---
title: "[old] why working remotely is really awesome"
date: "2016-07-12"
tags: 
  - "culture"
  - "productivity"
  - "remote-working"
  - "startup"
  - "team"
---

#### And why it kinda sucks

> **disclaimer:** this post is really old, from when i first started writing technical articles. it's from 2016.
> 
> i no longer work for devacademy, and i think they dissolved in 2019?

I’ve been working at [devAcademy](https://devacademy.la/) since December. I’m not going to lie, I love working for dev. I’ll swear up and down that I enjoy making things for and with the company. It’s not because of all the cool benefits I’m getting from working with them or the paycheck.

> It’s because I’m part of a team.

<figure>

![](images/7a4d2-123eiosnd_e6ajoegm2hg2g.jpeg)

<figcaption>

This is supposed to be an image related to working remotely, right? I’m not good at marketing.

</figcaption>

</figure>

#### A long, long time ago, in a college far, far away…

I met [Lennon Shimokawa](https://medium.com/u/57f86eb26cec) while he was giving a Rails course at my college. I was pretty stoked about learning more about devAcademy when he gave us the hands on course.

Why? He spoke my language.

> Most of us here at dev speak the same language: **fluent computer nerd.**

We all talk about open source projects we like and how we can make devAcademy better by sharing dumb, nerdy ideas together.

An indispensable tool that has helped us in all of our communication is [Slack](https://slack.com/). I could probably write an entire post about Slack (and I probably will). It’s one of the best tools for any team, ever. Even if people on our team are less than 5 feet away from each other, they’ll chat through Slack. Why? Slack helps us generate a company culture that’s not only inside of the office, but reaches to a wider range of people. We use little tools like [Hey Taco!](https://medium.com/u/32fafd911287) and [HowdyAI](https://howdy.ai) to enhance our happiness and productivity.

#### A global reach for a local company

We also use tools like GitHub, Hubstaff and Trello to make sure we have accountability, reliability and a global reach when it comes to using agile development methodologies. It really helps people like me who aren’t there physically to see what’s going on. All of our code stays on GitHub and we make sure to work with our Trello cards religiously so that absolutely everyone is on the same page. If I want to see what people are working on, I don’t have to waste their time asking them, I can just take a gander at the Trello board and know what’s going on in minutes.

I’m not going to lie and say everything is perfect. Not being in person at my job feels kind of lonely sometimes. Not everyone is on Slack all the time, and we all have our personal lives at the end of the day. I also have weird, erratic work times due to me studying full time, and that doesn’t help much. Some concepts and phrases are lost in translation. But even through all of that, I don’t feel like I’m alienated even though [I’m a thousand miles away from our office in Ica](https://www.google.com.ec/maps/dir/ITSAE-CADE/devAcademy,+Eucaliptos,+Ica,+Peru/@-6.7283223,-81.5527133,6z/data=!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x91d536e05e4dd017:0x32ef7dc0d58dc330!2m2!1d-79.2477385!2d-0.3485003!1m5!1m1!1s0x9110e2d62ddfd3c9:0xe6508f6de22f8bc8!2m2!1d-75.749372!2d-14.046913?hl=en). It’s why we even use Slack in the first place.

> At devAcademy we think globally, instead of just having our goals on our own local market.

Using tools that have a wider reach and that are easily scalable lets our company grow easily and help us reach a wider audience.

I worked for devAcademy for two months before I saw Lennon again in person. By then I felt like I was a part of something bigger — something I could be proud of and tell everyone I know about happily.

When I visited devHouse in February, I didn’t felt like I was stepping into an alien office environment with people I didn’t know.

<figure>

![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*LXdUE_xPCmsjq9tD.)

<figcaption>

Take a wild guess as to who I am

</figcaption>

</figure>

> I felt like I was at home.
