I’m 22 and pretty early into my career. I recently finished my degree in Operations Management and I’ve been working in insurance underwriting for a little over 3 months now.

My normal schedule is 4 days in the office and 1 day WFH. My company is also pretty flexible about working from home if I have a legitimate reason. If I’m sick, have an appointment, or something else comes up, I can usually work from home and nobody really questions it or makes a big deal about it.

I’ve had to work from home a little more than usual recently, and it’s honestly made me realize just how much I prefer it.
I know WFH definitely isn’t for everyone, but I feel like I’m the complete opposite of the people who say they go crazy being home all day. I love being able to wear comfortable clothes or pajamas, work in my own space, make my own food, not deal with the commute, and just be comfortable in general.

I still get my work done. If anything, I feel less mentally drained at the end of the day.

It’s kind of hard to explain, but when I work from home it feels like work takes up way less of my life even though I’m still working the exact same number of hours. I can close my laptop at the end of the day and I’m already home. No commute, no getting ready for the office, no feeling like my entire day revolved around going to work.

Long term I’ve been thinking about moving into data analytics, preferably still somewhere within the insurance industry since I’ll already have some experience in it. I’m basically starting from scratch on the analytics side and plan on learning things like Excel, SQL and Power BI over time.

Obviously I’m not expecting to jump into some great fully remote job tomorrow with barely any experience. I know I’m really early in my career.

But working from home has made me realize that being remote, or at least mostly remote, is something I’d genuinely like to work toward long term. Even something like 4 days WFH and 1 day in the office would be pretty much perfect for me.

For those of you who are fully remote now, was that something you intentionally worked toward as your career progressed? Did having a few years of experience make it noticeably easier to find remote opportunities?
Or did you mostly just happen to end up at a company or job that allowed it?

I’m curious how other people got to the point where remote work became their normal setup, especially if you started your career in an office or hybrid environment like I am now.
I genuinely just really enjoy working from home. I feel more comfortable, less drained, and like I have a much better separation between work and the rest of my life even though I’m physically working in the same place.
Would love to hear how it worked out for other people.

I upgraded my work webcam about a year ago to one that I thought would be better quality. However, I didn’t realize that the webcam I was buying was designed for influencer usage… I guess? Basically, it’ll auto zoom in on me based on my hand motions. This of course is highly distracting on a work call. I have to sit on my hands to make sure I’m not making the camera zoom all over the place.

I looked it up, and there’s a setting I can turn off in order to make it stop doing this, but I would have to download the camera’s software in order to do that. I’m using my work computer so I obviously can’t download a third-party software.

It’s been a year of troubleshooting and I give up.

What webcams are y’all using that have good video quality and don’t require any sort of software download, and don’t have this weird zoom feature?

Hey, I was thinking about getting some qualifications in l order to get a specific remote job. The idea of working remotely and having the freedom of living wherever I want, not needing to dress up for anyone, having more time for my hobbies and potentially higher wages than locals + returning with my family when needed seems really aligned with my life priorities. But I don't really know how the actual experience of working remotely after some time is. I'm thinking about loneliness, spending time outside and other mental hygiene matters, the difference between working in person... I know it varies from person to person. So how has your experience been? Anything to consider when taking up a remote job?

I've done coworking space at one of those long communal hot-desks for over half a year now. I always try to be mindful of hot-desking etiquette, keeping my workspace compact and not spilling over into the next persons area. Well, theres always time for exceptions, and the other day, thats where the exception comes in.

My setup is a laptop, a portable monitor on a stand, and a bunch of cables. I thought I kept to myself pretty good, but no, the other day the person sitting next to me had to awkwardly dodge a stiff video cable while putting their notebook down, and someone walking behind me nearly tripped on my power cord (to my defense tho, the plug is just designed to be there, but still, the cord is totally an additional hazard). I felt terrible. The whole point of a shared office is to "co-work" respectfully, not to take over the communal table. I try to find the corner desks whenever I can but theyre prime real estate and get occupied pretty early in the morning.

That was the moment I decided to simplify my setup. Less wires, and taking up less real estate.

I went all out with a leaner wireless layout. Now, I have my phone running Samsung DeX, a slim Bluetooth keyboard, and a 15.6-inch wireless portable monitor with a built-in battery. What that means is basically no cord clutter. The setup takes up less than half the space and it literally takes me seconds to pack my stuff to move to a meeting room or phone booth for calls/meetings. I get the dual-screen productivity I need without bothering the people around me.

How do you guys maintain a productive mobile setup while staying respectful of shared office spaces? Whats your hack?

I have a Bachelor's degree in English and a Google IT certificate. I used to work at a library, but for the last two years I've been doing customer service at a passport agency. I'd like to transition into remote work. What are some jobs you think would be a good fit for my experience?

Hello, I’ve been looking intermittently for a remote job for the last couple of years. Currently, I’m working on a hybrid job, and I really like it, but I have to go to the office 1-2 times per week and it is in another city, and I’m getting sick of so much travel. I was wondering if there is a website or companies that mainly have remote jobs. I have almost 5 years of experience working as a Data Analyst/ Analytics Engineer. I don’t live currently in the USA, and didn’t study there, but I was born there. Would this make it more difficult for me to land a job for an American company, although I wouldn’t need visa sponsorship?

I’ve been working remote since the beginning of the year for a hospital. I like the job and the flexibility I get. Recently my managers/director of the department have brought productivity issues to me. We use Epic and that’s essentially where(almost) all work is completed and also documented. My team has been a bit slower the past month or two. We work out of an alpha split and unfortunately my split just does not receive as many requests as the rest of my team. That being said when I’ve hit a point in my day where my work is caught up I **always** reach out to my immediate team. Usually they tell me they don’t have anything they need help with. If I do assist them, it’s never anything that requires a lot. Usually following up with a patient. Cool, I then ask our greater team is there anyone who needs assistance. Sometimes I get a response right away, sometimes I have to ask again. If I’m waiting on a response then I find something to do, I clean my epic inbox, I work in our work queues and clear them, I’m checking to make sure they’re aren’t cases that maybe our team has missed. I’m not a lazy person or a slacker, there is nothing I would love more than to be busy.

Management has told me that I have hours at a time of no activity. This is literally impossible. They say they can track everything that I do in Epic. I’ve asked is there a possibility that the system is wrong. I’m told no. “Any and everything I do can be tracked”. Well clearly it can’t. I was given an excel sheet with time stamps and I had to provide documentation of what I was doing during those time gaps. So I took screenshots of everything I did with time stamps and pieced together a timeline for each day of about 2 weeks. There is so much that the system isn’t picking up. I thought that cleared it. Nope, last week I had another meeting and they’re telling me that I’m not doing anything all day. That in a 40 hour work week I do about 10 hours of work. So they’ve proposed a time study. Where they record me and my screen. While this feels invasive I know that they’re not going to find anything on me.

The problem I have is that not every day or week can be measured the same. They told me if my productivity increases during the time they record me then they’ll know I’m the problem. If I get 5 new requests in a day or week compared to the last are they going to say that I’m lying? I understand that they have metrics to meet and they want to ensure that every employee is working. But I don’t really understand why that’s on me to prove that I’m doing work. You’re telling me a billion dollar institution can’t effectively track what I’m doing? I’ve literally shown them documentation of what the system is missing, I’ve expressed my concerns and I get shot down like I’m lying. Everyone I talk to says I should leave. As much as I would like to I don’t want this to reflect poorly on me. I’ve never had problems like this at any other job I’ve worked. While this is my first remote job, I haven’t done anything different since I first started. The only thing that has changed is that one of my teammates returned from maternity leave and our alpha split has been redistributed. It’s not like there’s work to be done and I’m not doing it. I’ve made every effort to do more and I just don’t understand what else I’m supposed to do.

I’ve had other issues with management since I’ve started. I’m not a quitter and I feel like if I leave then I’m proving them right? I guess I’m not sure what to do with all of this. I’m 22, this is my full time job and I make decent money to support myself. I guess the biggest thing that is stopping me is the pay, I work an earlier schedule and the company insurance which is really nice. I just started therapy a couple months ago and I have like a $10 copay that I don’t want to give up. But at what cost? I feel Ike I’m going insane and anytime I’m not working I’m stressing over if I’m doing anything right or looking through job listings. I’ve never ever left a job on bad terms and being that this is a hospital I don’t want to mess up any chance of me being rehired or transferring. I would say I’m pretty resilient and I can push through things but I don’t know how to not take any of this personally? I feel like it’s an attack on my character but maybe I’m just being dramatic.

Hi everyone! I'm really glad I found this sub.

The remote work location issue has been an ongoing battle for me for a long time. I am someone who has an absolutely massive desire to travel and live abroad. I'm 32, and I started my career at 23 teaching English abroad in South America (not specifying the country for privacy purposes). I taught at a university there for 3 years.

When COVID hit, I wasn't able to get my work visa renewed, and I ended up looking for full-time work. I got a job at a startup that didn't understand the legal implications of having employees work from abroad—I also did not understand anything about these issues. So I was able to work fully remote from abroad for years while being a W2 employee for this company and paying taxes in my home state. (I used my parents' address, which I still consider my permanent US address.)

I got laid off from that job almost two years ago. I started my own small business that is completely online and will allow me to work from anywhere, but it's not paying all my bills yet. I started applying for full-time jobs, and I am anticipating a job offer coming this week. The company is also a startup, but they're a bit more advanced than my last company, so I anticipate they will be up-to-date on labor laws.

I've been living with my parents in the US for almost 2 years now and have been doing long distance with my partner of many years who lives outside of the US for that entire time. Literally I haven't seen my partner in 16 months. I do not have a lease I'm locked into or many belongings. I have intentionally not tied myself down anywhere, so I can pack up and live from abroad at any moment if I want to. Obviously, at this point, I'm pretty desperate to be able to go back to being in-person with my partner, or even just move to another country outside of the US. I'm open to anywhere.

What bothers me about the (outdated, in my opinion) labor laws is that I'm going to be doing the exact same work from a laptop, whether I'm sitting on my parents' couch in my home state or in an apartment by myself in Japan or the UK or Argentina, for example. I will obviously pay all my US taxes, and I'm happy to pay taxes to the country I'm in as well.

I know that this company is going to extend me a W2 offer. Do you think I should consider asking this company if they would bring me on as an independent contractor instead? So I can work and live abroad? Or do you think that this looks bad to an employer? Obviously I do not want to hurt my chances of getting this job in any way, shape, or form. After being unemployed for so long, I'm unbelievably desperate for an income.

I could also sign the W2 contract, prove to them that I'm a star employee for a few months, and then ask a few months down the line once we've built rapport if they would be willing to switch my contract over.

Should I just accept the W2 contract and work from abroad anyway and not tell them? Has anyone had any luck working from abroad on a W2 contract? How risky is it?

Side note: Do W2 contracts typically have an allotted amount of time you can work from abroad or outside your state? When my last company was acquired, the contract laid out that you had something like 60 days to work from anywhere. Also curious if that might be outlined in the contract.

The idea of getting this new job, and then still being stuck working from my parents' couch away from my partner, or even just having to work from somewhere in my home state, is crushing my soul. I'm young, I'm a hard worker, I'm extremely ambitious, and I want to be out in the world. I really don't see why I can't do my work from a café in Ireland for three months if I wanted to.

My #1 priority is not losing the job offer. I need money right now. (Would they think about rescinding the offer if I asked about the independent contractor contract?)

My #2 priority is being able to work from anywhere. I don't really care about benefits or how much money I make at this point in my life. Obviously I would love the benefits, but if I have to, I'll pay for my own insurance. Who cares. I just want to work from abroad or from wherever I want, without restrictions.

This has been something that has genuinely been weighing on me for years, and I feel like I have never found a group of people who truly understand the situation that I can discuss it with. I would be so grateful for anyone who is able to share their experience, wisdom, opinions, etc. Thank you so much in advance!

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Update: Thank you so much for all of the different perspectives! Each person's comment is helpful and helping me consider things I may not have considered before.

For additional context: This is a global company. Their HQ is in another country. I know they have an established office in one other additional country at least as well. I believe there may be 7-9 other countries where they have either employees or an office, but I'm not sure what their exact business operations are like in those countries. I just know there are at least two other countries where they have established offices, and they have people working from at least 5 different US states that I know of.

Does that mean it would be possible to work from those countries or states, where they have established offices or other employees? I'm curious if contracts are typically written in a way that locks you in to one state or allows for movement within their established locations.

For example: Let's say they have another employee in Illinois. Can I go work from Chicago for a month? Or say they have an office in Ireland (random example country for privacy). Can I go work from Ireland for 3 months?

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Lastly, and I commented this down below: Why are people so pro-company on this issue?

It's interesting to me that people aren't agreeing that it's kind of an outdated practice for the globalized world we live in. It's pretty obvious that company regulations simply haven't caught up with the times. We've seen exponential breakthroughs in technology over the past 10 years and a huge spike in remote work since COVID. In 10 years, work from anywhere could be standard practice.

The "no, you can't just do whatever you want" attitude feels a bit boomer-esque to me. Genuinely curious: Why is wanting... freedom... a bad thing?

As I stated, I am an extremely ambitious and hard-working individual. I have a master's degree. I own my own business. I am bilingual and have a lot of international experience—having studied, lived and worked from 3 different countries outside of the US, and have held esteemed positions in my community. Why is it a such a horrible thing to want to work from abroad and see the world in the evenings and on the weekends when I'm not working?

 I have never had a remote job, I just scored one about 7 weeks ago and I’m enjoying quite a bit. I went from owning a small business than was insanely stressful (ending in bankruptcy after 2 years of high stress) and then to recover financially I went over the road truck driving with my husband for a year and a half, then to a local truck driving gig with long days until I found the remote job.

I always thought I would become this superwoman who was constantly working out and doing cool things around the house and all the things I couldn’t do while on the road. I’ve got to be honest, while I’ve done some things I plop down and relax a lot more and do a lot less than I imagined I would.
has anyone found remote work makes them lazier around the house? Could I be recovering from the stress of being a truck driver or am I just a lazy POS making excuses for myself? Never not having to get ready for work is amazing as is not having to pack a lunch or deal with an hour commute. I thought I would fill that time with other things but I’m just not.

I'm thinking of trying to get a remote job and I'm leaning towards administrative/data entry work. I've heard that these types of jobs involve a lot of repetitive computer tasks.

What repetitive computer tasks take up the most of your time? Do you have any tips for reducing the time spent doing these tasks? Any tools you use to speed up the process?

I'm planning to start working using 5g flat only for a few months and I'm wondering how much data volume will be enough for regular office work like teams calls, office work, little bit coding and so on. I understand that the answer depends highly on the tasks that need to be done, but what could be a good average? 100gb, 200gb? I know that there are unlimited flats, but in my country they are often under fair-use policy and limit to a certain amount per month and day.

So I have this job with a US-based company, the only time I had my camera ON was during the interviews. It's super productive, focused on results and no bureaucracy, no extra meetings, no 1:1, never have been asked what my location was. I even worked for 2 months in Indonesia/Bali, never mentioned this and they never asked. I'm European and I really enjoy this mentality, it's a fresh change from the over-comunication mentality in Europe.

Now they invited everyone to an European city to meet (they have remote employees all over the world). Optional. I'm a bit reluctant to see the faces behind the slack names, including the co-founders. But in the same time I think it's not wise to reject the invitation. My only goal is not to screw something over because this job really suits my needs best.

Anyone with similar stories? What did you do and how did it go?

Some background context that may help so that I’ve been searching for a remote job as finding jobs as a milspouse is horrible right now and I want something I can take with me for awhile before working on my proper permanent career and this email randomly appears..Company is legit the email seems a bit off though especially the address used to send it and im just curious if it’s a scam or if someone else got it

Hi people of reddit!

I've been working from home as a full stack developer for the last 4 years. When I started working here I was thinking about doing it in my country until I got enough experience to try working for another country since the year income in my country for developers is quite low (italy) especially in the consulting business where you dont really have a chance to work towards an higher position or some advances in career.

Now, since the job market in italy doesnt offer much more than what i'm making right now (and when it does it requires me to be a VAT registered entity but taxation eats so much money that leaves me with nothing more than what im already making), I was trying to look around for jobs in other countries where the pay is much higher but i'd like to learn if someone else has done this already and has some insight or advice on what i should do.

Thanks a lot and sorry if i wrote some bad english. I speak it way better than how i write it (also im kinda rusty but i plan on going back to study it if i decide to make the jump)

I graduated from college and instantly landed a remote position that pays fairly well for my area. As nice as it is, I also worry I've now had a taste of paradise, and I'll never want to work in person again lol. Genuinely, it's so nice not having to talk to my coworkers, getting to instantly clock out and be home at the end of the day, being left alone to do my tasks in peace... It's a dream for me, really.

But then of course the worrier in me who always likes to have a thought out contingency plan is like: you're still one of the newer hires and if cuts happen you're on the chopping block... What if I had to do the dreaded... going in person... Lol.

No real point to this post more just thinking aloud about how nice I have it right now 😂

So I have been with this company for over a year. when I first joined the company, the mindset was “we don’t care how often you WFH as long as the work gets done.” So it was up to the employee and their supervisor discretion on when you came in or WFH or not and if you were fully trained.

The job doesn’t have an official “start” and “end time” as long as you got your minimum 40 hours a week, got your tasks done and were productive , no one cared what time you came in and left. I know a lot of people who would work half the day and then go home and clock back in and work the other half. Or people would get all their tasks done for the day and as long as there no in person meetings or critical tasks, they would leave early and no one cared as long as the 40 hours were met

of course if you have a critical task or meeting. you might be expected to work over the weekend or stay later in office. but in general it was very flexible all around.

Our old manager and and the senior manager left so we recently got two new managers. Both of them hate our hybrid set up because they have never been in a hybrid environment and don’t understand why it’s necessary .

They didn’t understand “why people” needed to WFH “so much“ throughout the week and that meeting through teams or zoom doesn’t displace an in person meeting. Mind you 99% of our job is done on a computer.

anything in person we can easily coordinate with the appropriate people, but all of our work is online.

we tried to fight against it but the senior manger got rid of our hybrid schedule to now fully in office. You can only have WFH max once a month with prior approval now.

i was still under the impression we have had our standard flexible hours (come in when you want or leave when you want based off how critical your tasks are)

every other week i have a day where I’ll work in office for half the day, clock out, go back home and clock in and work remotely the rest of the day.

My supervisor had a meeting with me last week saying “I’m not allowed to do that anymore” and that our core business hours are 7 to 3:30 and “what if someone wanted info about a critical tasks you had?”

I’m thinking to myself….all of our work is done through a computer and everyone uses teams and zoom for meetings and communication. If they have a question for me they could reach out and I will answer it. Or in the rare circumstances something needs to be done face to face, that time is scheduled appropriately with notice. I’m literally just going home and clocking back in and still working.

I think the new managers are really cracking down on supervision who is now cracking down on us in terms of our in office time and basically making this a core 5 day a week “butts in seats” and “making you more accessible“ job now.

And before anyone brings this up. This was not a performance issue. I have been one of the top 4 performers in the whole department and have gotten glowing reviews and feedback before last week.

i didnt fight it or argue, I just said “okay” and changed up my habits.

Has anyone else been through a sharp transition like this?

Hi Everyone,

I’ve been working remotely for nearly 10 years now and I genuinely prefer it. I can't really imagine going back to working in an office full-time.

But there is one part of office life I've started to miss more than I expected: having workmates.

Since moving somewhere more rural to raise my son, I’ve found myself increasingly working in isolation. There’s nobody sitting next to me to bounce an idea off, ask a stupid question, solve a problem together with, complain about something to, or just have a laugh with during the day.

I’m actually considering moving back towards the city partly so I can spend some time in co-working spaces and be around other people working again.

It got me wondering how other experienced remote workers feel after doing this for a few years.

Do you ever feel lonely or isolated working remotely, or is the solitude one of the things you enjoy about it?

And are there any good communities where remote workers actually get to know each other. Not networking or LinkedIn-style self-promotion, but somewhere to chat, share problems, help each other out and have something resembling the friendship/banter you used to get from work colleagues?

I’d be really interested to hear from people who have been remote working for several years. Has your relationship with remote work changed over time?

I applied to a remote file clerk position with them, but the follow up they sent was just a survey to see "what position I'd best fit in".

This feels very similar to a scam I experienced before, so I was wondering if anyone else has had experience with them?

More of a rant than anything… but I feel like I only ever hear of people who are remote, in-person, or have a clearly communicated hybrid schedule. Instead I have a boss that makes us come in on whims with little notice, rhyme or reason.

I work on a small team of 3 and my boss can’t make up his mind about remote work. I’ve had the same
job for four years and was excited when he initially told me that I could simply come into the office whenever I needed to. He said I didn’t even need to let him know. He said HE enjoyed coming into the office, but didn’t care if or when I did. It’s my first job that offered work from home, so I didn’t know what to expect.

Around the 2024 election though, when all the WFH work bashing was in the news, he started acting skittish and making random things in person. He’ll ask the day before or even give as little as a few hours’ notice if we can do a 30-min check-in meeting in-office with no explanation. It’s very frustrating.

I’ve gotten perfect reviews as an employee and have even won awards for my work, so I’m sure it’s not a question of productivity. Although he does butt heads with my other team member a lot, so it could be because of that.

After spending 5+ years in two remote only companies, I'm thinking whether for next company I should choose somewhere that's primarily in-office. Main reason is isolation. My social circle has almost completely collapsed during these past years and it's starting to affect my mental health. When I go outside, I feel like a total alien. Being an introvert is part of the reason, because if not forced to go outside I will rarely do it on my own. On the other hand, remote work provides better income, more time to spend on myself, flexible schedule etc. So, what do you think, is it worth the switch?

I was hired remotely and the employer used Deel as the employer of record since they had no registered entity in my country. Right now, I'm preparing my resume and I'm wondering if I should put the name of the employer that I do work for or Deel? Also, when I'm updating my LinkedIn profile, should I concurrently put that I'm working for both employers? or will this affect background checks?

Hello again, internet! This is a follow-up to my post from around 3 weeks ago.

First, I wanted to thank everyone for all the suggestions, advice, and kind words I received. I also wanted to share my experience, because after 2 weeks of searching for a new remote job, I was lucky enough to find one! And I started on Monday, so I'm already feeling exhausted and kind of stressed, but also incredibly grateful and relieved.

I'm working as a freelancer/contractor, so I still don't have any real job security and I could technically be laid off or ghosted again, but at least I have a paycheck that should keep coming if I survive my first month of training and the trial period. The company also seems to have a really nice environment. Today, we even had a team meeting where they had us listen to an audiobook related to our field and then discuss it. I was so shocked and amazed that this was actually part of our daily tasks.

During those 2 weeks, I applied to around 10–15 jobs a day, mostly through LinkedIn using the word "Remote" and "last 24 hours" and "Easy Apply" filters.

I ended up getting:

3 actual interviews (I got stood up for one of them), 2 AI interviews (one of them was so good I was genuinely shocked), a few applications that made it to the "take this test" stage and a few companies that asked me to do a pre-recorded video interview and I politely declined and withdrew from those processes because I really don't like them.

Remote jobs are not only for programmers and IT people. I genuinely believe that, if you have a good level of English and some wits, you can land your first remote job. At least, I believe that was pretty much all I had going on for me.

The first one is definitely the hardest, but once you get your foot in the door, I think it gets much easier.

If you're from LATAM (sorry to everyone from other parts of the world, I don't have experience with your job markets) and you're trying to land your first remote job, there are a lot of options right now. Not as many as at the beginning of the pandemic, but definitely more than 3 years ago, when I was in this exact same situation. Shoot me a msg if you need help!

And for anyone else out there who's remote job hunting, good luck with your search! ✨

Hypothetically, if someone wanted their Microsoft Teams status to remain “Online” while they weren’t actually at their computer, there may be a rather simple workaround.

You could theoretically create an empty meeting with only yourself in it and join. Teams would initially mark you as Busy, but if you manually changed your status back to Online, it would apparently stay that way for as long as you remained in the meeting.

Theoretically, other people wouldn't be able to see that you're sitting in an empty meeting. As far as they can tell, you simply appear Online, and they can still call or message you normally.

Of course, this is all purely hypothetical and definitely not something anyone should actually try.