Remote working : Let's live the Dream

It’s against policy, but they still let me do it. I still have an HQ role, my boss is in HQ, and my clients are in the US. Surely I am lucky, but I think that companies will be more flexible when they think there is value in it.

Perhaps the law is different than other jobs as there typically isn’t a deep hierarchy (there is a hierarchy, but it’s usually quite flat). My boss said he wanted me to stay, so the company let me stay.

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I think an important distinction may be, going by your comments here, that you are a revenue centre rather than a cost centre :slight_smile:

I’m an in-house lawyer. We are almost always cost centers. Our value is in mitigating risk, which the business generally doesn’t value until the shit hits the fan. Then it becomes “why did the lawyers let us do this?”

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I saw the word clients in your post and sloppily concluded you were a profit centre :slight_smile:

Anyway it is a good deal you have, earning at the same rate while living here would be nice. Even though my clients are back in my home country, the pay rate drops for me significantly, as I am competing against basically anyone in the world with my skills, and decent English. Pay is still better than what I was offered for a couple of jobs locally.

I do miss the water cooler chats, and coffee meetups in a physical office. Don’t miss internal meetings, admin, politics and other BS.

Yeah, it is a little bit confusing.

Life is a lot more expensive for me here than in the states if I want to keep a level standard. Housing is more than 3 times as expensive, and now I have to pay for school for 2 kids. It seems that everything associated with cars is a lot more expensive, and most electronics I’ve seen are more expensive. Regardless, I asked for the move, not my company, so all this is on me. And I am very grateful to have a company which basically allows me to work from anywhere and make my own hours (as long as I keep a dedicated time for my “clients”).

To bring this back to the OP, there are huge benefits to working from home. You need to be cognizant of your own weaknesses and plan to address those (e.g., procrastination, easy distraction, etc.). I miss the water cooler chats, being able to pop down the hall to ask a question, and eating lunch with colleagues. But I am far more efficient now. You can decide if you need a nap, or if a run after lunch would be right for body and mind. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to the work and how your clients (or bosses) perceive what you do. I have 2 young kids and no social life, so I make every effort to be available for calls whenever. The perception is (at least I hope it is) that I am always available and working. You’ll have to decide what perception you want cultivate and how you can realize it.

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Well yes in your instance. I have worked for plenty of companies that were inflexible before though. Sometimes they are flexible for a while and then the manager
…But good example on how to push for it.