What is it like to work remotely?

2020 was a weird year, right? The COVID-19 pandemic showed us a face of our world that we have never seen before, unpopulated streets, closed office buildings, empty public transportation, schools without teachers nor students, changes in social habits like 2 meters distance greetings or covered faces (can you imagine before 2020 entering a store with only your eyes visible?), and more. For several weeks, months in some countries, we had to stay at home in confinement.

Students and teachers tried to use the computer to simulate remote classrooms, office workers had to use their own computers to connect to clouds and company servers preventing the wheel of the economy from coming to a complete stop.

Before this global event, many people went to work in an office from 9 to 5. Afterward, one thing that most of them had to learn was to work remotely from their homes.

This represents a real challenge because the working dynamic is very different for an office that is designed to that matter than it is for a home, probably with your family wandering around.

On the other hand, the people in the Information Technology industry are used to working in offices as well as co-works, and even at home. And this especially applies to developers, all they need is their laptops, a quiet place, and a good Internet connection.

Working remotely looks kind of easy when you previously met your co-worker because even though you might miss the closer interaction and coffee breaks, you have an implicit common code of behavior.

Think and Dev was born a year ago in times of pandemic so several of the team members had not met before, which could suppose an extra effort. To this, let’s add another ingredient, some of them live in other countries.

Like everything in life, this has its ups and downs. From different time zones to different societies, cultures, and habits, working from different places could be challenging, when we asked them about what is it like to work remotely from another country, they expressed their experiences, sensations, and points of view.

Facundo tells us how it is to live in the countryside: “It is really comfortable, but you have to be very organized. Knowing that you are where you want to be and doing what you love to do without the need to be in the big cities is the best. To me, a minor but important detail was changing buses noise at night by owls, it’s awesome. A peaceful feeling, a quiet of mind that I didn’t have”.

And then he adds: “In my case, I’m beginning to have a better quality of life, and now that I have it, I won’t change it for anything else in the world”.

Mariano explains his new working day: “I’m a guy used to going to an office, I always was, old-fashioned you could say. At first, it seemed weird to me. The fact of always being at home, it was like I had to be plugged in working all the time until I relaxed a little bit. I began to manage my schedules better, understand that I can stop a task sometimes, and then continue, do things in my private life, personal paperwork, take my son to school and pick him up. It allowed me to make work less stressful. Before, I always thought that if you are in an office, you cannot go out to do things during working hours, banking, health, etc. Work at home helps to have a more relaxed, healthy life. If I’m burned out, I can stop, go for a walk and go on with a clearer mind. I also sleep better and more. You don’t have to get up at 6 in the morning to take the bus, run to catch it, all messed up, to get to the office. That’s priceless. I think you have more freedom, the perfect synthesis, being able to work from anywhere in the world, always online, but managing your schedule at will. It’s freedom and work at the same time, allowing a non-toxic, healthier routine.”

Yamila, who lives in Great Britain tells that “Working in another time zone, one different from the rest of the team and maybe the client is a challenge. The main disadvantage is very noticeable when you have to coordinate a meeting: I always have to calculate the time difference in my head. Something positive is that when my workday starts, I can advance tasks and gather doubts to chat with the rest of the team when they start their day. Therefore it is the calmest time of day for me and in which the concentration is higher. But what I like most is that beyond the details of the schedule, I remain in constant contact with an excellent team of fellow professionals.”

Different experiences, different motivations, different places in the world, but one thing in common, passion for what they do.

For Think & Dev, it was key to see the Pandemic as an opportunity to make a difference as a company. Many companies that did not have remote work in mind, see it now as a benefit.

We choose remote work and flexible hours in response to a reality that no one expected today, but that has become part of our philosophy.