I need your advice i find it hard to code at work but comfortable coding at home?

#discuss #productivity

Top comments (6)

Isaac Lyman • Feb 4 '19

I had the same problem. Here's what I did:

I complained that the office was too distracting, got some coworkers on my side, and we started talking to our manager about working from home. We got permission to work from home once a week, which wasn't enough, but a good start.
I had a talk with the founder of the company about how it was hard to focus in the office (especially with the open floor plan) and it was difficult to do tasks A, B and C in a timely manner--I mentioned specific things that he knew I was working on and were very important to our clients.
After a while, I quit the job and joined a remote-first company. In my exit interview, I cited the open floor plan and difficulty focusing as one of the reasons I quit. I've kept in touch with old coworkers and it sounds like the company is slowly coming around to remote work, as the employees continually demand it.

That's about all you can do. Raise the topic in conversation with management, and if the company won't accommodate you (at the expense of its own best interests), then leave for somewhere better.

Jonathan Akwetey • Feb 6 '19

i will try first talking to co workers to try and get them on board then later push it to management. If i'm alone in this i guess management will find it hard to grant me a remote work space.

James • Feb 4 '19

Step one is to try to figure out exactly what it is that makes it hard for you to write code at work.

What's different? Too noisy? Too many distractions? Unpleasant atmosphere?

Jonathan Akwetey • Feb 4 '19

too many distractions you come back then you have lost your thought.

James • Feb 4 '19 • Edited

I feel your pain. I guess I would break these distractions down into a three categories:

Self-inflicted: Too much time on reddit, Twitter... DEV.to... Not much you can do here except exercising discipline and maybe installing a page-blocking browser extension.
Environmental: A noisy office, coworkers stopping by to talk about non-work related stuff too often, etc. A pair of noise-cancelling headphones and politely telling your coworkers that you need to get on with work might go a long way.
Work related: The hardest to address, because sometimes the person making demands of your time is more senior than you, and it can be hard or impossible to refuse them without causing problems. A few things that might be helpful to bear in mind:
- A lot of meetings should have been an email. If you find that you're being pulled into too many meetings that you don't need to be in, they might be willing to send out an e-mail summary instead.
- "I'm sorry, I'm busy doing x" is an acceptable thing to say in most circumstances.
- Just because someone is calling you, that might not mean you have to pick up.

It's okay to figure out what your professional boundaries are and politely and professionally assert them, so long as you are mindful of the needs of others as well.

Jonathan Akwetey • Feb 6 '19

i think i will put them down to self-inflicted and work related. I will take your advice and work towards them

DEV Community

I need your advice i find it hard to code at work but comfortable coding at home?

Top comments (6)

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