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simply me

Telecommuting is all wrong or is it something with me?

For last three years I was working as a programmer from home, using Internet, VPNs, Terminal Services etc. to connect to my company's network. I find it a very unpleasant experience. My employer wasn't a software vendor, it was a retail company, I was working on internal projects - intranet site, website, sales software, CRM etc - and for last year I was lent to work on intranet & workflow projects for one of my employer's clients, who has seen and liked what I did before. But for me it was a very hard time.

One problem is that we live 4 person in a small 2-room flat. It means that my workplace was in my bedroom and our small children were everywhere. Second, because I was a developer in a no-development shop, I was the only person who know anything about software development. It generated all wrong practices that are possible, for example introducing new features during development, lack of documentation, unrealistic schedules (wonder if somebody consulted them with me? no way!) etc. There was no chance to explain those things to management and make it proper. And of course it damaged all schedules, as you probably know.

But what was really bad, was the way that my work started to slip into my life and 'overwrite' it. I was working more and more, catched in mutual feedback between growing expectations of my employer and my own efforts to do everything I had to do on time, struggling with what I described in above paragraph. At first, I was working 8 hours a day. Then, there was an urgent project and I increased that time to 10 hours (telling myself it was only temporarily), then to 12... For last year or so I was working about 16 hours a day, including saturdays. It was a nightmare. Then I quit.

I wonder if it is a fault inherent to this way of working, a fault of my employer or myself? In any given short period of time I didn't feel that I was working more. It was a lot of small steps - “I'll work an hour more to finish this”, “Michal, could you do it on Monday? It is very important” etc. I was giving away a bit of my life more every week. Why I let it happen? I don't exactly know. One thing is that I'm passionate for what I do. Second - it was a quite good payd job, what is hard to find at this moment in Poland. Third - working at home I felt a kind of ilusion of freedom, for a long time I haven't noticed that I just switched a harness of office-work for the one in my mind.

Two weeks ago I started a normal, regular, 40-hours-a-week job in office, in a big software company. And I already love it. I finally have time for my daughters and wife, time to read something, time to do many things I haven't done for a very long time. Time to work on my little project which I probably announce soon ;-) (and the money are better, too)

If you worked from home or considered it, please share your experiences. I'd like to see if somebody went through something similar, or maybe it works for other people?

Posted: Jun 14 2004, 11:45 AM by michu | with 6 comment(s)
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Comments

Jonne Kats said:

Last year I worked at home for half a year and had the same problems. I was distracted very easily and because of this I had to work irregular times. Because I worked at home, my personal life and work life got intwined and this got frustrating. When you work in an office, you can more easily leave your work at the office. I now work at an office, but the only thing I miss is sitting in the garden when the weather is nice. Ah well, you can't have everything...
# June 14, 2004 6:04 AM

Sonu Kapoor said:

I work also from home, but I dont have this problem - because we dont have any kids yet. But one thing that always disturbs me is that people think that I am not working at home. They "really" think that we have more than enough time to do the job. I totally disagree with that. Due to that fact I have sometimes really strange working hours.
# June 14, 2004 8:04 AM

FL said:

I don't have kids, but I've encountered a lot more challenges working from home thatn I thought I would.

Prior to this remote assignment, I was driving 100 miles/day (160 km) to and from work each day.

The thing is that you need to be very strict about when you are working and when you are not. I am in my own business and I am in this 'work from home' thing for the long term. I have no intention of ever working for someone else again.
# June 14, 2004 8:29 AM

Michal said:

Yes, being strict about when you're working and when you aren't can be difficult. Especially if all-things-computer-and-internet-and-programming related are more than work for you...

I noticed that sometimes I go to sleep, think about some problem, find something what could be an answer - and then I go back to my computer to check it. THAT is a serious case of work and life confusion.

So one day I said: enough... And I am glad.
# June 14, 2004 8:38 AM

Brad said:

I worked from home for a couple of years a couple years ago, and have recently started a venture that has landed me back there for at least a few months. The trick is to "go to the office", even if the office is accross the hall. Treat it as if you were actually driving the 100 miles still and it'll be easy(er).
# June 14, 2004 9:32 AM

Tejas Patel said:

Considering all the questions Michal, I would say firstly it is your fault, no matter what was going on. As Brad says, consider even your home as a work place, try to have fixed hours, allocate yourself breaks as you would normally do within an office environment and enjoy your work.

If you had a problem with something that you are working on in the office and then when you come home, if you just realise what the solution is, how likely it is that you will go back to the office to fix the problem on the same day and especially if you are travelling 100 miles to work?

I think working from home can be fun but if well managed, otherwise it can be nightmare both for oneself, family and the work itself.

Tejas
# June 20, 2004 7:24 PM
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