How is telecommuting working for you?

Question answered: How is telecommuting working for you?

The plural of anecdote is Quora answers.

Herewith mine.

I worked for 3 years physically in a job that many of you will have already worked out by now, and 14 more telecommuting. The only way I could bear to keep working on that job was by telecommuting, and through the low level of supervision and engagement with management that entailed. And in fact, it’s astonishing I stayed with the job as long as I did.

Which is one way of dealing with difficult bosses, I guess.

Telecommuting can work, but you need a boss with clarity on their goals, a high degree of autonomy, a high degree of trust, a way of giving visibility to your work product, and an effective way of coordinating with colleagues. Particularly if you’ve got severe timezone clashes, these are challenges; I spent a lot of time on chat with my most excellent and generous and helpful programming colleagues; and weekly phone catchups with management were essential, all dysfunctions considered. I’m doing bits of work on Upwork now, and getting the attention of your British or US or even Indian client when you’re on UTC+10 is very hard; it’s getting me to stay up later than I should need to.

There’s high convenience and flexibility; but they come at a cost of lack of clarity and focus. I’m very happy to telecommute as a second job; I’d have misgivings about telecommuting for a primary job.

Vote #1 Dave Aronson’s answer to How is telecommuting working for you?, who’s gone into all of this in much better detail.