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Are Remote Offices Becoming The New Normal? (backchannel.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the digital-nomads dept.

"As companies tighten their purse strings, they're spreading out their hires -- this year, and for years to come," reports Backchannel, citing interviews with executives and other workplace analysts. mirandakatz writes: Once a cost-cutting strategy, remote offices are becoming the new normal: from GitHub to Mozilla and Wordpress, more and more companies are eschewing the physical office in favor of systems that allow employees to live out their wanderlust. As workplaces increasingly go remote, they're adopting tools to keep employees connected and socially fulfilled -- as Mozilla Chief of Staff David Slater tells Backchannel, "The wiki becomes the water cooler."
The article describes budget-conscious startups realizing they can cut their overhead and choose from talent located anywhere in the world. And one group of analysts calculated that the number of telecommuting workers doubled between 2005 and 2014, reporting that now "75% of employees who work from home earn over $65,000 per year, putting them in the upper 80th percentile of all employees, home or office-based." Are Slashdot's readers seeing a surge in telecommuting? And does anybody have any good stories about the digital nomad lifestyle?

7 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Hate the office life by makotech222 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Software dev here. Going to the office is worst part of the job. Dressing in uncomfortable clothes, sitting in a freezing office, while classic rock blasts on repeat over the speakers. Always looking for a remote job so i don't have to deal with that shit any more.

    1. Re:Hate the office life by HanzoSpam · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Unfortunately, any job you can do from home can be done more cheaply from Bangalore. Just ask anyone who ever worked for IBM.

      --

      Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
    2. Re:Hate the office life by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I've never worked in a dev house that doesn't have some kind of music blasting. Usually electronic, sometimes rock or indie - depends what the boss is into usually.

      Damn. Does any other dev besides me actually require silence to be able to work? That's especially true when concentrating on solving difficult problems. I've never actually been in an office where they blast music, and I work in the videogame industry which is notoriously casual, even among software developers. I wouldn't last a week.

      Besides which, peoples' taste varies so widely that it seems like you're just inflicting pain on everyone but yourself and the few you also share your musical tastes. To me, it's incredibly rude to assume you have the right to inflict your music on everyone else around you.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  2. I have a remote option but go in anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I get things done quicker leaving the distractions of my home and going to a dedicated work environment.

    I also prefer in person collaboration, problems get resolved much quicker.

    Of course, it helps that my job is only a 5 min drive away, I like the people there, and there's plenty of free food/drinks.

    1. Re: I have a remote option but go in anyway by JoeMerchant · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Major difference between my home and office working situation: at home, my office door locks, and my family knows to respect my space while I am working. At work, I have a cube, no door, and I am present to serve whoever makes the effort to walk to my cube entrance.

      The family is still a distraction, but they're much easier to manage than the drop-in crowd.

    2. Re:I have a remote option but go in anyway by ProzacPatient · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I work from home and I get what you're saying but I'll tell you that keeping your workspace clean and professional (Having it in its own dedicated room is even better) and sticking to a morning routine like; getting up, having breakfast and getting dressed as though you're on your way to the office, can go a long way to improve your work-at-home ethic.

  3. Re:Streamlined Outsourcing by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you are absolutely invaluable then there may be two surprises. One is that you get replaced anyway because upper management is stupid. The other is that you're not as invaluable as you thought. In both cases you have to prove that you're invaluable instead of just assuming it. I thought I was invaluable to a critical project once, but they went and cancelled the project and then downsized...