Comments on: Open Thread: What’s Wrong with Web Work?

By: michelle goodman

michelle goodman — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:23:23 +0000

I’m probably the lone freak who doesn’t mind the lack of human contact during the day (I live alone too). I’m a freelance writer who works from home, and I need/enjoy the solitude to get my books/articles/client copy done.

Every couple years I’ll take a longer-term contract (3+ months) onsite at Microsoft to mix things up, stockpile money, etc. and I’ll still hide out in my office and try to avoid people as much as I can — and this is with working in a department where I have a number of friends; this summer I even worked in the same dept as my beau. If I have to be on someone’s corporate campus, I want to get in and out of there are quickly as possible, so I don’t want to dilly-dally at the water cooler if I can help it.

Challenges to working solo from home:

1. Staying disciplined, avoiding email/the web, sticking to the same start time each morning (though I’ve gotten pretty good at it over the years).

2. Seperation of work and home life, even with the office with shuttable door.

3. The guilt I feel every time my dog comes over to my desk to see if “I’m done working yet.”

By: johnk

johnk — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 08:05:16 +0000

Human contact, facing undercutting from newbies who don’t understand about health and dental insurance costs, accounting, drumming up sales, and keeping good communications. Those were all hard issues. You have to really offload some of that work to others. We need some kind of standard pricing book, and guidelines, like the AIGA or IBEW provide.

By: Gavin

Gavin — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 05:55:19 +0000

Lack of sick leave. I’m feeling sick as a dog this morning but I’ve got deadlines.

(Yes I know I’m busy reading a blog instead of working)

By: almostgotit

almostgotit — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 04:50:03 +0000

@Jillian: LOL! How about moving to a big city highrise, working next to a window, and investing in a really great set of binoculars???

By: Jillian

Jillian — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 22:20:25 +0000

Optometrist’s bills. They tell me to look away from my screen every 15 minutes to give my eyes a break, but there’s nothing to look at except the laundry rack. I’m sure just the activity of other people nearby must be better for your eyes.

By: Rex Dixon

Rex Dixon — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:00:11 +0000

The one thing that I notice now is that I do force myself away from the computer. I actually have “forced” myself to take walks and exercise.

Would I trade it for the corporate life? Nope, I just started the fulltime web worker gig, and I love it!

Rex

By: Dina

Dina — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:15:12 +0000

Web work: the benefits are enormous. We are creating a new reality; we are creative; we are surrounded by smart, interesting, visionary people. A serious downside: close to 1,000 emails a day. The challenge is being proactive when you could spend your whole day being reactive.

By: GigaOM: What’s on GigaNET: Weekend Edition — recommend GigaOM « Identity Unknown

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:00:25 +0000

[...] What’s Wrong With Web Work: We spend so much time talking about the benefits of our way of work that we tend to gloss over some of the drawbacks. I’ll start with some of the obvious drawbacks of web work that we don’t always mention. Continue reading. [...]

By: GigaOM What’s on GigaNET: Weekend Edition «

GigaOM What’s on GigaNET: Weekend Edition « — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:19:24 +0000

[...] by Om Malik Sunday, June 24, 2007 at 6:19 AM PT | No comments What’s Wrong With Web Work: We spend so much time talking about the benefits of our way of work that we tend to gloss over [...]

By: Trying it on for size: permanent 9-5 expat? « How to (almost) Get the Job

Trying it on for size: permanent 9-5 expat? « How to (almost) Get the Job — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 19:05:21 +0000

[...] also brought me a very good column by Mike Gunderloy in yesterday’s Web Worker Daily called What’s wrong with web work? While it’s already very difficult for any working person with a family to find the right [...]

By: almostgotit

almostgotit — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:15:59 +0000

Time management. When is work time? When is family time? Who/what/ constitutes permissable interuptions? What structures must I put in place, *myself* to assure that I, a natural procrastinator, work steadily at things instead of wasting time and then cramming everything into 10+ hour, coffee-powered, DON'T BOTHER ME NOW OR ELSE bursts? Marvelously creative and productive bursts, sure, but hardly the way an adult ought to behave. But that's just me, and I'm still working out a fairly new set of arrangements, so check in again in a few months and I'll tell you how to pull it all off *brilliantly* (ha) --xx-- Almostgotit

By: tamebay

tamebay — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:41:31 +0000

Germs. I don’t get immune to all the coughs and colds that normally get passed around the office, so as soon as I hit somewhere with a lot of people in it (airport, conference etc.) , I invariably pick up every bug going.

By: Jack Keller

Jack Keller — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 05:48:14 +0000

Human contact is a touchy subject, I am a social being and tend to like the water-cooler discussions a bit too much on occasion to be productive. I currently work in an office but this was after too many gripes about freelancing. Since this post is about that I’m going to gloss over the good points and hit the bad. I like most had a wide gamut of clients, ones that you know would always have a dozen revisions at the last minute, ones that don’t know what they need, but are sort of sure that isn’t it and then the reason I moved to an employed position … your a multi million dollar company, you can’t seem to afford that fifteen hundred dollar check for sixty to ninety days?!? And of course the occasional bounced check because you wanted to help a local business get their presence going.

But in the midst of working with many clients and a few deadbeats I still hold the philosophy “No company was ever hurt by having a website.”

By: paramvir singh

paramvir singh — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 05:03:14 +0000

hello. i have worked as afull time employee AND a part-time/web worker:
the downfalls are (true in India):

1) inconsistent workflow
2) clients bargaining and haggling over every bill. my account management team handled this
3) managing finances and taxation. I realised so much goes away in taxation!
4) managing and keeping bills. I have become an avid bill collector. I also try and collect my friends’ ‘paid’ stamped bills, if they dont need it!
5) low chances of getting bank loans: very difficult to secure a housing or car loan, unless you are attached with a ‘large corporate’
6) lack of human interaction
7) everything is YOUR expense: as opposed to the free things we took for granted, like an office, office air conditioning, telephone bills, internet bills, office boys, printer cartridges, paper, commuting for work, you name it!
8) you end up working 24/7, unless you are VERY careful, and in that case its a regular 9-5, only the location is home, isnt it?

By: Brad Linder

Brad Linder — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:15:30 +0000

The lack of human contact can be a mixed blessing. I find I’m a lot more productive with fewer people around. I’m amazed how much of my day used to be taken up at the office by communicating with others, either in organized meetings or informal chit chat.

Now most of my email, chat, and other communications during the day tend to be work-related and brief. Since I’m a freelance journalist as well as blogger, part of my job is talking to people (if you consider interviewing to be talking), so not only do I never feel too isolated, but I get to talk to new and interesting people all the time.

That said, it’s hard to make new friends this way. If I weren’t married and if we didn’t already have friends in town, I’d probably go crazy.

By: Ahmed Shreef

Ahmed Shreef — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 22:55:55 +0000

I’m 19 now and I started my web worker career 2.5 years ago. I always loved the idea of working from home but after some months I felt the things that you mentioned in this post.
- all my friends are from other countries and cities and the only way I communicate with them is through IM and emails etc.
- I don’t have reasons to go out .
- got bored.
- started to spend my day reading news or watching videos on youtube ..

this lead me to search for a job in a company where I can go to every morning and meet other people everyday. I got hired by a good web development company in my city, but for my amazement. they started doing some maintenance in the company to make the offices bigger and decorating the offices to make the employees more happy. this forced the department I’m working in, to work from home till the new offices get ready.

I couldn’t leave the web worker life till now, but let’s hope that they will get the offices ready soon .

but to say the truth, I still love my web worker life :)