My favorite thing about programming is the ability to do my work from anywhere. Anywhere in the entire world. I could be at home on the couch with my dog, in a coffee shop in Italy, anywhere.

Here is one of our The Iron Yard employees Jo Albright’s likeness for working remotely:

Coding naked.

I don’t think anything else has to be said about that, eh?

While working remotely gives me the ability to work from anywhere, another benefit to this is it gives me freedom to work the hours I love. I am a night owl so my sleep schedule is extremely weird. My most productive hours are from 7-8pm till 3am. Aside from meetings that I have to attend, I am free to work during my most productive hours. This will change once my classes start, but as far as development is concerned, this is how it’s been for years! Generally, most companies who allow remote working allow their employees to work the hours they want as long as they follow the one rule: be productive.

Jared Hamby says:

You can multitask without being judged about how or what you’re multitasking.

Some people like to listen to music while programming; some like to listen to game streams and movies. To each his/her own. As long as you remain productive, you’re good to go!

This is a quote from my co-worker here at The Iron Yard Calvin Webster

Working remotely is great! I can be writing code, playing fetch with my dog and talking on the phone with my mom.

This is something a lot of businesses are having trouble adopting: the remote style of work. With developers being in such high demand, they need to adopt or fall behind. My former job instituted a remote work policy a year or two ago and it was the best thing for my, and my teams, productivity. There is no one there to distract me asking for help and expecting it instantly, no I have silence and it’s amazing.

Russell Niller, a former co-worker of mine sums it up the best:

Nothing beats the freedom and flexibility of being able to work remotely. I have been working from San Diego for the past week; a trip that was decided on a whim a week ago. But with great pleasure also comes great responsibility. Working remotely requires that you manage yourself and your time effectively so that you are fulfilling and hopefully surpassing your work obligations.

As Russell said, there is a lot of responsibility that comes in to working remotely. You NEED to be able to keep your focus while you’re working. The office environment gets you away from the day-to-day chores that you will encounter while working. If this is something you can’t deal with, that’s cool! Remote isn’t for everyone. It is great being able to have that option, though.