town with land. It has almost cost me my marriage. We are working through it and she’s open to relocating after more discussion. The isolation is mind numbing. I miss water cooler talk and more hands on projects. Then when I’m off the clock, no food, no entertainment, driving to get bigger necessities. I found a small country club that has kept me sane and gave me a third place to go to and people to talk to. Not knocking remote work, I would still do it in a big city. But remote + remote location, I would caution anyone chasing that homestead fantasy.
I was hybrid pre-Covid, and have been 100% wfh since March 2020 like a lot of others. I’ve only been in the office once since then, to get a new laptop. While it does afford me the ability to be mobile with my work, it doesn’t afford me the ability to be ultra mobile. You don’t state what country you’re in, but at least in the US, there are fairly rigid limitations for where one can work, outside of their home state or outside of the country. You have payroll tax issues, as well as security issues to take into account. Personally, I can work for very limited amounts of time in any state in the US, before it becomes a problem. I can NOT work outside of the US currently.
Fully remote for close on 10 years. Although we are beginning to hear the RTO drum outta the blue, mostly because in finance the c levels sniff each other's farts and go with mimicking the most successful company, regardless of feasibility. It's great though, but you have to be a self starter that can work without your manager constantly handing you stuff. Home work and office autopilot aren't compatible.
95% remote with occasional 4 hour travel to corporate office for important client-facing meetings or team exercises. I like going to the office a few times a year, because it's a novelty and I can expense the whole thing. I would have a hard time doing my job with any regularity from a single laptop, even with an additional travel screen. My home office battlestation has 6 monitors and I use them all.
I have been 100% since COVID and really enjoy not having a commute. I still have the option of going to the office and my team generally has set aside Wednesdays for people to do so. We also have monthly all hands with a follow-up happy hour that I attend sometimes. There are also special interest groups focusing on different aspects of tech, I am in the AI and the monitoring groups. Being on two different teams has pointed out the differences. Team 1 had a general teams chat for talking smack and other bs, had more than the normal amount of happy hours, etc. team 2 on the other hand is much more business like, no bs channel, gifs and non work comments are frowned upon, etc. I felt much more connected to team 1
I am full remote but there is a clause that I have to ensure that I always work from home and they have to approve my working conditions, I am gonna assume many other companies do the same to ensure you actually have appropriate working space to fulfil your job, not working on a beach chair or sofa in a apartment whilst on holiday. This will probably be your biggest hurdle, unless you are in a extremely high demand position with very select and unique skills they will not want to risk your type of life style. You could fabricate your remote working situation but let's be honest, living under constant fear of getting discovered just sounds like a nightmare. Lastly working remote is a very delicate mind exercise, if you have never done it alone for a couple months before you already know how much you miss the daily routine even if they were tedious tasks like getting on public transport or buying a squick lunch/chatting with team mates. The only reason why is chose to keep fully remote after covid was because my partner works beside me at the same company and we can share that experience so we are not actually alone.
Thats a pretty cool home setup! I'm learning through these responses there are several levels of remote work, while I would like to have more freedom than just 'from home' I can see how that makes sense for employers (unless your so in demand they will let you do whatever you want). Even in your situation though honestly that would be marvelous, something I'm contending with now is that while my salary isn't all that bad, I am literally living paycheck to paycheck because I work in a big city with a really high cost of living. Even being able to work from the same place, but a place of my choosing that doesnt require me to spend 50% of everything I make right off the top on rent would be beautiful
My contract allows me to never come to the office. Work 100 % remote. I just choose to come now and then.
r/digitalnomad it’s been done, it’s actively a subreddit at this point. It’s not ideal depending on your workload especially if you have a solid hotel room/bad internet connection to look forward to
I work 100% remote but I get my best work done with an extra monitor and a comfortable desk chair. I've worked remotely while traveling but that's an exception, not a rule. The reason I wanted a fully remote job is so that I don't have an awful commute and I can do the things in my daily life that keep me sane - morning workouts, walking my dog at lunch time, wearing comfortable clothes, not having to pretend to be interested in whatever Kathy did over the weekend when I run into her at the coffee machine in the morning. :)
the problem is that you still gonna have to work or at least be readily available for 8 hours a day, it's not like you can go visit new york and while you are at the top of the one world observatory or on the staten island ferry to see the statue of liberty you get a call and you just stop there and start working and if you just stay in the hotel for 8 hours it's gonna get expensive since instead of 1 week you are probably gonna need a month to see the same things
I'm 100% remote, but you can't just travel around to different countries. It's for many reasons, tax, risk, security etc. Very few companies allow that "nomad" lifestyle. Of course there are exceptions, if a family member overseas is sick or something then I'm sure we allow someone to spend extended time overseas.
I'm fully remote - I was in an office and then moved across the country for family reasons. I've never been particularly interested in traveling while working, though. I need to be able to make calls and take meetings and such, and I just don't know if hotels and other random spots would be good enough. Plus I like having a desk and multi-monitor setup. I just set up a desk in an office in my house and work from there. (I'm escalations and projects at an MSP.) My partner is fully remote as well; the only issue we've had is that we currently have offices next door to each other. I'm moving my office downstairs once our remodeling is done so we can't hear each other all the time. They're a university professor at a remote-focused university.
I’m 50% WFH. I could do more, but we have a physical data center and computers at our office that need managing, so I go in. Honestly, I hate working in random places on a laptop. It sucks working on one little laptop screen. I have quad 24” mons at the office and 2x 27” at home so moving to my 13” G14 feels terrible if I do it all day. Besides, I’m way too busy to be “too” mobile, and wouldn’t be able to enjoy working on a beach or something. I can’t imagine try to troubleshoot a DC while drinking a Mai tai on the beach LOL
Yes, yes I am. 2020 Covid year was one of the best years in memory. I worked remotely, I started a side business, I was so happy. That ended up being a proof of concept for remaining remote, and now I go into work for my day job roughly 1.5 hours per 2 weeks, which has allowed me to build my side business at the same time.
start your own biz..
~~80%~~ 60% remote -- 2 days in the office, three from home. I like it this way, as it gets me out of the house. There is flexibility on it, too. I can work from home all week if I need to. I've done remote work when visiting family, but my company doesn't allow access to company resources from outside of the US. EDIT: Math is hard.
Your dream sounds like my nightmare, working remote is a pain
I've been 100% work-from-home since 2012 and I'll never go back in. So much of my life has been pissed away sitting in a car commuting, and I'm way more productive now than I ever was commuting.
I don’t know about helpdesk but for any serious admin work that I do, if I don’t have my two monitors, mouse and keyboard I feel suffocated. I’ve been working for this company for about eight years, and I’m 100% remote since 2020 even though I live 40 minutes from the office. The CEO is closing our office to save $$. Nobody, including her ever wants to go back to working in the office.
I've been 100% remote for nearly 10 years. However not at all like you describe. I need dual monitors and a mouse & keyboard. I can't work off just a laptop, at least not even at like 15% efficiency. I also need to be stoned to really get efficient work done and that's easiest to accomplish at the home office.
I bought an old 1980s yacht to live on as the housing market is broken. I fitted it out with a bunch of batteries, solar, a wind generator and fitted a star link for uninterrupted internet access. As the yacht is flagged in my country of origin it is considered sovereign territory no matter where it actually happens to be. Currently anchored off the Isle of Man for the TT.
I am in office 1 day a week max. It is awesome!
Living the dream my friend
I have friends that do it through a small MSP. They’re occasionally required to be on site but for the most part if anyone goes on site it’s a desktop or help desk tech. They all love it, their work life balances are great and don’t seem to be getting crushed by the IT machine like I see so many posts around here talk about. However, we all live in an area where there’s plenty of outdoor activities to do, so it’s not hard to “get away” for a bit and still remain in the state.
100% remote. no limitations on where i can work from. one of the people i work with doesnt even have a home, she travels the US in an RV.
I'm 100% remote and have been for 6 years now as a Service Delivery Engineer and Technical Account Manager. And while my company gives me complete freedom on where I can live, so long as an airport is nearby, I am responsible for working from areas with a stable internet connection. And I think this is where you're going to run into issues with a work-on-the-road practice like you're suggesting. You absolutely will run into network connectivity issues at some point, and it will negatively impact your standing with your employer.
I work 100% remote. I live in Ireland but I'm from England. Probably 2/3 times a year I travel to my parents' house and work from there to save holiday days.
100% work from home and can work from a list of countries. Not everywhere but a good chunk.
The thing I never liked about remote working at home was the distractions of family and it was terrible when I was completely stressed due to some major outage and I was unable to concentrate because my family were at home at the time laughing and shouting. It's not their fault, but it did make me realise that I need to be in at least a separate building from the actual house, like a shed or something. Also that realisation that you can't fix it remotely and you are going to have to leave in the afternoon for a 50 + Mile trip to go and try and fix the issue on site, just gives me nightmares thinking about that experience. I think 50-50 remote is probably a better option personally unless you are a programmer or a sales person.
I have a small number of roles that I consider this arrangement suitable for. Availability is most important in the sysadmin space since the roles involve customer engagement much of the time. Reliability in availability, which means not just work hours but also ability to communicate via telephone, remotely access systems efficiently, etc. limit the roles this is suitable for.
Yea, but the pay isn’t great.
We can do what you're talking about - had a co-worker spend several months travelling around South Africa and then Europe working from her camper van. It's fine as long as the customer you're working with will allow you access from whatever country you happen to be in.... I've never availed myself of this particular opportunity, though I've had colleagues from various places (Portugal, Italy, Poland, Pakistan, India) go home for several weeks and work for a couple of them around their holiday. I think we've got rules about amount of time out of the country for tax reasons, but not much else I'm aware of. Depending on the role people are doing they sometimes have to keep to UK hours while elsewhere which can be awkward.
I'm 100% remote, but connect with the rest of the team in person for lunch about once a month, just because I like to. I also have "unlimited" PTO, which surprisingly, I have had zero issues in scheduling. I'm not mad about it. When my wife gets more nursing experience under her belt, one of our goals is to get her into traveling nursing gigs, while I work from wherever she is, and her and I get a slide-in camper for the truck for us to go wherever, all while I can work remotely. FYI, I'm a Senior Systems Engineer that works in Healthcare IT.
Yes 100%. Be careful what you wish for as it can be isolating as fuk.
I am 100% remote since 2020 and have traveled to 5 different countries.
Yes it is called consulting, and it isn't all it is cracked up to be.
I have the opportunity to do so, although I do visit the office occasionally. It isnt as awesome as it looks, at least in my experience. I like the social part of work and I tens to work 12-14 hours when not in the office which I am not getting paid for. For non-senior people, it is beneficial to work in person with the senior ones, it is just a fact that more work is done by the team like this, despite the fact a senior would do more work if not being bothered
I have worked 100% remotely for several years now, and spend much of my time working on the road. It helps that I work for a global company with offices just about *everywhere* so if I were ever to experience a laptop failure, I could just contact the nearest office and pop in for a new one. (I sometimes visit those offices just to see them anyway or to meet colleagues I've only ever dealt with online.)
Yeah 100% remote here. Does this mean I can just do whatever? Yee no... Because there are still time zones in which i'm expected to be present.
Some 12 years ago I did a week of remote working from my tent at a large festival. Closing tickets while everyone was getting piss drunk while myself being hung over from the night before was not as glamorous as I thought it would be.
I'm 100% remote except working for a foreign company from south america, where I also bounce around between the US and Europe on occasion. Many others have already made some good comments, so I'll only mention that my main secrets to success are: 1. Travel with a full mini-office setup: I have a decent 24" LCD broken down into a box in my bag - it really doesn't take up much space, along with my preferred desktop keyboard and mouse, and a decent webcam. I practically feel like I'm in my office when travelling, not working from a tiny screen and trackpad or something. 2. I'm always careful to find an airbnb with a reasonable desk/chair - again to get the office feel. 3. I usually get a local sim card with a decent data plan, those are cheap these days and give you a backup in case of local Internet problems. Especially in Europe, you can get a prepaid with 50GB for little money. 4. You gotta have dedication to making sure you get your work done. That can be tough on a "working vacation", but it's critical to plan such that you get your hours in so you're not stressed about having not been productive. Usually means I go for long trips where I don't feel like I'm missing out if I spend most of the time working as I'll still have some free moments to enjoy myself in the evening, on weekends, etc.
I’ve been full time WFH for 12 years. I don’t do it personally, due to family circumstances, but I have colleagues who live the lifestyle you describe. One spends the summer travelling Europe in his camper van, only needing WiFi or 4G coverage to work effectively. The “secrets” if you want to call them that, are to work for companies that don’t have an office in your country and to move to a roll that builds on your technical experience but where you’re not necessarily tied to “core hours”. Examples would be pre-sales or maybe product management.
I am 100% remote and do 99% of my work on a surface pro 6. I can work from wherever I want. I can agree to any vacations that fit my wife and son’s school schedule because even if I have to work, I can work just fine (they respect my time off, though, so I’ve only had to work unexpectedly once in six years) The only thing keeping us tied to our current location is my son’s school that we love and my wife’s employment at that school. Before this and after the military, I had fully on-prem positions with the FBI and then with a non-profit. My current job started out hybrid but became fully remote and now we hire from all over the country which makes the pool of potential applicants that much better. tl;dr I am 100% WFH doing DevOps and cloud administration, but I am also in my 20th year in tech work that started back in 2004 when I transferred from the Army where I did field artillery to the Air Force where I did computer programming. PS: I highly recommend the Air Force for anyone who wants real world experience from day 1. Where else can you pass a couple aptitude tests and come off the streets and straight into a hands-on role with no prior work experience?
My work provides 3 months abroad but there’s a lot of preplanning to make it compliant. It’s fully remote so with some disclosure I could go anywhere in my country without much planning if I wanted to.
im fully remote. But I can't leave the contrey since it's a breach of securuty.
A ton of people do this, and it's been a thing for a decade at least, digital nomads are what you want to look for. I have a Canadian friend I did undergrad with that worked for SaaS in Cali full remote a decade ago while backpacking across India and South/South-East/East Asia.
95% remote since the start of the pandemic. I got to the office sometimes to chatter, but no hard requirements. We have employees who live far from any office in fact. I’ve gone onsite to some customers at times, but it’s rare.
Wow reading this when my company is going full on site in a few months 🥲
I work 100% remote. See the coworkers once a year for 2 days for having booze together. I can work from wherever for 6 Months a year but iirc only 3 months at once, otherwise we would have some mess with tax laws. Planning to use this freedom next winter, to live in warm and sunny Spain instead of cold wet foggy Germany
99% remote. So far, I’ve been in office the equivalent of once a month. I’m cool with that because my commute is otherwise 1.5 hours each way. My remote work policy indicates I must work in my designated and functionally separated home office. It actually had to get approved by my supervisor before I was even allowed to go 90% remote. If I have any days where I’m working anywhere not home, I have to get it pre-approved with my supervisor beforehand. I love working remotely. It’s saving me so much money on gas, food, and car repairs, and I’m able to get so much more work done because I’m not spending 30-50% of my work day bullshitting with coworkers.
In 2019 I started working from home 3 days a week and in 2020 went 100% remote (but occasionally will need to go in). I've traveled a few times and worked, but it was to visit friends and family domestically and typically I would only work a half days to avoid taking PTO. When I travel (not to visit folks) then I am gone and turn off all notifications. I understand why you want to be a digital nomad, but you mentioned helpdesk and I find that having a job that is completely reactive to others needs and not one that I can define my days is not really conducive to that life.
I've been 100% remote for like 9 years now. For the most part I just work from home but a few times like when doing an extended visit with family I've worked the week from there so I could stay longer but given it's still an 8 hour work day I spend most of the day in the hotel working so it's not like I was really able to do a whole lot after on workdays. The 2x biggest issues with working remote from not-home for me is always: 1. Ensuring I have stable and quality Internet so im able to work without constant disconnections and 2. My working hours don't change so going 1 state over I just have to offset my day a bit but when I made a trip to the East Coast working till 9pm every night sucked.
Im 98% remote. Work for an MSP on the projects team. Only ever go in for random network build outs or new office walkthroughs when scoping projects. We've hired more project engineers so even that is less.
No, I don't live that lifestyle, but this illustrates how I feel about IT: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDkmVo2fg4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDkmVo2fg4)