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Ask HN: Why is remote work not mainstream in 2018?

11 points by bsvalley ↗ HN
It seems pretty old school to have to commute to an office in order to work. Why is remote work not mainstream yet? Seems pretty obvious we’ll end up all working remotely in a near future. Instead of putting 100% of our resources in green and self driven vehicles. I think Elon Musk missed that one :) [sarcasm]

3 comments

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bsvalley
I agree. I can only think of Automattic (wordpress), Github and InVision in terms of mid-size fully remote companies. They are more early stage startups that do that... It really sucks because the companies I mentioned are pretty successful and they have a very solid and strong culture.
sh87
The argument of more productivity is just too ambiguous and weak.

You have to realize what allowing remote work means for a manager : losing control.

I see only a few reasons for management to change their attitude towards remote work

* it saves money

* its harder to get good folks to work for you without this perk

bluGill
That is useful for you, but it isn't useful for your company. When it is co-workers you talk to the talk [sometimes] turns to solving work problems.

Remote work isn't all bad, but there are serious downsides that cannot be ignored. Companies that choose to do/allow remote work need to figure out how to deal with them. Of course working in the same office has its own set of downsides to deal with.