Open Thread: What's Wrong with Web Work?
I was at a party with a bunch of other parents this week, and we realized that we routinely lie by omission to our childless friends. There seems to be a conspiracy of parents everywhere to only talk about the pleasures of raising kids. While I don’t intend to regale you here with the dark side of parenting (besides, it’s usually just a laundry issue), it occurred to me that we web workers do the same thing. We spend so much time talking about the benefits of our way of work that we tend to gloss over some of the drawbacks.
But it’s Friday and the commuters are heading home for the weekend, so let’s take a few minutes to blow off some steam. I’ll start with some of the obvious drawbacks of web work that we don’t always mention:
You can’t escape the short commute. When your workplace is only feet away from your bedroom, it takes real discipline to take a weekend off, or even an evening. Too many of us are lashed to the computer 24 hours a day, like some digital Captain Ahab.
Financial management can be a bear. Between trying to find health insurance, arguing about who pays for equipment, setting up your own business, and learning that perfectly reasonable expenses aren’t actually deductible, web worker life can turn into one long boring accounting class at times. Sometimes it seems like society is set up to actively discourage us from working this way, doesn’t it?
Who’s in charge, you or the web? Get involved with enough social software and ways to communicate, and you’ll find an increasing amount of your day is spent just keeping up: posting updates, organizing bookmarks, responding to invitations, answering e-mail, jumping on the latest hot new site. Sometimes it seems that there’s no time left in there to actually get any work done, or to remember why we wanted to be on the web in the first place.
Don’t get me wrong – I still love web work, and I’m not pining to go back into an office or struggle with a daily two-hour commute as I did in Los Angeles once upon a time. I just think it’s worth remembering that this new world of digital bedouinship isn’t all smiley faces and large paychecks all the time.
What are your chief complaints about web work? What do you wish you’d known before you’d taken the plunge?
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The lack of human contact.
It happens with terrifying frequency that I don’t go outside all day…sometimes multiple days in a row. So I don’t actually see and interact with people in person, it’s all phone and email and IRC. That’s nice, but it’s not the same.
As a result, I’ve made it a company policy that the six of us gather in Ohio (which is where two of us live and is central to all of us) once a month for an all-hands meeting…or almost all-hands anyway–sometimes one or two of us miss the trip.
A digital Captain Ahab indeed — too funny! I find the biggest problem is being the only webworker in a largely “present and accounted for” business. I’m not really viewed as being a mover and shaker since I went virtual, and changing that attitude seems nearly impossible. I don’t know if marginalization is inevitable, but it’s hard to fight.
human contact is a big one. but also the encroachment of “cabin fever” can be seriously debilitating – unless efforts are made to actually get outside. joining a few clubs/sports/volunteering can be the perfect excuses to make outside appointments.
For me, lack of human contact is a plus. I have low social drive, so I get plenty from the cafe, roommates, etc. The minus is spending so much time on a computer. My eyes, wrists, and back much preferred less computer-heavy work.
Finances. There isn’t the security of a regular paycheck, nor are there benefits (ie medical dental etc). Plus if I need something like a new keyboard or mouse, or memory etc. I have to pay for it.
Clients. Sometimes it’s hard to just ignore those client emails. At least working from an office, email doesn’t always follow you :)
Hours. I find I put more time into my job now instead of the less I envisioned.
Sales. Instead of just working, sales becomes more important to you to either grow your business with new clients and/or replace clients who have left.
Family Life. I work from home so there are always family distractions, whether its kids coming and going, or my wife asking me questions. Plus, now that I’m home my family thinks i have nothing better to do then fix their computers.
Lack of human contact. I realize it’s been a while since I’ve seen someone but it feels like yesterday because I may have just emailed or IM’ed him when in fact its been months since I’ve actually seen many of my friends.
Let me be the next to say lack of human contact. I miss the kinds of things that a phone call or IM can’t really replace… immediacy.
Half of the cockamamie ideas that turned out to be good ones I’ve ever come up with have been as a result of a hallway conversation, over the cube wall conversation, etc.
An interruption in person may be as disruptive as an phone call interruption but it works at such higher bandwidth.
Randy
I LOVE working like this – LOVE it! Yes – the social isolation needs checking and my butt is numb from sitting all day, and I’m not always certain when exactly I will be paid, … but you can’t beat the freedom of no commutes, no wardrobe worries – and doing things my own way without a bureaucracy. Very little down-side in my view! :-)
Remember, being a web worker doesn’t automatically mean that you work freelance. Some of us are fortunate to do it and draw a salary.
For me, a big drawback is that I’m only judged by what I produce. My co-workers can’t see the time I spend researching a topic or thinking through a problem, as they would if I were in the next cubicle. I also deal with the issue of folks who think I have lots of free time because “I work from home.” Actually, the opposite is true.
I miss having a commute. It’s a chance to let the day wash away, or think about what’s coming up and focus. When it takes me 30 seconds to get from the office to the kitchen, I’m often still composing that email or analyzing an issue when I should be thinking more about the dinner menu.
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 :)
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.