One tech worker reflects on all the stress factors–some more obvious than others–that made remote work difficult in the long run.
一位技术工作者总结了所有让长期远程办公不易的压力因素——当然一些因素较其他更为明显。

 
In software engineering, remote working makes a lot of sense since, most of the time, you only need a computer and an internet connection to perform your duties. There are fewer reasons to force people to sit in an office every day. As a result, it’s become an important feature of a lot of IT jobs, even here in Belgium–which in my experience isn’t always the most forward-looking job market–where remote work is common for at least a couple days a week.
在软件工程行业,远程工作已经变得很有意义了,因为在大多数情况下,只需要一台计算机和网络就能执行任务了。现在几乎已经没有什么理由能够强迫人们每天坐在办公室了。因此,远程办公已经成为许多IT工作的一个重要特征,即使在比利时也是如此——尽管根据我的经验,这并不总是最具前瞻性的就业市场——每周至少有几天进行远程办公也是很常见的了。
 
I’ve been working remotely for a little more than five years now, and it doesn’t come without stress. I think it’s taken a toll on me over the last couple years in particular, especially when I went almost fully remote for a year, from June 2016 to June 2017. In that period I’ve sometimes felt like I existed in a “remote-developer black box”:
我已经远程办公五年多了,但它并非没有压力。我觉得过去这几年对我造成了非常大的影响,特别是在2016年6月到2017年6月,我几乎完全远程办公了一年的时间。那段时间,我有时觉得自己像是生活在一个“远程开发人员黑匣子”里:
 
 
Here are some of the biggest downsides to that experience.
下面是这段经历中几个最不利的方面。
 
IT’S HARD TO COMMUNICATE
沟通困难
 
Communication tends to stick to structured channels when you work remotely: the chats, daily standups, maybe a few global meetings every other week, Jira for the tasks and bug reports, and lots and lots of emails.
远程办公时,沟通往往会变成模式化的几种途径:聊天,每日的站立会议,也有可能是隔周的几次全球性会议,任务相关的JIRA报告和错误报告,以及大量的电子邮件。(JIRA是Atlassian公司出品的项目与事务跟踪工具,被广泛应用于缺陷跟踪、客户服务、需求收集、流程审批、任务跟踪、项目跟踪和敏捷管理等工作领域。)
 
This works well to accomplish structured tasks, but it’s easy to feel disconnected sometimes. The fact that most of this communication happens in written form or in front of groups makes them unsuitable for small talk or more informal information sharing. And it can hamper your work, as just chatting about the general atmosphere at work can deliver important information about the smooth progress of projects. Worse, it can prevent you from feeling like part of a community.
这种模式可以很好地完成结构化的任务,但有时候也很容易让人产生断离感。事实上,这种沟通大多数以书面形式或群体的形式发生,使得非常不适合闲谈或更多的非正式信息分享。这可能也会阻碍你的工作,因为工作时聊天的气氛可以提供关于项目是否顺利进行的重要信息。更糟的是,这还让你丢失了归属感。
 
In addition, written exchanges are more prone to misinterpretation, even with people you know very well. Plus, if you already spend your day typing on a keyboard to accomplish your technical tasks, it’s annoying to have to communicate in written form, too; you end up feeling like a text-processing machine. I began to miss the coffee chats that I’d previously thought to be unproductive wastes of time. I felt detached from the team, especially when the teams I worked with were made of people working in the same place (and seemed to be having fun).
另外,书面交流更容易被曲解,即使是自己熟悉的人也是如此。另外,如果你已经花了一天的时间敲击键盘来完成技术任务,还不得不也以书面形式进行沟通就是非常恼人的一件事了。最后你就会觉得自己就是一个文本处理机器。我开始怀念起喝着咖啡聊着天的休闲时光,而我原先则认为这就是在浪费时间。我感到与团队越来越脱节了,特别是和我一起工作的团队是由在同一地点工作的人组成的时候(而他们的相处似乎很有趣)。

IT CAUSES INTERRUPTIONS AND MULTITASKING
造成干扰和同时多任务处理
 
When working remotely as a developer, chat platforms (usually Slack or HipChat) quickly become your lifeline; that’s the way most people contact you. And to me, being responsive on chat accomplishes the same as being on time at work in an office: it creates an image of reliability. If you don’t want to give the impression that you’re taking a lot of breaks, you might find yourself checking your notifications during lunch, for example. Whereas had people seen you working the whole morning, or had you just talked face-to-face with your coworkers by then, you wouldn’t feel the need to be so responsive. I’ve noticed other remote colleagues get criticized for not answering quickly by chat.
作为开发人员,在远程工作时,聊天平台(通常为Slack或HipChat)很快会成为你的命脉。因为这是大多数人与你联系的方式。而对我来说,在聊天上即时的反应与在办公室准时上班的概念完全一样:它创造了一个可靠的形象。如果你不想给别人留下自己总在休息的坏印象,你可能会在午餐时间检查你的通知。但是如果别人看到你整个上午都在工作,或者你刚刚还在和你的同事面对面交谈,你就会觉得没有必要这么快做出回应。我注意到其他远程办公的同事因为没有迅速答复聊天而受到批评。
 
Since people don’t see you physically, they can’t really judge if it’s a good moment to interrupt you. So you get interrupted a lot, and if you’re like me, you feel forced to answer quickly. So you interrupt your own work a lot (programmers in particular tend to loathe this, since it saps their productivity and breaks their focus).
由于人们没有亲眼看到你正在做什么,所以他们不能真正判断现在是否是打断你的好时机。所以你会经常被打扰,如果你像我一样,你还会被迫着马上给予回应。所以,你也会经常打断自己的工作(特别是程序员,他们往往很厌恶这个,因为这会降低他们的效率,分散他们的注意力)。
 
The other problem with remote chat is that people don’t know whether you’re already speaking with somebody else. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been juggling three different conversations at the same time, which to me can become stressful, especially when I have tasks to finish by the end of the day.
远程聊天的另一个问题是人们不知道你是否已经在与其他人交谈了。我已经数不清有多少次同时进行三个不同的对话了,这对我来说压力非常大,特别是当我在这天结束前还有任务需要完成。
 
There are often “leisure” chats as well, about non-work stuff, which can become very, very chatty. To keep my sanity, I mute these chats most of the time, but when you come back, catching up on everything that was said can be a daunting task, even though it may be my only opportunity to take part in the “office spirit” I’m missing by being a remote worker.
通常还有“闲聊”,大都是与工作无关的东西,而且同事们很可能会喋喋不休。为了保持我的理智,大部分时间我都会把这些聊天设为静音模式,但是回过头来,要想追上群里所说的一切可能是一项艰巨的任务,即使作为一名远程工作人员,这很有可能是我唯一一次可以参与我想念的“办公室精神”的机会。
 
IT ENCOURAGES OVERWORK
超负荷完成工作
 
Most jobs come with at least two types of obligation:
大多数工作至少有两种类型的义务:
 
Obligations of results, where you commit to give a certain result by a given date. Typically for a developer that means completing a sprint with a given set of bugs/features to develop by a certain deadline.
给出结果的义务,你承诺在约定日期内给出某个结果。对于开发者来说,通常意味着在最后期限前完成程序故障的排除或软件特征的开发。
 
Obligations of means, where you mainly commit to spending some of your time every day on your work, and you just deliver the results you’ve managed to produce within that time.
过程的义务,你主要承诺每天在你的工作上花费一些时间,而你只需要提供在那段时间内创造的结果。
 
I’m not naïve, and I know that in the end (especially in software engineering), most jobs are really about results–you’ll get fired if you produce nothing–and not means. But since people can’t see you work remotely, you might feel more obliged to show results every day, even if it forces you to work way past eight hours a day. I can’t count the number of times a configuration problem or a customer call took a few hours of my day, but I still felt forced to finish the task I’d committed to that day, just so nobody could assume I was slacking off instead of working. Had my coworkers seen me in front of my computer all day, I probably would’ve felt relaxed enough to finish it that task later.
我并不天真,而且我知道最后(特别是在软件工程领域),大部分工作都是要求结果的而并非过程——如果没有任何结果,你就会被解雇。但是由于人们看不到你在远程办公,你可能会感到更有必要每天有结果产出,即使这会每天强迫自己工作远远超过了八个小时。我无法计算有多少次,由于配置问题或客户电话占用了我好几个小时,但我仍然被迫完成了当天承诺的任务,只有这样才没有人会认为我懈怠了一天而没有工作。如果我的同事们能看到我一整天都坐在电脑前,我会感到放松,也就可以毫不担忧地以后再完成这个任务。
 
This instinct has led to two things for me: being really appreciated for the reliability of my output, and being seriously overworked. According to Basecamp CEO Jason Fried, this is “the true challenge of managing remote workers: People who work too hard.” In the end, it comes down to the question of trust: My employer trusted me a lot, allowing me to work on my own terms, and in exchange I’ve always felt compelled to work a lot more than if I were in an office.
这种本能导致了两件事情:我很欣赏自己输出的可靠性,但是我也严重地超负荷工作了。根据Basecamp公司首席执行官Jason Fried的说法,这是“管理远程员工的真正挑战:那些工作太认真的人”。最后,可以将其归结为信任问题:我的老板非常信任我,让我可以按照自己的意愿进行工作,作为交换,我总是觉得比在办公室里时,我被驱使做了更多的工作。

IT’S CHALLENGING BEING A STAY-AT-HOME DAD
家庭奶爸的挑战
 
When you spend a good part of your time at home, your family sees you as more available than they sometimes should. Even if you have places dedicated to work that should be off-limits to your kids, it’s still tempting for them to come ask you “just a little something.” It’s hard to expect children to compartmentalize their home–actually, it’s hard for me, too.
当你在家里待了很长一段时间的时候,你的家人会认为你比平常更有空。即使你有专门的工作场所,而且禁止你的孩子进入打扰,但是他们仍然抵不住诱惑来找你帮忙“一点点小事”。很难期望孩子能把家划分开——实际上,这对我来说也很难。
 
This can make video calls a bit stressful. You’re talking with a customer for example, and your kids end up just appearing behind you on video.
这会让人在视频通话时有点紧张。例如,你正在和一个客户交谈,而视频里你的孩子刚好在你的背后出现。
 
I also know some people have problems resisting the need to perform home duties, like cleaning the kitchen. This has never been too much of an issue for me, but it’s created tension with my wife from time to time, since it was difficult for her to understand how I could’ve left a dirty dish on the dining room table all day while I was actually at home. (Answer: I was working and avoiding interruptions . . . )
我也知道一些人无法抵抗自己做家务的需要,比如打扫厨房。这对我来说从来就不是一个太大的问题,但是它不时让我与妻子的关系紧张起来,因为她很难理解我怎么能让脏盘子留在餐桌上一整天不收拾,而我实际上就在家里。(答:因为我正在工作,而且我在避免被打扰......)
 
IT CAN FEEL LONELY
让人有孤独感
 
Working at home can mean a lot of loneliness. I do enjoy being alone quite a lot, but even for me, after two weeks of only seeing colleagues through my screen, and then my family at night, I end up feeling quite sad. I miss feeling integrated in a community of pairs.
在家工作可能意味着孤独。我确实很喜欢独处,但即使对于我来说,在两周的时间里,只有通过屏幕看到我的同事,然后到了晚上才见到我的家人,我感到非常难过。我怀念那种融入团队的感觉。
 
Interacting on social networks might help you fight that loneliness a little, but the experience isn’t different enough from working on your computer. Plus, it’s also well-known that spending a lot of time on social networks tends to make you less happy than the opposite. Eventually, I really started to hate being alone; it began to impact my mental health and my mood (another well-documented phenomenon).
在社交网络上进行交流可能会帮助你打破这种孤独感,但是这与在计算机上工作的体验并没有什么不同。此外,众所周知,在社交网络上花费大量的时间往往会让你更不快乐。最终,我真的开始讨厌独处了,它开始影响我的心理健康和我的情绪(另一个有据可查的现象)。
 
WORKING OUTSIDE YOUR HOME HAS DRAWBACKS
共用工作空间有缺点
 
One of the most common ways to fight this is to work in coworking spaces. But I find them a mixed bag; they cost real money (which your employer might agree to pay, or not) and often ask for time commitments (usually at least a month). They can create social environments and work opportunities, but at the risk of feeling a bit too much like a vacation camp, with activities every day (cooking, massages, meet-ups) designed to force people to socialize. I actually found myself going to coworking spaces only when those events weren’t scheduled, since it seemed pointless to use a coworking space to avoid loneliness only to not talk to anybody.
对抗这个问题最常见的方法之一就是在共用工作空间。但我发现这也有好有坏;它们确实费钱(你的雇主可能同意支付或不同意支付),并经常需要承约期限(通常至少一个月)。它们可以创造社会环境和工作机会,但也面临着太像度假营般的风险,因为每天都有活动(烹饪,按摩,聚会),强迫人们进行社交。实际上,我发现自己只有在没有安排这些事项的情况下才会去共用工作空间,因为使用共享空间来避免孤独,但不去与任何人交谈,这看起来似乎毫无意义。
 
Commuting to a coworking space takes time, and when you’re there, you may work with headphones all day to avoid distractions, barely taking breaks (because you lost time commuting), and feeling awkward for not taking advantage of the community. As an added problem, video calls are more difficult to do in these settings, since there’s not much space to be alone, always a bit of noise, and the risk you’ll annoy people in earshot (or you have things to say that you don’t want them hearing).
上下班需要时间,而且当你在那儿时,你可能会整天使用耳机来避免分心,几乎没有休息(因为你失去了上下班的那段时间),并且因为没有从团队中得到好处而窘迫。还有一个问题,视频通话在这些环境下更难操作,因为没有太多个人的空间,还总是有些噪音,而且你可能会惹恼听到的人(或者你有不希望他们听到的话要讲)。
 
Working remotely outside my home–whether in a coworking space or not–sometimes means not knowing where I’ll be working every day, and it’s stressful having to think about which hardware I need to take with me (keyboards, DVI adapters, chargers). Coffee shops are usually a bad idea, at least for full days: there’s too much noise, and I don’t like feeling obligated to buy something to eat or drink periodically to justify my presence.
在家外面工作——无论是否在一个联合的空间——有时甚至意味着不知道我每天将要工作的地点,而且需要考虑需要携带那些硬件(键盘,DVI适配器,充电器)。咖啡店通常是一个糟糕的主意,至少对需要全天工作的情况来说是如此:噪音太大,而且我也不喜欢必须要定期地购买吃的、喝的东西来证明我的存在。
 
Obviously, when you work remotely you don’t leave your workplace at night. And if your coworkers are in different time zones, you end up communicating a lot after your workday is over (I did that for months when working with people based in New York or San Francisco). It often makes sense; otherwise you might have few chances to speak with your team, which can really slow down projects.
显然,当你远程办公时,你不会在晚上离开工作场所。如果你的同事在不同的时区,你还得在工作时间结束后继续与他们沟通(与纽约或旧金山的同事工作时我有过好几个月这样的经历)。这很正确; 否则你可能就没有什么机会与你的团队交谈,而这可能会减慢项目的进度。
 
Finally, working at home doesn’t leave time to cool off while coming back home from work. For me, the ideal commuting duration is 15–20 minutes. That gives you some time to walk (which means at least some physical exercise) and change your thoughts a bit. Many evenings, I’d go from a video meeting to a family dinner in 30 seconds, making it hard to offer my kids my full attention.
最后,当从工作状态回归到家庭时,在家工作缺少时间来缓和。对我来说,理想的通勤时间是15-20分钟。这给你一些时间走路(这至少意味着一些体育锻炼),并且能改变一点儿你的想法。许多晚上,我在30秒内从视频会议到家庭晚餐,这让我很难给予孩子我全部的注意力。
 
IT COMES WITH UNFORESEEN COSTS
伴随着无法预见的代价
 
If you want to gain responsibilities over time, working with limited visibility can be a problem. At one employer I felt that people in the office were preferred for promotions. To be sure, working remotely over the last few years has been a boon to my family while our kids were small. It made it possible for my wife and me to pursue our careers with minimal hassle, since I was more available to take care of the kids when they were sick (which happens a lot in their infancy). And while that meant catching up on work in the evenings and weekends, I appreciated that flexibility.

如果你想负责更多的工作,那么在有限的可见度下工作就成了一个问题。我感觉雇主更愿意给办公室里的职员升职。可以肯定的是,过去几年的远程工作对于我的家庭来说是一个福音,因为我的孩子还很小。这让我的妻子和我以最小的麻烦去追求自己的职业生涯,因为当孩子们生病的时候,我可以更好地照顾他们(他们还是婴儿的时候经常生病)。而这意味着我得在晚上和周末赶上工作,我很欣赏这种灵活性。
 
Remote working also allowed me to join high-quality teams I wouldn’t have found in my local job market. So while I’m still a fan of remote work, it really took a toll on my mental comfort sometimes, which has impacted my family relationships–mainly just through my own irritability. In my experience, remote work can cut you off from the human interactions that make all those work-related tasks feel meaningful. Ultimately, for all its benefits, I don’t like being in the remote-developer black box.
远程工作也让我能够加入我在当地就业市场上找不到的高素质团队。所以,虽然我仍然是一个追捧远程办公的人,但是它有时候真的会对我的心理感受产生影响,进而也这影响了我的家庭关系——主要是因为我自己的烦躁。根据我的经验,远程工作会阻断你与人之间的相互交流,而正是这些交流让这些工作有关的任务变得有意义。最后,至于它所有的好处,我不喜欢置身于“远程开发人员黑盒子”里。
 
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