Does remote cause slacking? My honest experience

Hey all, there's a lot that's been conjectured about remote work and how it affects productivity. I've been remote for a while now and wanted to share my observations and analysis. First off, I'm like most people. I like to do the least amount of work for the most amount of money I can. I'm a mercenary. I'm smart, and I'm driven (to make my life better). And most of all, I want to be happy in life. So, I have had two distinct periods of remote work. Here's the three major periods of work I had: A) In Office: medium productivity, high ratings B) Remote 1: extreme slacking, low ratings C) Remote 2: very high productivity, medium ratings Here is my takeaway on remote work: 1. If you're on an overstaffed team and remote, with a non-technical manager, it's a recipe for extreme slacking. This is what happened to me. On the other hand if your team is understaffed, you will end up being very productive as remote. Slacking is easier to do when remote. Being highly productive is also easier to do when remote 2. Given the same impact or amount of work, you'll get lower ratings as remote because people don't see you in action and don't form a personal relationship with you (especially your manager) so guess what happens when manager is fitting the curve and one person needs to go to MA from EE. Who's it going to be? The manager isn't doing this actively - they have just seen less of you. 3. In office time creates a ceiling in productivity. Longer lunches, more chitchat, commute, distractions etc... which you don't have with remote work. So when you actually have meaningful shit to do on your team you're actually pretty productive because you're not thinking about much, you get up and you execute and just get on calls and tell people it's done or not done So what do I prefer? I prefer C) Remote2 because even though my ratings are lower, I feel good about productivity. I don't spend too much time "selling" myself because I did so much I don't have to - and when I tried that as a remote employee it wasn't effective the same way as it was when I was in office. I recognize there's a ceiling on my rating because I'm remote and that's ok. I get a lot of joy from being productive, and being able to live where I want which is not the bay area right now. If you're optimizing for money and ratings though, I would suggest RTO. #tech #rto