Solarpunk

I've been working and managing remotely for 10 years. In fact, I wrote a book about it. Working remotely is not for everyone, but the pandemic showed that many more people in the world can work remotely than currently do, preferably as a part of self-sufficient communities.

I dream that the future of government is to help individuals transition to small, sustainable communities. It's difficult for people to purposefully say goodbye to some luxuries that exist, but it's the only way we can survive on this planet.

When I moved to Europe, I left all my friends behind. It was incredibly difficult to make new friends. Now, I've got a weekly boardgame night where folks drop in. It's the most important part of my week.

So do your best to find like minded individuals (in real life!) and do it together. Together we go far.

Full time remote since March 2020. I have even moved cities since then, away from the office completely, and the company has hired on and off site over the last three years, mostly going by candidates, not geographical location. That's the way to do it if you can (IT etc).

I'm pretty happy with it. Work wise, people are used to it by now, and as long as we deliver results, we are trusted to work how we see fit. Management is fully on board with it. The social aspects don't bother me much, but the company does hold off site events twice a year, which helps with social ties.

The main downsides for me are a) that I'm missing my bike commute in the summer (free exercise!), and b) that I actually tend to work longer hours since I don't have the commute time anymore.

But not needing a car is great, lots of carbon impact and financial savings there.

I've worked remotely since the first COVID shutdowns and eventually got the option to go full-time remote in mid-2021. Absolutely loving it.

No traffic, no parking, save lots of money on daily fast food, a tank of gas lasts me months, and generally have fewer distractions than at the office.

Most of my interactions with coworkers was through group chat, so nothing really changed much there. The only thing I'm really missing is the fitness center at the office and taking long walks on my breaks. I can do the latter at home, but I find myself just doing housework instead xD

Yes. My company decided to shut down the local office to save money (kept by the bosses rather than being distributed to us, of course). So some of us became remote indefinitely.

Generally, I love it. I can "commute" in my PJs, and avoid spewing a lot of carbon into the climate just to ship around my sack of flesh. I can take breaks throughout the day to tend my garden, and play music to help myself think. I don't have to worry about packing a lunch, or wasting time and money and social energy eating out in the middle of the day. Hell, I can go take a nap when I don't have any meetings scheduled and feel the need.

However, it does take its toll. Not having a direct, face-to-face, human connection with folks throughout the day harms the associations that build solidarity. And finding ways to do one-on-ones and continue organizing the workplace is proving next to impossible. So I'm honestly not sure it is worth it at this stage of labor struggle. In a more ideal world—once we've won a few crucial victories over capital (and perhaps state)—I see no reason why many of us couldn't work from home, and even move those jobs that require more direct, physical labor closer to those homes.

Yes and no - I'm remote and I'm happy with it, it's fairly recent but I'm planning on finding a nice coworking space to keep social links and community, which is foundational to making a better world. I'm a bit afraid that being remote will damage my ability to organize with other workers and to build a strong foundation for my life on the local scale.

I don't think remote work is solarpunk in itself, if only because most of our jobs that can do remotely are not very useful to the world. I just try to see it as freeing the commute time so we can spend it building community and building alternatives for the future; it's not an end in itself.

Been 10yrs remote on a homestead. I know some people don't like it, but it's prefect for me. Not sure if the work I do could be considered useful, but homesteading doesn't pay the taxes.

I've been working remotely for 10 years, and I love it. Online interaction with my co-workers is good enough for me.

I'd argue that it's much the opposite actually.

Remote working enables people to live far (even very far) from where they're working, from their colleagues, and potentially any community at all. You can spend your whole day, entire weeks even, never leaving the house, never interacting with a person, and this model can actually support car culture, since there's nothing driving you to live near work or other people at all.

I switched to remote work when the pandemic started and I hate it. I live in Cambridge UK, and my office is in London. By many standards, this is barely remote work at all, since I do regularly see my colleagues in London about twice a month, and yet I find it hopelessly isolating.

If solarpunk is about community, about the abandonment of car culture in favour of sustainable models, then I'd say that in most cases, (fully) remote work contradicts that model. I'm not saying that it's bad and we shouldn't have it (there are many reasons why certain people can't/won't ever be comfortable working in direct contact with others) but I don't think we should embrace it as the way things should be done.

Remote, fairly happy, and yeah it does feel Solarpunk. Unfortunately I end up with too many meetings at odd times of day, which means I don't have as much hourly flexibility as I would like. It would be nice if, during the day in winter, or in the mornings and evenings in summer, I could do some yard work and get the veggie patch up and running.

I love it and I don't miss a thing from working at the office. I will eventually move to downsize and leave the suburbs, without having to change jobs

Not exactly what you mean, but I'm a traveling wind tech. It's pretty remote most of the time. I live in a camper, which I haul with a 20 year old diesel truck, so it ain't ideal. But between my job and no kids, I suspect my carbon footprint is negative. I hope to buy land and build a small solarpunk earthship community in the deserts of New Mexico near a wind farm where I can work. Maybe an RV park too.