I’ve been working fully remotely since 2021. This was something that I always wanted to try out/do since I recognized that being a parent and consultant travelling a lot was not aligning with my vision of the kind of dad I would like to be. I’ve talked to friends who embraced that idea (moving out of a big city, back to a smaller place where they’ve grown up, enjoying old friendships and different sense of community), read books (“Remote / Office not required”) and followed companies (e.g. GitLab) that went really big on remote before the whole pandemic made it a norm (for a “short” time). I also liked the idea that I didn’t restrict myself only to working for companies that are present where I live.
And so, I started working for a Berlin-based company, where the majority of the folks were still living around Berlin. You could say this was remote-light, as I could also jump into a train and be in the office 2hrs later if we decided that we needed to meet in the office this week, plus we were all in the same timezone and we still relied a lot on synchronous communication. Maybe because of that, the company didn’t have very mature remote policies around how often should we meet in person etc. I enjoyed this first experience a lot, but at the same time, I started to realize how draining it was to spend so much time in calls and how different it was to build up relationships with people, especially when being in a managerial position. Around that time, I coined my rule to ‘whenever I can, meet people in person - especially if I have not created a working relationship with them yet’ as I discovered that this helped a lot to establish rapport and understanding for one another / definitely sped this up in comparison to a pure remote setup.
During that time, I worked from my home - I had a dedicated office, invested in my remote presence (wired connection, mic, camera and all those shenanigans), so that I could offer the best potential remote experience on the other side (when it comes to audio/video quality). I liked this setup, the ability to pick up my daughter from school, go for a run during the lunch break - the overall flexibility that remote work offered. At the same time, I discovered that I struggled with the transition between work and home as it was so quick: stand up, open the door, go to the living room, play with the kids. My brain was still busy with what had happened, what I needed to do, whom to write to, what would happen the next day. I tried to change my routine, but with at least 8 hours of work + family duties, it was hard to squeeze in better transition time.
Unrelated to those experiences, I started working for another company. And discovered a more mature remote setup: a clear we meet every 3 months in our HQ (Munich) rhythm, a focus on remote-first culture, people based all across Europe and a budget for co-working. As other people I worked with were also based in Hamburg, we started to co-work from time to time and I discovered how good this felt - getting out of my home, being surrounded by other people. Seeing my team(s) every 3 months allowed me to plan specific initiatives for those co-located weeks that boosted our productivity and team connection. Yet, working from home started to feel more and more draining especially whenever work got more intense.
Then my kids decided that it was time to push for each of them having their own room. That meant that I needed to figure out a different setup for my office: either move it to another room or rent something out. Given the experience so far, having a corner in my bedroom where my work life gravitates towards was really not an option I wanted to pursue, so instead, I swallowed the additional cost and rented myself a desk/space in a small shared office. I discovered how rusty my social skills had become (especially around people who I don’t really work with) but how good it felt to be around people in an office. The walk to and from the office did wonders to my ability to better separate work and the rest of my life. I really don’t know why I waited with that for so long.
So my conclusion (for future self): the clearer the separation between work and home, the better for me and having people around, makes me happier. All of that is definitely worth the additional cost of the office.