I've been working remotely as a dev for the past 6 months or so - love it! My take on his questions:
“Doesn’t it get lonely?” Not really. I'm on IRC all day so have plenty of technical interaction throughout the day, and there's always the outside world (lunch, friends, etc).
“How do you get work done?” I almost think I get more work done working remotely than I do in an office because I won't spend 30m here and there talking about my weekend or whatever, I just work. Casual web surfing (HN etc) is about the same (i.e. occasionally when I need a break). I spend a few days every other month or so actually at the office, which has proven to be very productive, but in a different way. There's a dynamic that (I've found) you can only get in person, face to face, that doesn't involve cranking out lines of code, but just being able to talk through various issues/strategies/directions/etc. It's refreshing to have that time every over month or so.
“Doesn’t it affect your quality of life?” Absolutely! But in a very very good way. Granted I was commuting 1hr+ each way, so I immediately gained 10+ hours a week and save $3-400/mo on gas. The flexibility is amazing. Working at an office I had to leave early (6am) to try to beat the traffic. This morning I took my son to Panera to pick up bagels for the family before starting work (for example).
The whole experience thus far really makes me wonder why more companies don't embrace it more.
“Doesn’t it get lonely?” Not really. I'm on IRC all day so have plenty of technical interaction throughout the day, and there's always the outside world (lunch, friends, etc).
“How do you get work done?” I almost think I get more work done working remotely than I do in an office because I won't spend 30m here and there talking about my weekend or whatever, I just work. Casual web surfing (HN etc) is about the same (i.e. occasionally when I need a break). I spend a few days every other month or so actually at the office, which has proven to be very productive, but in a different way. There's a dynamic that (I've found) you can only get in person, face to face, that doesn't involve cranking out lines of code, but just being able to talk through various issues/strategies/directions/etc. It's refreshing to have that time every over month or so.
“Doesn’t it affect your quality of life?” Absolutely! But in a very very good way. Granted I was commuting 1hr+ each way, so I immediately gained 10+ hours a week and save $3-400/mo on gas. The flexibility is amazing. Working at an office I had to leave early (6am) to try to beat the traffic. This morning I took my son to Panera to pick up bagels for the family before starting work (for example).
The whole experience thus far really makes me wonder why more companies don't embrace it more.