My remote working experience at Simply Business

Being a remote worker might be something you thought about trying for a while, but in the end you only focus on the downsides and you convince yourself that it’s not going to work. Let me convince you that it is something worth trying – and is an amazing experience.

Working from home

It might not be for everyone, but if you don’t give it a try how would you know if you like it or not?

Before embarking on this journey, it’s better to start on a smaller scale by being remote one day every week or every other week.

I’m a Senior Engineer at Simply Business, and I currently work from Scotland. A few months ago I made up my mind and started the remote working life.

Hi, my name is Bud and let me sell you on the remote working experience.

We also have colleagues working from Poland, Romania, Australia, Portugal, and a few other exotic locations. Some of us even tried the digital nomad lifestyle for a few months and enjoyed it.

But like anything in life, there are pros and cons to being a remote worker:

Pros

• flexibility – you don’t have to commute to and from the office (which can take up significant time in a place like London).
• working on your own environment, on your own terms – you can work in a suit and tie from your desk, in your pajamas from your comfortable armchair, or from an airport while waiting to pick up a friend.
• a limited number of interruptions – this means you can focus on your work. If you want to do some focused work you can just turn off your notifications for a while and focus on your task, and when you’re done with that you can catch up on any messages you received in the meantime.

Cons

• you miss out on all events that happen in the office – from cakes and sweet treats to playing table tennis, pool or arcade games with your colleagues.
• you miss the presence of other people – if you enjoy face-to-face time with other people you might start to feel lonely working from home. You will have to make up for this deficit somehow.
• sometimes there will be technical difficulties with equipment – you might not be able to see or hear your colleagues, or you might have internet connection problems – the list goes on.

How can you go remote?

Some companies take remote working seriously and their actions reflect that. If your company is already remote-friendly then taking the next step will not be very difficult, but if your company is not prepared or does not believe in remote working you might have difficulty in convincing them to let you work from home at all.

Simply Business offers a full-fledged remote working experience, and anyone who’s working from our offices has the option to work from home whenever they want or need.

If you ask any of us remote employees, the common consensus is that we have a mostly positive remote experience and we feel that Simply Business created the perfect environment for remote working.

Pros for working at Simply Business as a remote worker

We have a very remote-friendly culture:

• you can work around your personal life – if you have to stay home to wait for someone to quote you on your blinds, you can work from home one day.
• your schedule is flexible – if for whatever reason you feel like doing an all morning hike, you can start your work schedule at 1pm. Common courtesy rules apply of course, but if you let your team know they will most likely have nothing against it.
• you are encouraged to come to London every three months – this way you’ll get to spend a week with your colleagues. Simply Business will provide support with travel and hotel expenses when needed.

After 10 months of working remotely I can say that it’s been (and still is) quite an adventure for me. I enjoy every minute of it, and it’s something I highly recommend that anyone tries at least once.

Simply Business is doing an excellent job addressing any difficulties that remote workers have.

If you’re looking for an opportunity to work for a remote-friendly company, or you would like to give the nomad lifestyle a try, why not have a look at our job pages and see if there’s anything you like.