_vuqm
Joined 8 years ago
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Recent submissions
Comment · 7 years ago
Comment · 7 years ago
I hope I'm not spamming when posting this, but this is exactly what we're trying to solve at Out Of Office with "Work Clubs" [0]
We've spoken with thousands of remote workers in the last 2 years and the one recurring theme we kept hearing about was loneliness. We're testing out this Work Club concept as a way for remote workers to get together and work together throughout the day. It's a low-friction way to meet people during your work day, while still getting your work done.
We've seen a lot of positive initial feedback and want to continue trying it out in new cities.
Comment · 7 years ago
Hey guys, Dave here from Out Of Office. At Out Of Office we're a 100% distributed team, so we're aware of the pitfalls of working remote. It can be isolating, lonely, and often times hard to start the day. That's why we started Work Club - our way to get a little extra motivation to get out of the house and start the day.
It's super simple: sign up for work club notifications, find out where other people are working, show up, get your stuff done.
We host 1-2 Work Clubs a week at cool places in the SF Bay Area (coffee shops, breweries, co-working spots). You can sign up to be notified of future events, or if you're interested in hosting your own Work Club, you can send me an email (contest details in my HN profile). Hope to see you there!
Comment · 7 years ago
What about ordering Mary’s free range chicken? Lots of restaurants advertise that on the menu. Sounds better than a normal chicken sandwich. Or Coca Cola braised short ribs from your favorite food truck? Sounds better than cola braised short ribs.
Some people wouldn’t even consider a veggie burger on the menu, but an impossible burger? Sure. It’s about _branding_.
The first time I tried impossible meat I was eating dinner with my old boss and he’d asked if I had heard about impossible meat. I’d heard about it but never tried it, so I ordered it and it was honestly better than I expected.
I never would have tried it if it wasn’t for word of mouth marketing because it was on the menu. Restaurants are in the business of selling food. It’s their job to make items on their menu sound appealing. Just like those Michelin star restaurants including ingredients I’ve never heard of, let alone can’t pronounce. I could never find that ingredient at my local store. Maybe I should try it.
Based on your tone it sounds like you’ve never tried “imitation meat” as you describe it but i can see why people are hyping it. I eat plenty of meat but have started buying beyond meat patties at the store every now and then. It’s magnitudes better than your run-of-the-mill black bean veggie burger.
Comment · 7 years ago
We use github for our code repository and code reviews, sentry.io for error reporting, asana to track our weekly objectives, slack to communicate, google hangouts for team meetings, google docs for sharing proposals, spreadsheets, various documents, and figma to share design assets.
This has worked well for us so far for about a year. No complaints really.
Comment · 7 years ago
Sure, just sent you an email.
Comment · 7 years ago
While there are a few companies that are actually trying to build this idea with renting out homes by the hour, at Out Of Office[0] we're working on a similar concept of a more general marketplace for coworking spaces. We've scouted hundreds of locations in San Francisco, both free and bookable, that you can search for in our app. You can find coffee shops, hotel lobbies, public spaces, or book private desks, and conference rooms throughout the city.
Comment · 7 years ago
We’re a remote first company at Out Of Office, though we’re still small (less than 10 employees). It’s the first remote job I’ve had as a software engineer and I find that I’m more productive than I’ve ever been. I have my days where I can’t concentrate but for the most part I’m able to get more done.
We err on the side of too many meetings because we don’t have the luxury of in person conversations, but we encourage people to speak up when the meetings aren’t productive. We also encourage having meetings just to socialize to avoid feeling lonely or get to know each other better. We hold standups on Monday/Wednesday/Friday so Tuesday/Thursday we’re just heads down getting stuff done unless there’s a meeting.
We’re building a product for people we want (or already have) location flexibility so we’re practicing what we preach in a sense. We believe the future of work may not be 100% remote but companies will become location flexible, meaning they still encourage employees to work in office but give them one or two flex days to work from home, a coffee shop, or shared workspace.
The benefits to the employee are quite obvious—greater flexibility in the schedule and they’re able to take care of life events like kids, doctor appointments, running errands, etc.
The benefits to the employer have been shown that it increases employee retention. 84% of workers want location flexibility[1] and companies that support remote workers have 25% lower turnover[2].
Comment · 7 years ago
We're big proponents of location flexibility in the workplace at Out Of Office. Work doesn't have to be so black and white with 100% in the office or 100% remote work. We think a combination of both working in the office and offering employees one or two flexible days to work from home or a coffee shop leads to higher employee retention.
I'm 100% remote but have never experienced some of the downsides mentioned in the article, but I know others who have. I'd like to see companies transition from their rigid policies to more flexibility that gives their employees greater control over their schedule.
Comment · 7 years ago
Do you have employees that live in SF by any chance? We're big proponents of location flexibility at Out Of Office and we want to encourage more companies to give their employees greater control over their schedules, even if it's just one day a week.
Shoot me an email (address is in my profile) if you'd like to chat more.
> I’ve never worked from a real office or even had a “real” job
I really think that a precursor to working remote should be working in an office. I always advise against younger workers to go remote early in their career. There's a huge benefit to being in the office when you're young and have much to learn in your field. Once you've been in the industry for a few years I think it's much easier to switch to a remote lifestyle.
As far as the loneliness of remote work...my 100% remote company is taking a slightly different approach to solve this problem. The more we spoke with other remote workers in coworking spaces, coffee shops, etc...the more we realized that people work in those spaces to get the feeling of human interaction, whether or not they actually talk to people while they're out working.
What we started doing is hosting these "Work Clubs" where we get 5-6 remote workers together at a table at a coffee shop and we all work together for a couple of hours. It's not a networking event, but more of a casual way to meet people while you get your work done. It gets you out of the house and around other people and we got such good feedback from other remote workers that we're looking to help others hold their own work clubs wherever they work.
We're currently hosting work clubs in San Francisco, San Diego, and Portland, and hoping to grow. If you're interested you can find out more at https://outofoffice.app/workclub/remote